With the variety of pre-packaged and prepared foods available on the market today, it has become harder and harder to eat healthy. Luckily, a recent surge in popularity of healthy foods and food processing tools has resulted in a greater range of available products for those looking to eat healthy. What equipment should you have in your kitchen to help in your quest to eat and live healthily?

 

1. Garlic Card

A garlic card allows you to finely grate cloves of garlic for addition into your favorite sauces or dishes. Garlic is an excellent taste enhancer for many types of meals and has the added benefit of being good for heart health. Keep a garlic card around to healthily enhance your meals. (Image source)

 

2. Citrus Juicer

Freshly squeezed juice is one of the morning’s greatest pleasures. Make sure you can take advantage of the vitamins and minerals that abound in fresh juice by equipping your kitchen with a citrus juicer. You can find basic, manual juicers that allow you to take pride in making your own glass of juice or automatic juicers that simply require pressure to be placed on the fruit for the machine to begin draining the juice. Having a juicer in your home can help you get the daily vitamins and minerals your body needs to thrive. (Image source)

 

3. Blender or Food Processor

A great deal of healthy snacks and meals can be made quickly and from fresh ingredients when a blender or food processor is at hand. These tools allow you to mix up a protein packed chocolate shake in the morning, vegetable soup for lunch, and freshly mashed potatoes for dinner in just a few quick steps. Let your health-conscious creativity run wild with a blender or food processor. (Image source)

 

4. Vegetable Steamer

A steamer allows you to cook your vegetables while retaining the maximum amount of their vitamins and minerals, not to mention flavor. Using a steamer is as easy as boiling water and placing the vegetables in a porous container above. Begin cooking your vegetables with a steamer to enhance your diet! (Image source)

 

5. Crock-pot

A slow-cooking crock-pot is the best friend of the busy adult looking to make a healthy meal under tight time constraints. Slow-cookers can perfectly cook a mix of vegetables and meat with almost no intervention from you. Add in broth or wine to boost the flavor or make a hearty soup as a quick and healthy meal. (Image source)

 

6. BluApple

Eating healthily can be made difficult when your produce seems to become overripe faster than you can eat it. When maintaining the freshness of your produce is a problem, try using a BluApple. BluApples absorb some of the ethylene gas buildup that occurs in refrigerators and that hurries the ripening process of fruits and vegetables. Make your healthy foods last longer by taking the best care of them possible. (Image source)

 

7. Space

It may sound strange, but making more space in your kitchen to correctly store your various cooking ingredients and tools can make both these foods and products last longer and retain more of their original qualities. Install a new cabinet, add in a dish overhang, or buy some ready to assemble furniture with drawers or compartments of various sizes. Having a spacious and organized kitchen will make it easier to cook healthily and enjoy the entire process of preparing a meal.

 

 

These are only some of the ways you can equip your kitchen to be a haven of healthy eating. Think about your favorite healthy foods and what you need to make them quickly and well or ask your friends what great tricks they have found. For more information, see Shape.