Equipping your kitchen with the right tools can make meal prep much less stressful. I have always loved to cook and bake (and eat!), but I’m a lazy gourmet. I want the best result with the least work. Whether you have a houseful or are home alone, life is already stressful enough - let’s make cooking as easy and delicious as possible!
See THIS post for some of my favorite lazy gourmet tips for streamlining your cooking process along with a handful of my favorite gadgets, but here are a few other items I’ve found incredibly useful to make life easier.
These 10 {mostly} simple kitchen tools make cooking and baking so much faster and more efficient.
Please note: this post contains affiliate links meaning that I may receive a small commission for any purchases at no additional cost to you.
Our Top 10 Kitchen Gadgets
Instant Pot
My daughter dragged home this rebranded and updated (read much safer) pressure cooker to live on our counter in spite of my protests about no extraneous gadgets. It is not the most attractive addition, but it DOES make incredible risotto, soups, curries, beans, and legumes in record time.
And you can use ingredients like chicken straight from the freezer so you don’t have to plan too far in advance…this appeals to me as I like to see what we are in the mood for before deciding what to cook. I am a reluctant fan of the Instant Pot and concede that it has earned the real estate it is taking up on my kitchen counter.
Instant Pot: Click HERE for link to purchase
Spoonula
A spoon and spatula in one. The perfect tool for that all important food group: frosting 😂. But also useful for so many other foods. These flexible silicone spoon shaped spatulas won’t scratch up your nonstick pans, and are great for scraping every last drop out of the container or pot! AND sticky or starchy food doesn’t weld itself to them either so cleanup is fast!
Spoonula and Spatula wooden handled set: Click HERE to purchase
Garlic Press
I have been through MANY garlic presses over the years - some have broken, some have pitted, some were inefficiently dull, and all were a pain in the you-know-what to clean! Then I discovered this one, and the angels sang. This is the last garlic press you will ever need - a marvel of Swiss engineering, easy to use and painless to clean!
Worlds BEST garlic press: Click HEREto purchase
Rectangular Measuring Spoons
Good stainless steel measuring spoons are a must for any kitchen. These are the smartest invention on the measuring front ever - Measuring spoons that are rectangular so they actually fit into spice jars!
You know how you can’t get your round measuring spoon into the jar and end up dumping cumin or cinnamon or whatever all over your counter? Not any more. Easy peasy and no wasted ingredients on the floor or counter to clean up! The set even includes a handy 3/4 teaspoon size for those recipes that insist on compromising between 1/2 and 1.
Oh… and please free them from the chain gang set up because you know what’s less fun than washing one measuring spoon? Washing the other 5 you didn’t use because they insist on traveling as a group… I use them often enough that I keep them in a little pitcher on the counter along with my instant read digital thermometer and honey dipper :)
Measuring spoon set: Click HERE to purchase
Pyrex measuring cups
These are a kitchen essential! I could not cook without my pyrex measuring cups! I love that they can go right in the microwave for melting butter or chocolate, and don’t warp like plastic versions. I use the larger 4 and 8 cup sizes as mixing and batter bowls as well. Please NOTE: As far as kitchen essentials go, these are for liquid measurement. For dry ingredients use either stainless steel measuring cups - I have THESE measuring scoops which are really handy - OR weigh your ingredients on a kitchen scale.
Set of Pyrex Measuring Cups: Click HERE to purchase
Microplane
These graters, originally designed for woodworking, have made their way into the kitchen and transformed the dreaded task of grating cheese, citrus peel, or chocolate from something tedious and painful (and likely involving grated knuckles) to something fast and easy!
NOTE: these are also available in different sizes and I own several, but if you are only going to have one - this is the most basic and useful option.
Classic Microplane: click HERE to purchase
Lemon Squeezer
This is maybe less essential for some people, but we use a lot of citrus juice, and this sturdy cast aluminum squeezer makes fast work of juicing lemons or limes while straining the seeds.
It comes in a slightly smaller size and in green for limes (which is wholly unnecessary - this one works just as well for limes), and in a slightly larger size in orange for, you guessed it, oranges - which is definitely useful if you juice a lot of oranges!
To use it, cut your citrus in half across the equator, (trim the ends off too for maximum juicing) and place it cut side down in the jaws of the juicer and squeeze. It turns the half nearly inside out extracting all the juice!
Lemon Squeezer: Click HERE to purchase (other sizes available)
Baking Scoops
These scoops are terrific for portioning dough for cookies, cupcakes, muffins, and meatballs! The sweep makes the batter release easily (and a squirt of cooking spray helps even more!), and the portioning makes your items bake evenly because they are all the same size, and the results are consistent enough to make Paul Hollywood* proud! (*ICYMI Paul Hollywood is a judge on The British Baking Show)
Cookie Scoop: click HERE to purchase (other sizes available)
Baking Parchment
These precut parchment sheets are 12” x 16” to fit perfectly in a standard rimmed cookie sheet. This makes clean up a snap, and it’s easy to transfer your cookies or baked goods to the cooling rack all at once. They are also excellent to line the pan for brownies, tea breads, and bar cookies so you can lift the whole thing out for cutting!
If you bake, these are a huge timesaver. I love having parchment sheets on hand so much that I usually order a spare whenever I start a new pack just to be sure I never run out! These particular ones are my favorites - they are a nice heavy weight so they don’t tear.
Precut Parchment Sheets: Click HERE to purchase
And finally,
Kitchen Scale
Having a kitchen scale is really useful for baking - weighing ingredients is always more accurate than measuring. This one measures in grams, pounds:ounces, and ounces, and has a tare button so you can zero out the weight of the container - no math required!
It is also really helpful for keeping track of the quantities of food you are eating if that is a concern. The scale keeps me honest about how many crackers are in a serving (sadly, not very many!)
Kitchen Scale: click HERE to purchase