9 Must-Have Gadgets for Healthy Eating

Ask anyone who has mastered healthy eating and they’ll tell you that meal prep is the key to staying on track throughout the week. Thankfully, there are several kitchen gadgets that help support your dietary goals.

Having a food scale is essential for measuring out the correct amounts of ingredients and suggested portion sizes. Many recipes call for specific measurements, which is why it’s important to have a kitchen scale handy. Also, when you’re just starting to learn about recommended serving sizes, a food scale can let you know exactly how many ounces of meat you have instead of trying to eyeball it. After a while, you’ll start to visually remember what a 6-oz. filet looks like.

Unless you have quartz countertops that can withstand the effects of a knife’s blade, it’s essential to have multiple cutting boards for slicing and dicing meats, fruits and vegetables. Many people like having a separate cutting board for each type of food to avoid cross-contamination from raw meats to other items. This is especially true if you’re preparing multiple meals for the week at once and you don’t want flavors mixing between dishes. If you’re making a large dinner, be sure to buy at least one cutting board with ample room for cutting up several ingredients.

Speaking of chopping things up, you can save yourself time by buying a food processor. Not only can these small kitchen appliances cut up vegetables in no time, but they can also grind grains into flour, puree food, and mix pizza and cookie dough. Depending on the recipe and amount of ingredients called for, you can find mini food processors that hold just a few cups or large units that offer a whopping 14-cup capacity. Plus, most are designed with a variety of speed settings and preset functions to make the machine more user-friendly.

Once you have everything measured out and ready to cook or bake, you can either opt to prepare the recipe at that time or place the ingredients into food storage containers for later. Another way that these reusable boxes come in handy is for planning out weekly meals. By portioning out daily lunches in individual containers that are ready to go ahead of time, you’ll be less likely to make impulsive and unhealthy choices. But first, you’ll need to figure out what healthy meals you’re going to pack up and store in the fridge.

Now that you know a few must-have gadgets for meal prep, the next step is having the right appliances to put those prepared foods to use in a recipe. However, sometimes the hardest part of starting to eat healthier can be figuring out what meals and snacks to make in the first place. Second to that is having the right appliances once you find those mouth-watering recipes.

When it comes to finding healthy recipes and nutritious meal ideas, many people find inspiration within smartphone apps and digital cookbooks downloaded on tablets and e-readers. Not only do these digital directories provide access to hundreds of options, but they won’t take up shelf space like traditional cookbooks. Plus, many websites and apps feature reviews from other cooks along with suggestions for ingredient swaps if you’re aiming for a low-calorie option or trying to avoid dairy or other allergens.

One of the most popular snacks for health nuts is a refreshing smoothie. No well-appointed kitchen is complete without a powerful blender that can whip up tasty and vitamin-packed frozen treats made with your choice of fruits and vegetables. Most full-size blenders have the capacity to make several smoothies at once. You can always freeze the leftovers in individual containers for a quick and easy grab-and-go snack when you’re short on time. But if you want to just blend up smoothies for one, there are single-serve blenders with pitchers that double as cups for on-the-go sipping.

Another appliance that is relied upon for creating lighter fare is an air fryer. While deep fryers require food to be submerged in oil to cook, air fryers radiate heat from an overhead heating element while simultaneously circulating air and coating the food with an optional mist of oil. The final product is perfectly crispy potato wedges and chicken wings with fewer calories from fat and just as much flavor. Depending on your preference for controls, you can choose a digital air fryer, one with manual dials, or even one that is controlled by an app on your smartphone.

An even healthier alternative to air frying vegetables is steaming them. The latest steamers have a variety of settings to make it easier to prepare delectable delicacies with less guilt. Some models have multiple tiers to enable steaming more than one type of food at once. With features like built-in timers and automatic shutoff, you can add in your rice, broccoli or carrots, then move on to something else while it cooks, which helps you be more efficient.

On that note, small kitchen appliances that save you time in the kitchen are your best friend when it comes to eating healthy. If you were to rank devices by which one can make a full meal in the shortest amount of time, a pressure cooker would be at the top of the list. Today’s digital pressure cookers are updated for modern health food chefs with multiple functions and features. Their number one benefit is the ability to cook foods like chicken breasts and stew beef from fully frozen to completely consumable in mere minutes, compared to the hours it would take to do this in an oven.

Once you have these nine must-have essentials for healthy eating in your kitchen, it’s time to start putting what you’ve learned to good use. Armed with the right gadgets for meal prep and cooking, you’re ready to have fun trying out new foods and being creative with your cuisine. Thanks to each of these devices, you can explore your epicurious side while still meeting your health and wellness goals.