6 kitchen gadgets and tools that hack the heck out of meal prep – National

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We’ve all heard the saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Well, despite my best meal-prepping intentions, life often gets in the way. Spending five hours every Sunday roasting chickens, soaking beans and boiling eggs for the week ahead is unrealistic. Add in dishes, family obligations and the desire for a bit of Sunday self-care, and it doesn’t always happen.

That’s why when I do make an effort to meal prep for a busy week ahead, I want it to be quick and easy, with minimal dishes and guesswork. Enter our honest review of these kitchen gadgets designed to hack that Sunday meal prep.

I have always used a rice cooker, so when I heard about this new gadget from KitchenAid, I couldn’t wait to give it a whirl. It cooks perfect rice (jasmine, wild, brown, sushi!) and produces the best quinoa to ever come out of my kitchen.

Pros: I love that this cooker has a soak function and that you can set it to pre-clean while you eat. The built-in scale means you no longer have to look up grain-to-water ratios, and you can also set it to delay cook. I’ve used it for easy meal prep while keeping the stovetop free for other items, but it’s also handy for whipping up fresh rice or grains during the week with minimal cleanup.

The “warming” function kept food toasty without scorching the bottom of the ceramic pot, which was a huge bonus. The touchscreen is also intuitive and easy to use, and I didn’t have to sift through pages of instructions before I started cooking.

Cons: The included steamer basket could be bigger, but I can still quickly steam veggies for the kids or dumplings for the grown-ups while our rice cooks. Meanwhile, the pre-set programs don’t include all the grains I’ve wanted to cook (buckwheat was an adventure). There is a custom function you can use in those cases, but I’m still experimenting with it.

The Bottom Line: This is my new favourite kitchen tool, and I will use it for years to come.

Prepdecks were first popularized on Shark Tank and have since become a viral gadget that TikTokers swear by. I love the idea of having a station to help cut down on prep time, but I don’t love the expensive price tag. So when I saw this half-price Amazon dupe, I decided to try it.

Pros: It was fantastic having one place to cut all my veggies for stir-fry, salads and school lunches. I loved sliding cut produce over to the hole above and into the container below. This deck was also perfect for family taco night because I could assemble everything quickly and throw the containers on the table for self-serve action.

Cons: Unfortunately, the manufacturers didn’t measure correctly, and the graters were too large for the opening. I could get them in at an angle and still slice cucumbers and grate cheese, but it was a little scary. The lids also don’t fit properly, so food grew stale in the fridge after a day.

The Bottom Line: Other reviewers have raved about this product and said the pieces fit together perfectly, so I may have gotten a dud. Meanwhile, although this board includes fewer pieces and functions than a Prepdeck, it’s still a cheaper alternative for those who want something with a little more function.

A veggie chopper with a mandoline slicer, cheese grater, veggie spiralizer and French fry dicer? Sign me up. I’m all about multipurpose kitchen gadgets that help me eliminate clutter, and this one also includes safety gloves and a container to catch that freshly prepped food.

Pros: I loved that this was an all-in-one gadget that allowed me to prepare containers of multiple veggies in one go. Sometimes, to get my kids to eat, I need to change the shape of how I prepare something. Being able to whip up “cucumber snakes” with the spiralizer or carrot chips was clutch. I also liked how easy it was to switch out the different blades and that I had a glove to keep my hands safe. This one gets bonus points for cutting an entire cucumber into perfect slices in about 10 seconds.

Cons: This gadget isn’t strong enough if you’re looking to cut hard veggies like sweet potatoes or beets. It’s mainly for softer veggies and cheese or mid-strength produce like potatoes and cabbage. There are also a lot of parts to this gizmo, which means many pieces to store and even more to clean. That said, I used the tool for multiple things once I had it together, like dicing shallots for a homemade dressing, prepping veggies for the week, and pushing a hard-boiled egg through it for lunch. The chopper also came with cleaning brushes to get into the nooks and crannies and make cleanup easier.

The Bottom Line: This isn’t something I would whip out in the middle of the week for a quick dinner (I prefer quickly chopping things with a knife and cutting board). But for meal prep, it saved time overall and gave me more creative cuts of food to reach for throughout the week.

I have tried all kinds of food storage containers over the years, and no matter how many times I Marie Kondo my cupboards, I still need help finding matching lids. Or, the lids break and crack, rendering the glass containers useless. This set, however, includes air-tight, locking lids and containers in only two sizes, so I wanted to try them out.

Pros: I loved that I could put the bases into the dishwasher or microwave, which cut down on cleanup time. I also liked that I didn’t have to rummage around looking for a lid in my drawer, since everything stacked neatly on top of itself.

Cons: Unfortunately, you can’t put the lids in the dishwasher, so I had to wash them by hand. I also didn’t love how expensive this set of 10 containers was compared to others on the market.

The Bottom Line: I loved how well these stacked together and the amount of food they held, so I think I’ll be investing in another set. Seeing the food in the fridge without opening a container was nice, and the lids held up without cracking after multiple uses.

My toxic trait is buying too much produce at the grocery store and not eating it throughout the week. Meal planning and prepping definitely helps with that, but there are still times when I have leftover fruit or vegetables that I want to freeze for soups or smoothies later. These storage bags appealed to me because you can toss them in the freezer or dishwasher.

Pros: These were great to pack in my kids’ lunch boxes, and I liked how they came in varying sizes. They were also leakproof, so I felt comfortable putting liquid in them and taking them on the go. They came in handy during meal prep when I was portioning out items that I didn’t want to keep in glass (due to children). They were also great at the end of the week when I wanted to quickly transfer leftovers into the freezer.

Cons: The bags stained a little after repeated use, but it wasn’t a huge deal considering tomato sauce and turmeric stain everything. The bigger deal was that, although dishwasher safe, you can’t use the heated dry function on these bags. So, you’ll still need to factor in air-drying time if cleaning in the dishwasher.

The Bottom Line: These were a solid, BPA-free alternative to regular plastic bags, which you need to throw out after one use.

Baking veggies and meats for the long week ahead is a vital part of Sunday meal prep. But if you’re doing the sheet-pan thing and don’t want items to touch or flavours to merge, you need to break out multiple sheets at once. Or, you can invest in these silicone baking sheet dividers instead.

Pros: I’m already a fan of silicone baking sheet inserts and muffin tin liners, so I knew I’d appreciate these dividers. They cut down on waste and are super easy to clean, plus they’re dishwasher safe. I also really like that they came with heat-proof handles so I could easily take food in and out of the oven at different stages without losing too much heat. And, because silicone is naturally non-stick, I could also cut down on oil.

Cons: The dividers are narrow so it’s hard to spread out a single layer of food when cooking, and that eliminated some of the crisp you’d get during a regular bake. They’re also fairly small and shallow (they hold one or two cups), so you can’t really stir foods or batch cook.

The Bottom Line: These liners are great for meal prepping but they’re also a terrific tool to use throughout the week when you want to throw a quick dinner in the oven and are dealing with multiple sides or picky eaters.