Meal prepping is a sensitive subject. Devotees insist that studying the way to meal prep modified their lives. Opponents scoff on the concept, satisfied that meal prep means consuming the identical unhappy, boiled rooster breasts and soggy broccoli for every week straight. However as with most issues closely debated on the web, a contented medium lies between two extremes: Efficient meal prepping simply means being ready to, properly, put together a meal.
Think about dealing with the Tuesday afternoon’s what-are-we-going-to-eat-for-dinner dread with the blissful realization that you simply selected Nigerian Beef Suya two days in the past and every part you want is already in your fridge. Think about preparing for work on Wednesday morning and having a packed lunch able to go—youngsters included, when you’re answerable for feeding any. That is the sort of meal prep we’re speaking about.
And since we’re large advocates of getting the right tools for the job, in fact we’re wanting to share our favourite meal prep gear. Whether or not they’re storage options or intelligent timesavers, these merchandise assist us get by means of busy weeks well-fed with time to spare.
A Quick and Correct Digital Scale
We’ve examined a variety of kitchen scales, and OXO’s is considered one of our favorites. (Lots of our editors use it at dwelling, too.) It’s tremendous dependable and the pull-out show makes it simple to learn it doesn’t matter what’s on prime of it. Whereas a digital scale is a great tool for all cooks and bakers, it’s particularly useful for consistency in meal prepping. Whether or not you’re portioning out a family-sized pack of floor beef or rationing quinoa salad for the following three days, weighing meals eliminates the pesky inconsistencies of eyeballing.
Critical Eats / Ashlee Redger
Meals Storage Containers Aplenty
Even when you’re not into meal planning, leftovers and free elements will at all times have to go someplace. Good-quality food storage containers—whether or not glass, plastic, or silicone—will hold meals contemporary and safeguard towards leaks and bizarre fridge smells. In our checks, Rubbermaid’s Brilliance line took the highest spot in each glass and plastic classes because of their leakproof, tight-fitting lids with safe latches. We additionally admire the clear sides that allow us see precisely what’s inside. For a extra moveable, simply stowable possibility, Re(zip) containers are nice at securely containing meals whereas taking on minimal area.
Critical Eats / Madeline Muzzi
Reusable Meals Wraps
As a substitute of plastic wrap or aluminum foil for overlaying bowls, wrapping cheese, or hoping that half-avocado stays at the least semi-green till tomorrow morning, strive a beeswax food wrap. Not solely are they reusable, however they’re breathable too, which suggests your costly wedge of Parmesan cheese gained’t style like plastic the following time you chip off a shard in the course of the evening. Nice beeswax wraps ought to keep sticky—even after washing—and cling simply. In our overview, each Trifecta Residing Co. and Abeego wraps proved sturdy, simple to crimp onto bowls, fruits, and extra, and had been simple to hand-wash with cleaning soap and air-dry.
Critical Eats / Grace Kelly
A Gradual (or Multi) Cooker
A slow cooker could really feel like a relic of yesteryear, however these home equipment have been round for many years for a purpose: They get the job executed. Throw in a number of elements earlier than work and are available dwelling to a scorching meal. GreenPan impressed us with its fast heat-up time and efficient browning talents. It additionally stays cool at some stage in cooking, making it an particularly protected possibility for households with youngsters or pets. For versatility past gradual cooking, we love a multi-cooker just like the Instant Pot for its skill to perform as a rice cooker, steamer, strain cooker, and extra. It’s a terrific decide for small areas or bang-for-your-buck budgets.
Critical Eats / Russell Kilgore
Espresso Delivered to Your Door
Nobody mentioned meal prep must be all about stable meals. For many people, espresso is a vital a part of every morning, and few issues are extra disagreeable than going about your morning brewing ritual solely to understand you’re out of espresso. Enter: coffee by mail. Commerce Espresso Membership isn’t only a subscription service to maintain the great things coming to your door; it’s a portal to espresso from around the globe. It is a terrific possibility for dipping a toe into specialty espresso (there are over 450 choices to select from). You may as properly sip on one thing new throughout all that additional time you’ll have because of meal prepping, proper?
Critical Eats / Will Dickey
A Good Knife (or A number of)
A top quality chef’s knife—one which’s sharp, well-balanced, and comfy to grip—is the spine of any kitchen. It’s the dependable all-rounder you’ll want for slicing, dicing, chopping, and each different chopping verb. And whereas a chef’s knife will suffice for nearly every part, if selection is the spice of life, think about a knife set to offer your self extra choices (or to place another person to work, too). Units aren’t normally our most well-liked technique to buy knives, however they are often an environment friendly and budget-friendly possibility for widening your arsenal.
Critical Eats / Russell Kilgore
Useful Cookbooks
Cookbooks are an unbelievable useful resource. They cowl the whys and how-tos of cooking and are useful to achieve for once you’re out of concepts and might’t consider a single dish, not to mention every week’s value. From essential cooking to baking, meal prep is a breeze when you could have a shelf of inspiration at your fingertips. Our workers likes to line their cabinets with cookbooks that educate strategies and assist pull you out of boring routines.
Critical Eats / Daniel Gritzer
A Meals Processor
Full-sized food processors are great for chopping, slicing, shredding, emulsifying and a lot extra. Cuisinart’s 14-cup meals processor is considered one of our prime picks because of its efficient efficiency, affordable worth, and surprisingly quiet motor. If a full-size processor feels too cumbersome or dear proper now, a mini food processor can provide the identical comfort in a stowable, reasonably priced bundle. This one from Hamilton Seaside packs an actual punch for its dimension and even comes with a slicing and grating disk. Go forward and cube onions with out the tears, mix up a batch of salad dressing, or pulverize stale bread into helpful breadcrumbs with ease.
Critical Eats / Nick Simpson
Versatile Baking Sheets
Baking sheets are good for far more than simply cookies—sheet pan dinners, anybody? And we love a sheet pan for meal prep. Roast a rooster, a head of cauliflower, or a batch of carrots and reap the rewards of (virtually) hands-off cooking. Good baking sheets are made from heavy-gauge metallic that conducts warmth properly and resists warping—each Nordic Ware and Vollrath tick these containers.
Critical Eats / Irvin Lin
A Vacuum Sealer
Vacuum sealers are useful for long-term storage like freezing sauces or contemporary cuts of meat, however they’re additionally helpful for creating a fast, forceful seal appropriate for making instantaneous pickles or sous vide cooking. We tested 24 vacuum sealers and these two from Nesco and Anova got here out on prime for his or her intuitive design and double-seal expertise.
Critical Eats / Nick Simpson
An Immersion Circulator (Sous Vide Machine)
Okay, perhaps we are able to’t declare an immersion circulator is important for meal prepping, however it’s fairly helpful for precision cooking. These little machines create a constant water temperature for sous vide cooking with out the necessity for fixed monitoring. We just like the Breville Joule for its quick, quiet efficiency and companion app you’ll truly need to use. On the budget-friendly finish, the Instantaneous Accu works so effectively we are able to hardly imagine it prices lower than $100.
Critical Eats / Russell Kilgore
A Swooshy Salad Spinner
Very like gradual cookers, salad spinners appear to be a kind of belongings you’d have present in your grandma’s kitchen when poking round as a curious baby. However these instruments are genuinely nice. They make rinsing lettuce a lot simpler, which suggests you don’t have to purchase the pre-packaged stuff to get salad on the desk quick. Each of those picks spin easily and dry rapidly, and within the case of the glass-bowled OXO, the bowl itself can double as your salad serving vessel.
Critical Eats / Madeline Muzzi
A Foolproof Rice Cooker
Sure, with a little bit of apply you may make first rate rice on the stovetop, however actual rice lovers know {that a} rice cooker does a much better job of making completely cooked rice each time. The Hamilton Seaside mannequin carried out greatest in our tests with its easy management panel and no-frills settings, however the Zojirushi makes for a worthy splurge with well-reputed high quality and enjoyable settings (like enjoying totally different sounds when the cooking cycle is full).
Critical Eats / Alexander Huang
A Excessive-Velocity Blender
Powerful blenders like these don’t come low-cost, however they’re so dang efficient. Blenders are helpful for smoothies and soups alike, and to even make your personal nut butter. Vitamix has been main the best way for a few years now with its professional-grade motor and intelligent vortex design that sucks all of the elements down into its blades. The Blendtec is a bit more reasonably priced and excels within the smoothie division.
Critical Eats / Russell Kilgore
FAQs
What are the most effective meal prep instruments on Amazon?
Cool instruments will not be briefly provide on Amazon, however we take a barely totally different strategy to cooking gadgets. As a substitute of cluttering our cupboards with novelty gear, we store Amazon for good offers on important gear, like our favorite Vitamix blender and a really excellent espresso machine.
Does meal prepping truly save time?
It may possibly! Holding the concentrate on making ready particular person meal elements—like whisking collectively salad dressing, peeling and chopping greens, and cooking a giant batch of rice—lets you transfer extra nimbly when it comes time to prepare dinner and assemble a meal.
Why We’re the Specialists
- Summer Rylander is a proficient dwelling prepare dinner and a frequent contributor to Critical Eats, the place she deciphers testing notes on every part from cheese box subscriptions to portable charcoal grills.
- The Critical Eats staff has spent years testing the most effective cooking gear, home equipment, and instruments. We recurrently replace our opinions with new insights and long-term testing outcomes.
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