Matt Trollope/Fountain Partnership 29/04/2015 Kitchen Gadgets

5 cutting edge gadgets that will help you love cooking again

Cooking can be a struggle, especially when you’re tired after a long day at work, school or university. The temptation to turn to unhealthy ready meals or takeaways can sometimes be all too much.

A study of 30,000 households in 2013 showed that spending on frozen foods was up by 11%, and spending on chilled ready meals was up by 19%. Also, the report showed that the time families have to spend in the kitchen preparing meals is now almost half of what it was in the 1990’s.

We know that home cooked food is much healthier and cheaper than the frozen or takeaway option, but motivation and time constraints can often be a problem. Here are 5 cutting edge gadgets that will have you back in the kitchen in no time!

Microwave Pasta Cooker - The Original Fasta PastaThe Fasta Pasta is a neat design for saving time and ensuring you get perfect pasta every time.

Not only does the microwave friendly dish save on cooking time, but it also cuts out the waiting when making pasta. No longer will you need to boil the kettle, continuously stir or use a colander to drain your pasta. You simply load the dish with the type of pasta you want to cook, add the correct amount of water as labelled with measuring lines, and then put it in the microwave. This leaves you free to prepare a great sauce, salad or desert at the same time!

The added bonus is that you are also spared washing up as the Fasta Pasta dish has an added drainer and is also dishwasher safe. For under £10, this is a simple but very effective gadget!

Zojirushi NP-NVC10 Pressure Rice Cooker and WarmerStaying with the theme of saving time and getting perfect results, Zojirushi have plenty of rice cookers on the market. The NP-NVC10 is one of the newest models and allows you to effortlessly cook rice like a professional.

The machine is incredibly smart and features artificial intelligence to remember previous cooking experiences, meaning that you will get the same great results every time.

Cooking under pressure produces a softer rice which is easier to digest as well as being more satisfying. Whilst the rice cooker can seem a little pricy at over £100, the technology you are paying for is second to none.

Chadwick Pizza OvenHomemade pizza is fantastic, but making it can be a long and laborious process. Pizza need not be unhealthy, but throwing a readymade pizza in the oven leads to consuming large amounts of salt.

The Chadwick Pizza Oven is a brilliant alternative and boasts that it can cook a pizza in just 4 minutes! The sleekly designed oven oven heats up on gas stove whilst you roll out your dough and add tomato, cheese and your favourite topping. Once you are ready, you can add the pizza and be ready to eat a deliciously thin and crispy Italian style pizza in the time it takes to load the dishwasher!

Matt Trollope/Fountain Partnership 29/04/2015 Kitchen Gadgets

Vegetable SpiraliThe Vegetable Spirali is an excellent gadget to make dishes healthier, and to encourage you and your family to get your 5-a-day.

The Spirali makes spaghetti style spirals from vegetables which can easily be added to salads, stir fry dishes and coleslaws. The sturdy and satisfying mechanism allows you to feed in vegetables and turn the handle to run them through three different cutting blades. The process is highly efficient and leaves you with very little waste product.

Priced at just £25.59, the Spirali allows you to reap the health benefits of adding more vegetables to your meals in a fun way!

Omega J8006 Nutrition Centre JuicerWhilst not strictly for cooking, the Omega juicer will make your fruit juice accompaniment to any meal fantastic.

The Omega prides itself on having a slow, ‘masticating style’ mechanism which squeezes the fruit that is added more precisely. As opposed to blending and grinding fruit, the squeezing process preserves the great healthy nutrients and enzymes found in fruit. The process also prevents oxidisation of your fruit juice meaning it will last longer when stored in the fridge. By making larger batches of juice at a time that will keep longer, you will save time and money!

£150 it is a large upfront cost for the product, but the design is fantastic and it comes with a whopping 15 year warranty. Working out at just £10 a year during the warranty period, you shouldn’t need to buy readymade fruit juice again!