10 Kitchen gadgets, tools and utensils for healthy living
We all know what we have to do to live a healthier life: eat less of the bad stuff and more of the good stuff, right? Well we also all know it’s much easier said than done and one of the reasons many of us tend to find healthy eating hard is that we don’t feel like we have the time (or energy) to plan awesome, nutrient-packed meals everyday. Then something else inevitably much more tasty, much more easy and much more fatty comes along and tempts us back into an ongoing cycle of takeaways and convenience food.
Well, today the shinyshiny team are here to help. Sure we can’t give you a dose of motivation or stop you from reaching for the pizza menu. But what we can do is show you some of the top gadgets and tools to make your kitchen healthier and happier. Of course you don’t need fancy products to lead a healthier existence, but for those who are looking for a kickstart into a new regime, a juicer, oil spritzer or steamer might be just what you need to change your habits for good. Let’s get started…
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Best for fans of juicing: Tefal Infiny Press Revolution, from £200
Green-juice-making is all the rage at the moment – and it’s hardly surprising. You can pack all kinds of good-for-you foods, nutrients and supplements into juices and then drink them on-the-go.
There are many kinds of different products available to allow you to juice, squeeze and mush up your food into easy-to-digest liquids, and the Infiny Press Revolution from Tefal is hands-down the best option if you like juices as apposed to thicker smoothies. Yep there’s not much difference, but juices are easier to digest and don’t separate quite so much if you leave them to stand for a few hours.
Many believe that juicing isn’t as good for you as blending because you’re essentially getting rid of the some of the fruit or vegetable to make it more juice-friendly. However, the Infiny Press Revolution combats that problem by ‘press’-ing as apposed to just juicing your fruits and veggies, ensuring more minerals and nutrients are left over when you’re done.
The downside is you’ll have to sacrifice a lot of kitchen space for the ability to whizz up a morning juice, but if you’ve got plenty of space and dreams of being a juicing goddess then we think the Infiny Press Revolution is a real no-brainer.
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Best for making water more awesome: Aqua Zinger, from £14.98
Health experts believe one of the top reasons why we reach for snacks packed with sugar and calories is that we’re actually thirsty instead. So no wonder crisps, chocolate and sugary things leave us feeling so ‘blah’ if all our poor body really wanted was a big glass of water!
For those who like water hitting the recommended eight glasses a day is easy-peasy, but for many the thought of glugging down on nothing but water is boring and bland. That’s where the Aqua Zinger comes in. It’s essentially just a standard water bottle, but it allows you to infuse your H2O yourself making it much more interesting and making you much more likely to drink it.
All you have to do is chop up some flavoursome goodies and add them to the bottom of the bottle. Then throughout the day your water will be subtly infused with different flavours. You can opt for something simple and sweet – we recommend strawberries – or shake things up a bit with more adventurous flavours, like maybe ginger or mint.
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Best for keeping herbs and veggies fresh: Prepara Herb Savour Storage Pod, from £14.95
One of the main reasons I find it challenging to eat healthily is because fruits, veggies and herbs perish so quickly. I buy them in one day and they’ve gone off the next – typical!
Well there are lots of things you can do to combat that problem, like buy things on the morning to eat on the night, get much better at planning or even plant your own herbs. But there’s also a gadget to help you out: this Herb Storage Pod from Prepara.
The Pod may look a bit strange, but it’s essentially a temporary living space for small veggies and herbs, providing them with sunlight, warmth and water until you decide you’re ready to chop them up into a recipe.
Also, they look pretty and kinda like you’re running your own botanic science experiment!
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Best for fans of smoothies – and those who take nutrition seriously: Nutri Bullet Pro 900 Series Nutrition Extractor, from £149
As far as blenders and smoothie-makers go the Nutri Bullet is getting a bit of a name for itself among the fitness, health and lifestyle blogging community. The reason? It’s one hell of a brilliant, handy blender.
The thing about the Nutri Bullet is it’s technically not a juicer or even a blender, but an extractor, which the team behind the bullet claim makes it better than any other product on the market for getting the best out of your fruit and veggies. It’s also a winner in our eyes because it’s pretty small as far as juicers and blenders go and you can buy a range of different-sized cups and accessories to suit your needs, too. Just blend away and then tip it upside down to drink – easy.
We’ve included the pro version here, but there is a cheaper Nutri Bullet that’s a little less powerful but just as effective if you’re after a reliable food-musher.
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Best for frying: Tefal Actifry Mini, from £99.99
Another Tefal product makes our list, this time it’s the Actifry Mini. Yeah we know what you’re thinking, frying doesn’t really sound all that healthy, does it? Well it can be significantly more healthy with the help of this little gadget.
All you do is throw your chips or veggie fries in with only a spoonful of oil and they come out perfectly cooked and crispy without overloading on the oil and the fat. Perfect for if you have a bit of a sweet potato addiction like myself.
Of course to be as healthy as possible you should find other ways to cook foodstuffs rather than frying, but if frying is your only option then this is hands-down the best way to do it!
Thanks to @javaria_akbar for the recommendation.
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Best to cut down on carbs and turn your veggies into pasta: Spiralizer, from £29.95
It may look a bit like an instrument of torture, but don’t worry it’s not for humans but for veggies. Just like the Nutri Bullet the Spiralizer is famous in the health blogger world because it turns good-for-you veggies into spaghetti-like spirals.
The idea is that instead of loading our plates up with spaghetti and noodles we can easily load it up with spirals of courgette, carrot and sweet potato instead. All you need to do is put your veggie of choice into the machine and it’ll turn it into these handy spaghetti-like strings.
Although I’m not a big fan of demonising carbs, I’m the first to admit that I often eat too many of them and replacing them with a courgette instead makes a whole lot of sense. The entire spiralizing process is really easy too and the finished spirals are, genuinely, delicious.
Thanks to @elisabethLDN for the recommendation.
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Best for frying with a pan: Prepara Oil Mister, from £14.95
One of the cheapest products on the list, the Prepara Oil Mister is another health-saving product for those who need to cook with oil. The idea is that we often thrown far too much oil onto our food, so by ‘misting’ it on instead we’ll use less and make our food better for us in the process.
The great thing about this handy little mister is you can also use it to infuse your oil with different flavours. Just add some garlic, spices, chillis or extra herbs into the glass bit at the bottom.
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Best for cooking meat: George Forman 14525 Grill, from £80.99
If you’re a fan of cooking meat then George Forman’s latest grill might just be your new BFF. The non-stick surface completely eliminates the need for oils or fats to cook your dinners and it’s also so SO easy to use, literally just throw any meats (or tofu, quorn or even some types of veggies) onto the grill and start cooking.
You can control the temperature and timings all from the little LCD display on the front and there’s a ‘melt’ mode too, in case you don’t want to blast something with heat, but just slowly melt it – like cheese, for example.
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Best for measuring out your ingredients: Joseph Joseph Shell 14568 Digital Scales, from £50
We’re sure you could use this fancy-looking Joseph Joseph scale for measuring out the ingredients in decadent cakes rather than healthy recipes, but a decent pair of scales is still a must-have for anyone who takes their cooking, backing and preparing seriously.
These scales are super smart and have an ‘add and weigh’ feature, which means you can add multiple ingredients to prepare for bigger, more complicated recipes.
If you’re strapped for cash opt for a much cheaper version, but if you want your kitchen to look awesome then this pair happens to be really damn good-looking. You can also store the top over the base to make it streamlined (see photo above).
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Best for cooking veggies: Joseph Joseph Lotus Plus Steamer, from £12.50
Many of us are probably guilty of soaking our veggies in too much water and turning them into unrecognisable mushes of green, when really we get the most nutrients from our vegetables when they’re cooked and left ever-so-slightly firm. The solution? A steamer. This one from Joseph Joseph is pretty deluxe and will ensure your vegetables and even some fish and meats get cooked but not blasted.
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