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The 8 best meal prep tools to save you time and effort in the kitchen
A baking sheet is a must if you want to make delectable roasted vegetables or mouthwatering cookies. The Nordic Ware Natural Half Sheet is the top pick in our best baking sheets guide because it cooks food evenly and releases items easily. In our tests, a little olive oil was all that was needed to keep potatoes from sticking, and cookies slid right off, perfectly browned.
A food processor is an indispensable and efficient meal prep tool. I tested 10 units for our guide to the best food processors, and the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro is the best. It's on the pricier side, but you get a powerful, durable machine with several attachments to help you slice, dice, grate, shred, and just process foods. Specifically, I was impressed with how well it grinds beef and emulsifies mayo.
If the Sous Chef is out of your budget, consider the Hamilton Beach Food Processor. It wll save you about $400, but it lacks the power and accessories.
Read our full Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro Food Processor review.
With slow cookers, also known as crock pots, you can toss your ingredients in a pot before leaving for work and come home to a delectable, ready-to-eat meal. I've tested 15 units for our best slow cookers guide, and the Cuisinart is the best because it maintains consistent temperatures, is easy to use and clean, and it produces tender, juicy roasts and evenly cooked chili.
At half the price of the Cuisinart, the Crockpot Cook and Carry Slow Cooker is a good budget option. It doesn't have a browning function and is harder to clean, but it also performed well in my tests and is easy to transport.
Also known as electric pressure cookers, Instant Pots work much like slow cookers, only they add the element of pressure to speed up the cooking process. While the Instant Pot popularized electric pressure cookers and makes some of our favorite models, the smart pick in our best Instant Pot guide is from Chef iQ. The Chef iQ Smart Cooker is packed full of features that make meal prep easier, and best of all, it performed well in our tests, quickly producing tender, flavorful beans and rice.
Once you've cooked your meals, you'll need to divide them up into containers that are durable and easy to transport. The Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids Food Containers set is budget-friendly, versatile, and easy to stack, earning it a spot in our best food storage containers guide. All 42 pieces (21 containers plus 21 lids) are dishwasher, freezer, and microwave safe, though we recommend avoiding putting plastic in the microwave.
If you already have your meal prep containers (or a ton of takeout containers you can't quite throw away), an insulated lunch box is great for easy transport without worrying about leakage or your food getting cold. The L.L.Bean Lunch Box is the top pick in our guide to the best lunch boxes because it's durable, available in eight colors, and is designed to keep food cold.
Even if a food processor does most of the slicing and dicing, you'll still need a good knife to prep ingredients for the processor and cut items down to size. The Victorinox Swiss Classic Kitchen Set is one of the best kitchen knife sets we've tested. The ergonomic handles don't get slippery when your hands are wet, and the knives are sharp out of the package. This set has everything you'll need, from a short paring knife to a long serrated bread knife.
Read our full Victorinox Swiss Classic Knife Set review.
Of course, you need a good cutting board if you're cutting. This will protect your counters and make cleaning up and transferring ingredients easier. The best cutting board we've tested is the Williams Sonoma Acacia End-Grain Cutting Board. Wood cutting boards are generally harder to clean, yet this one is easier than most. Perhaps best of all, you can impress your friends with its stylish looks. It's perfect for Instagram-worthy foodie photos.
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