Posted by Janet Harriett on Aug.13, 2009

ⓒ Janet Harriett

Food prep gadgets have a way of taking over the entire kitchen, populating drawers and cupboards with corn de-cobbers, bagel slicers, pancake puffers, patty pressers and other gizmos that may make your eating easier, or just easier to do poorly as they promote large portions and unhealthy food. These six gadgets are must-haves for healthy food preparation.

#6 Melon Baller

Fresh seasonal melon is a healthy way to satisfy a craving for sweets. One cup of cantaloupe provides a full day’s supply of Vitamin A and Vitamin C, along with a healthy dose of potassium, Vitamin B6 and dietary fiber, all for only 56 calories. Red watermelon is a good source of lycopene. With a container of melon balls in the fridge, snacking on these nutritional powerhouses is quick and convenient. A melon baller makes quick work of preparing a whole melon for family snacking while you only have to cut through the tough rind once. If melon chunks or wedges are more your style, try one of the melon slicers available in kitchen gadget stores that create neat melon wedges out of half a cantaloupe or other round melon with a twist of the wrist. The melon baller may only come out during the summer, but it’s bound to get a workout during the summer months.

#5 French Fry Cutter

Fry cutters are essentially a grid of wires or metal blades that cut a potato into even sticks. Fancier french fry cutters may have containers to catch and hold the sticks, or a plunger and lever to push the spud through the blade, but a simple, high-quality handheld fry cutter is compact and gets the job done. With a french fry cutter, you can make healthy baked french fries when the kids are clamoring for fries with dinner. A fry cutter is no one-trick gadget, though. Press hard boiled eggs through the fry cutter to quickly chop for a protein-packed salad topping. Chop mushrooms or other soft vegetables in a flash. Just don’t try making sweet potato fries with a french fry cutter; sweet potatoes are tougher than white potatoes and can break the cutting wires or bend the blades.

#4 Egg Separator

Many healthy recipes call for egg whites, which contain most of the egg’s protein without the fat and cholesterol that make some people limit their egg intake. An egg separator makes egg whites as easy as whole eggs. Simply crack the egg into the separator and let the white fall into a waiting bowl while the yolk remains nestled in the separator. Use the egg yolk as a face mask and whip the white into an omelet, meringue or other dish. Novelty egg separators come in a variety of fun designs, including this one that drips egg white out of the figure’s nose like snot.

#3 Garlic Press

Garlic provides a pungent, tasty kick. The cardiovascular benefits of regular garlic consumption are well documented and well studied. In addition to promoting heart and vascular health, garlic has antiviral, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that can help everything from colds to arthritis. Research indicates that crushing the garlic releases the highest levels of the beneficial compounds. A garlic press makes adding fresh garlic to soups, casseroles, sauces, stir-fries, marinades, hummus and other recipes a snap.

#2 Mandoline Slicer

If you were ever looking to add more fresh vegetables to your diet but found the prep work too cumbersome, a mandoline slicer might be your salvation. Mandoline slicers are the bulkiest of the kitchen gadgets on Green Diva Mom’s must-have kitchen gadget list, but they are worth the cupboard or drawer space because they make bulk vegetable prep so much easier. You can slice thin, uniform vegetable slices in a snap, to steam, saute or even add to vegetable pizza. Many mandolines have blades for crinkle-cutting, julienning and even cubing. With a julienne blade on a mandoline, you can turn a glut of zucchini into a high-fiber, low carb pasta substitute. Watch your fingers, and definitely keep an eye on the kids when the mandoline is out.

#1 Kitchen Scale

While bakers use kitchen scales to make perfect cakes by measuring ingredients by weight rather than volume, the kitchen scale is Green Diva Mom’s #1 must-have kitchen gadget for one reason: portion control. With a small, accurate kitchen scale, you can keep an eye out for the portion creep that leads to waistline creep.  Two ounces of spaghetti noodles are no longer something to eyeball or guess at. You don’t need to raid the game closet for a deck of cards to guesstimate a portion of meat. A kitchen scale can keep you to an ounce of baked chips or cheese. You can even make yourself homemade 100 calorie packs of snack foods by weighing out the exact portion, in grams, of your favorite crackers or cookies into zip-top bags.

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Posted under Cooking Healthy, Food, Nutrition & Recipes.