Kitchen tools that can help cut down on meal prep time

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Preparing meals at home can save time and money, and make eating habits easier to manage, but the prep work or storage space is often what discourages people from cooking regularly. Pulling out, rinsing, and chopping vegetables after work, organizing ingredients for the week, and cleaning up after everything can make even the simplest meals seem time-consuming. If you live a busy lifestyle, incorporating kitchen products that can help simplify the cooking process and reduce effort can make cooking and meal prepping so much easier.

Small kitchen upgrades can make a notable difference in meal prep efficiency. Sharper knives, multi-use items, and easier food storage can help streamline cooking without completely changing the kitchen setup or taking up too much room. Many new products on the market are designed to reduce repetitive tasks, improve organization, and make it easier to clean, which can help people rely less on takeout or convenience foods. 

If you want to reduce unnecessary spending on food waste, prep ingredients faster, and keep your kitchen organized, clean, and stocked full of delicious meals, upgrading your kitchen with the right tools can help. Whether you’re making weeknight chicken and rice, prepping for the week ahead, or baking up some weekly bread, these kitchen products will help streamline the process and give you more time and energy for the rest of the day. 

Multi-use gadgets

Multi-use items are useful because they combine several cooking tasks into fewer tools, helping reduce both prep time, kitchen clutter, and cleanup. Mandolins, for example, can slice vegetables faster than cutting by hand, which is great for salads, stir-fries, sheet-pan meals, and more. They also often have chopping mechanisms that can help cut onions, potatoes, peppers, garlic, and other foods, depending on what type of recipe you’re making. All-in-one food processors, blenders, and smoothie makers can also help to cut down on time, whether you’re making a quick morning smoothie before work, or some salsa to throw on chicken and rice, or for chips and dip on game night. Food processors and blenders are great for pureeing sauces, shredding cheese, and even mixing dough.

Items like these can make cooking in larger batches more manageable, especially if you’re trying to meal prep for the week. Instead of spending extended time manually chopping or mixing ingredients, appliances with multiple functions can help speed up repetitive kitchen tasks while reducing the number of separate tools that need cleaning afterward. Since these gadgets can often replace several standalone appliances, they help save cabinet space and money. Over time, the convenience of cooking at home can save you money on prepackaged and takeout meals, as well as offer a healthier alternative. 

I meal prep a couple of times every week, and my immersion blender and food processor combination tool gets used almost every time. I also recently invested in a mandolin that chops and slices, which has cut down on my prep time by almost double, making it so much easier to meal prep without a huge mess. The mandolins that include containers to contain the juice as you chop are a super time saver, keeping my countertops and floors cleaner as I prep.

Gramercy Adjustable Mandoline Slicer Kit

Ukeetap 8-Blade All-in-One Chopper and Slicer

Ninja All-in-One Kitchen System

Utensil sets

A good utensil set can make cooking feel much more efficient. If you’ve ever tried baking without a whisk, scraping a bowl without a spatula, or flipping pan-fried food without a spatula, you know how important it is to have the correct tools. Instead of spending time using tools that don’t quite cut it, investing in a set of different tools can help make sure you have everything you need. Serving spoons, ladles, whisks, tongs, slotted spoons, and spatulas are all basic kitchen essentials that you should have, but having a coordinated set designed for everyday use can simplify meal prep and cleanup. Many modern utensil sets work well with non-stick cookware, helping extend the lifespan of pots and pans. 

Well-designed utensils can reduce clutter by offering an option to hang them up or incorporate a stand to hold everything on the counter, allowing you to keep them nearby and easy to use. Since higher-quality materials often last longer and resist staining and warping over time, investing in durable utensils can help avoid the need to replace broken or rusting tools that wear out quickly. In my experience, opting for items that are one full piece has lasted longer, such as bamboo or olive wood utensils, which work well for non-stick pots and pans, or full stainless steel utensils that are great for glass and stainless steel cookware and bakeware. I like using wood over silicone as the silicone breaks down more quickly over time, but it also comes at the cost of having to hand-wash your wooden pieces and oil them every few months to keep them in good condition. 

Reanea 37-Piece Hanging Kitchen Utensil Set

Oxo Softworks 3-Piece Wooden Cooking Utensil Set

Knife sets

Knife sets can be one of the most important upgrades for reducing prep time because sharp, reliable knives can make chopping, slicing, and trimming ingredients faster. While a mandolin chopper is great for smaller vegetables, often you’ll still need to chop and peel foods like potatoes and onions before you chop them up with the mandolin. Other foods, like meat, herbs, and cheeses, are also easier to prep with a standalone knife. Chef’s knives, pairing knives, serrated knives, and utility knives each serve different functions, like pitting fruit, slicing bread, or cutting through the thick skin of an avocado or squash. 

A well-rounded knife set can also improve kitchen safety, since sharp knives require less force and create more controlled cuts. Many knife sets include self-sharpening storage blocks and protective covers that help maintain the quality of the blade over time and allow you to keep them tidied up and ready to use. If you’re looking to mix a knife set with other chopping tools, like a food processor, a smaller set will suffice, but the larger sets can be useful if you like to cook with others or have a larger variety of foods to prepare. 

Redusk 9-Piece Stainless Steel Knife Set with Sharpener

Brewin 13-Piece Knife Set

Food prep containers

Food prep containers play a major role in helping kitchens stay organized and keeping your meal prep safe throughout the week. Containers designed for meal prep can help portion lunches, store leftovers, and organize ingredients ahead of time so cooking feels less repetitive. Prepping portions of ingredients allows you to have ready-to-go food that just needs to be cooked up, allowing you to create different meals easily throughout the week instead of eating the same meal for the week. 

Alternatively, prepping whole meals and freezing them for future use is great for when you need a quick meal on the go, and freezing helps preserve the food quality and nutrients, so you won’t waste food as much, allowing you to cut down on food waste and save money. Sauce, soups, chopped herbs, marinated proteins, and pre-cooked grains can all be frozen into individual blocks for future use. Silicone freeze trays offer different sizes of freezer options such as  large for soup stocks and small for herb cubes, and are my personal favorite way of storing foods once cooked. It’s easy to push your food out once frozen and keep them in labeled freezer bags.

Stackable storage containers are useful because they can maximize fridge and freezer space while helping households keep track of their food, and some options include tape and a marker to help label, or offer a plastic top that can be used with a dry-erase marker. Lunchboxes and insulated food prep containers also make homemade meals easier to take on the go. Many newer designs include divided compartments that separate ingredients and reduce the need for takeout containers and disposable bags. Bento boxes, electric lunchboxes, and insulated containers all make it easy to take pre-made food to work, school, or travelling. Electric lunchboxes and thermoses are especially nice because they also offer an option to reheat your food without a kitchen nearby.

Dupasu Electric Lunch Box

Komuee 10-Pack Split Meal Prep Containers

Souper Cubes Silicone Freezer Molds 2-Pack

What’s best for your needs?

Depending on what you like to cook and how often you like to cook, different options may be better. If you meal prep a week at a time, having blenders and mandolins mixed with freezer cubes will make cooking and prep a breeze. Alternatively, if you cook a meal for yourself every couple of days with a few leftovers, a smaller set of fridge containers and a good knife set can do the trick. Blenders are best for making smoothies on the go and for people who are looking to get more fruits and veggies in, while opting for a larger set of cooking utensils is good if you like to cook a variety of meals, including one-pot meals or fry pan breakfasts. 

Generally, I think it’s a great idea to have a bit of everything since you never know what you’ll make next. Between soups and stews, baking, and hosting holiday dinners, all of these tools will come in handy — it just depends on how much time you want to save in the process.

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