My 10 Kitchen Tools to Stay Slim

By Joanna 13/06/2014 In
Knowledge
Nutritional Tips

When it comes to staying fit and healthy, to lose weight, or even to put on weight, your nutrition is 80% to your success! So health and fitness starts in the kitchen, not in the gym.

I believe that having the right kitchen tools play a huge role for you to make healthy eating easier, more flavorsome, and fun! These are my 10 must have kitchen tools to keep you slim.

1) Procizion Digital Food Scale

My 1st and most important kitchen tool to have especially if you have just started to learn about portion control and calorie counting in order to reach a healthier weight is a Digital Food Scale.

My new favourite is the Procizion Digital Kitchen Scale as it’s very easy to use and it has all the important functions you need.

When buying a kitchen scale, I would suggest to look out for these features:

- A digital scale instead of analog as it’ll give you very precise measurement.
- One that has a wide and flat surface just like this, so you may place all kinds of plates on it and it’s easy to clean.
- This also offers 4 different conversion units, which makes it easy to follow any recipes.
- And most importantly it has a tare feature. So I can basically “zero out” the weight of whatever bowl I’m weighing my ingredients with.

My Procizion Digital Kitchen Scale is the size of a mini IPad, it looks sleek and you can easily store it in the drawer. This kitchen scale will help you to count your calories and to know exactly how much food you are eating, because nowadays, portion sizes are way bigger than what we should be eating.

2) Measuring Spoon & Cup Set

Measuring spoons and cups aren’t just for baking. Again, they are essential to calculate serving sizes and calories. My measuring spoons came together with my Digital Food Scale. As for the measuring cups, you can easily buy them from any shop such as Poundland, Ikea or even Daiso for only £1 or less.

These are not expensive kitchen tools and I’ve been using them to count the calories in my food video.

3) Blender / Hand Blender (Smoothie-to-go – just under £25)

3rd must have kitchen tool is a blender. What I have here is a Smoothie-2-Go Blender by Kenwood. I’ve been using this blender to make delicious and healthy smoothies. What I like about this blender is that it also acts as a travel mug and you can bring your smoothie out with you without having to transfer it to another bottle. This only cost £25 in Debenhams, Argos, Currys, Amazon etc.

I also have a hand blender, which I’ve been using to make healthy creamy vegetable soup. If you are someone who doesn’t like to eat your veggies, then turn them into soups. You can have them with a side of bread, they are low in calories and you won’t need to chew on the veggies. This will help to keep you full, which means eating less heavy foods.

If you are on a budget, then I would suggest you to invest in a multi-function blender where you are able to make smoothies, soups and process any foods, just with one blender.

4) Vegetable Steamer & Round Steamer Rack

Next on the list, a £2.50 Vegetable Steamer from Ikea and Round Steamer Rack. If you do not like raw veggies or you find them difficult to digest, then steam them slightly while still preserving majority of their nutritional value.

Eating healthy is not difficult and sometimes, it’s the small changes we do, which will make a huge difference long term. So change the way you prep your meals. Instead of deep frying, use the round steamer rack and steam your chicken with herbs and spices.

Not only will you have a warm, tender and flavoursome chicken, you won’t be adding any extra calories or oil into your meal.

5) Vegetable Spiral Slicer ($19 – 58% off now)

Eating healthy has to be fun as well. You are more likely to enjoy your meals if they look appealing. So my 5th kitchen tool is a Vegetable Spiral Slicer by Procizion as well.

This basically turns ‘plain’ vegetables into vegetable pasta. I’ve made a huge 10oz vegetable pasta over the weekend with carrots and zucchini, topped with Salmon tomato sauce. The vegetable pasta was only 75Cals. The typically cooked pasta at that serving will be 450Cals.

I’m always looking out for things that offers great value, and at only $19 on Amazon, the Procizion Vegetable Spiral Slicer also comes with a Vegetable peeler. So use them to add more vegetables into your diet by making them fun!

6) Oil Spray (£2)

Next kitchen tool on my list is an Oil Spray. This is another great product to save ‘significant calories’. Yes, olive oil offers many health benefits, but it’s important to know that they are very high in calories. 1 tbsp has about 120cals. So you do not want cover your food in them.

With an oil spray or oil mister, you can cover the whole bottom of a pan or baking tray just with several sprays. This oil sprayer only cost £2 and you can get them in any major supermarkets.

7) Non Sticking Pan / Egg Poacher (£5 – Argos)

So many of you have been asking, how do I make such perfect poached eggs. Well allow me to reveal my secret; I’ve been making them with this egg poacher from Argos. So technically, it wasn’t my effort.

You can also double this up and use it as a non-sticky pan, which is what I have been doing. And the best part is the price tag, it only cost £5.00. I mean how cheap and affordable is that! I’ve been using this same egg poacher and pan from more than 2 years and it’s perfect. You can’t go wrong with £5!

8) Tea Pot (Just Under £10)

My next must have kitchen essential is something I use every day, my Tea Pot. You probably already know my love from green tea and the benefits.

Having this teapot allows me to not only make freshly brewed green tea everyday but you can also make naturally flavoured water with it. So if you struggle to meet your daily fluid consumption because water is tasleless, drink flavoured water instead.

You can pretty much buy this teapot online either from Amazon or Ebay. I bought mine at Argos for just under £10!

9) Small Plates & Bowls

The 9th kitchen essential are small plates, bowls and cups. Nowadays portion sizes are increasing because our average dinner plate has grown from 8.5 inches to 12 inches! Your food will look less on a bigger plate and more on a smaller plate. Studies have shown that you will eat less from a smaller plate, because psychologically you think you are eating more. So trim the size of your plates and you will trim your waistline.

10) Oven Toaster Griller (£25)

My final must have is an Oven Toaster Griller. Well I personally do not have one in my kitchen because at the moment, I have a separate oven, toaster and griller. If you are a student or if you live on your own, this is definitely something you want to buy.

Firstly, it works as a toaster, so you can make your morning toasts. It also works as a mini oven griller, which means you can make healthy meals such as baked chicken, fish, quiche, potatoes and more. I know some of you had not been able to make some of my recipes because you don’t have an oven, perhaps might you want to consider buying an oven toaster so you can try my recipes out. You can get the basic ones for less than £30.

So, these are my 10 Must Have Kitchen Tools to Stay Slim. Everything I’m sharing with you are very affordable products, which are worth investing in as you will be using them almost on a daily basis for a long time. Do let me know which is your favourite kitchen tool and if you already do have all of them in your kitchen. All the best!

 

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