So many of us go into a new year with lofty goals about starting fresh, from spring cleaning and home organization to updating our kitchen with new appliances and tools that will help us streamline our routines and make healthier choices in the new year.
We may discover in the process of trying to upgrade our routines and lifestyles, though, we end up buying a lot of products we don’t need to be buying in 2024, and that ends up being more of a hindrance than a help to making good choices and staying organized in the year to come.
But if we’re trying to streamline our kitchen and stretch our ingredients (and food budgets) in the months to come, meal prepping is a great place to start.
Why Meal Prep?
Meal prepping is quite simply making parts of dishes; this may be pre-grilling that salmon or chicken breasts or roasting veggies and preparing marinades and dressings, so that when it comes type to pack those lunches or make a weeknight meal, a lot of the hard work is already done and everything is easier to pull together. There’s also another level of meal prep, involving making entire meals ahead or freezer meals, and this is even more helpful. Perhaps you make a big pot of chili on Sunday to portion out for lunch for the week, or prepare a week of salads to grab and go for work. Meal prep can take many different forms, but it’s a great way to use all those ingredients you shop for and have on hand, and avoid going for takeout or delivery in order to save time and get fed on a particularly busy or exhausting day.
Meal prepping is a win all around because it will save you time and money and also help to avoid food waste. It also makes it easier to stay healthy and make good meal choices. But we have to do this smartly. It’s important to buy the right sort of meal-prepping products, or we may discover that we end up spending so much on gadgets that don’t actually do what they promise and we spend more than we save!
Meal-Prepping Products That Are Actually Worth It
Don’t just let TikTok or social media sell you on a must-have gadget that you’ll use once and stash away. These are tried-and-true buys from a seasoned meal prepper (if you’re new to meal prepping, consider them your starter pack). Some of the items below are a bit pricier — but their quality ensures you’ll be using them for years to come, rather than trashing and replacing them.
Rubbermaid Brilliance Pantry 20-Piece Set
Why it’s a meal-prepping essential: This is a comprehensive set of airtight food storage containers with brilliant latched lids. These are all the components of great food storage containers because they are airtight (which keeps food fresh longer), clear (which helps you see what’s inside those containers), and have latched lids so there won’t be unfortunate spillage, creating a mess in the fridge. They are also freezer, fridge, and dishwasher safe, as well as microwave safe, which makes meal prep and reheating all a breeze, as well as clean-up.
Why it’s a good value: This set includes every type of meal storage container you could possibly need, and breaks down to just a few dollars a piece.
Where to buy it: $204.98 at Amazon.com
Eat This Much Premium Meal Prep App
Why it’s a meal-prepping essential: A meal prep app can greatly simplify and streamline getting into the routine of planning meals ahead. This app can plan a week of meals in advance, and generate shopping lists for you as well as printing out meal plans and helping you to customize leftovers into interesting new meals so that they never feel monotonous or boring.
Why it’s a good value: There’s a free version that costs nothing at all, but the premium works out to around the cost of a latte a month and can make it a lot easier to make healthier choices.
Where to buy it: $5 a month for premium if billed annually at eatthismuch.com
Ninja Foodi
Why it’s a meal-prepping essential: Take it from someone who lives in a tiny studio apartment with a barely there kitchen, an appliance that can do a lot of things at once is essential for getting any job done. I love the Ninja Foodi because it works as a pressure cooker, air fryer and slow cooker — all in one. I use the pressure cooker to prepare beans (which can take a LONG time stovetop) for various dishes, as well as steaming vegetables and roasting potatoes. This is also fabulous for the aforementioned big pot of chili or soup to portion out all week long.
Why it’s a good value: It does the job of a half dozen kitchen appliances, from slow cooking or pressure cooking to steaming, searing, sauteing, and even dehydrating, but is a lot cheaper than buying those pieces on their own.
Where to buy it: $169.99 at Amazon.com
Proctor Silex 3.5 Cup Food Chopper
Why it’s a meal-prepping essential: In my own meal prep, there’s no part of the process I find more tedious than all that slicing and dicing. This is especially cumbersome when you are prepping for a whole week all in one weekend afternoon; that’s a lot of dicing! This 3.5-cup food chopper does all the hard work for me, and can do everything from pureeing to chopping to even emulsifying, as in those homemade marinades or dressings.
Why it’s a good value: It’s tempting to buy pre-chopped veggies just so we don’t have to do all the work ourselves, but that can get pricey, fast. This is a wonderful alternative that saves time and effort and is easy on the budget.
Where to buy it: $34.99 at Amazon.com
Hamilton Beach Professional Variable Speed Hand Blender
Why it’s a meal-prepping essential: A great blender can be expensive and take up a lot of space — two luxuries many of us can’t afford. But a powerful hand blender can do a lot of what a blender does, and do it a lot more affordably. I love this immersion hand blender for pureeing soups and sauces, but also doing things like blending smoothies or making dressings. It also has variable speed options, which is helpful because some meal ingredients we’re prepping will call for lower speeds, but we may need to go higher for whipping or mixing, and all are an option with this tool. Also, because you can blend or mix right in your pan or bowl, it saves the time and effort of washing extra dishes — always appreciated.
Why it’s a good value: It’s powerful, versatile, and easy to use; exactly what I’m looking for in a meal-prep tool that can operate as a kitchen workhouse without busting my budget.
Where to buy it: $69.99 at Amazon.com
Epicurean Big Game Cutting Board
Why it’s a meal-prepping essential: Cutting boards are essential for meal prep, and will be used for everything from chopping vegetables to prepping proteins. Just this weekend, I made a batch of stir fry to portion out for a few lunches, and used my cutting board for cutting my meat into strips but also chopping veggies. Greater quantities of meal prep though will benefit from a larger cutting board, and this one is large enough for whatever your family’s needs may be but also has handles to make it easier to grab and carry with you to pots or pans or even a cookout. An especially useful feature is built-in grooves, which helps to deal with those juices that may flow out when chopping those tomatoes. From there, it’s simple to wipe down with soap and water.
Why it’s a good value: Having one cutting board that can handle anything that may come up during kitchen prep is very appreciated. No need to constantly be removing one item before adding the next.
Where to buy it: $214.95 at Surlatable.com
Kuhn Rikon Box Mandolin and Grater
Why it’s a meal-prepping essential: Grating is such a huge part of meal prep, whether grating potatoes and carrots or our favorite cheeses for a giant mac and cheese casserole. This compact kitchen tool has a variety of blade attachments for various grating needs, and the box keeps things neat and easy to clean, and doubles as storage! There’s even a neat pour spout for easier draining.
Why it’s a good value: It’s like having several graters and a mandoline in one compact tool.
Where to buy it: $33.29 at Amazon.com
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