I’ll admit: I’m a kitchen gadget freak. Whether it’s the latest food processor, immersion blender, air fryer, chopper or avocado slicer, I have to buy it and try it. But on a recent trip to Tuscany, where my family rented a house instead of staying in a hotel, such equipment was absent. While the home’s kitchen and proximity to a farmers market gave us the ability to cook together as a family — a dream come true for a nutritionist, mom and heartfelt foodie like me — I had to come up with ways to use a limited number of tools for a variety of culinary chores. Here are seven everyday items other nutrition pros and I have learned to transform:
[See: 7 Kitchen Items You Need to Replace to Protect Your Health.]
1. A Tea Kettle
My family agreed that when we were in Italy, we needed to make paninis. So, off to town we went to gather the best thick Tuscan bread, juicy tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, olive oil, balsamic glaze and chicken to grill. Paired with a perfect bottle of Brunello di Montalcino (yes, my kids are all of drinking age), we were each assigned a task to help put together the perfect sandwich. Once we realized we didn’t have a panini press, we filled the tea kettle with water and voila! A makeshift panini press evolved — and the kettle was even easier to clean than a panini press.
[See: How to Make a Healthy, Tasty Sandwich.]
2. A Brick
Amanda Haas, a cookbook author and culinary director at Williams-Sonoma, also loves gadgets, but she doesn’t have any space left in her kitchen. To act as a panini press or bacon press, she wraps a brick with aluminum foil as a solid weight to accomplish the same task.
3. Dental Floss
Jackie Newgent, a registered dietitian, culinary nutritionist and author of “The All-Natural Diabetes Cookbook,” has used dental floss as a soft cheese cutter (and occasional cake slicer) to replace a knife. Newgent first started doing this before she owned “real” knives and, in some cases, she claims, the method can actually work better. Although her array of equipment has expanded over the years, she still occasionally relies of the dental floss trick. I wonder if mint-flavored floss would add some flavor, too?
4. Parsley
Registered dietitian and award-winning cookbook author Ellie Krieger, who hosts “Ellie’s Real Good Food” on public television, was at a rental house where she planned to grill a batch of vegetables and chicken. “I usually brush them with oil before grilling, but I had no pastry brush, so I grabbed a small bunch of parsley, held it by the stem and used the leaves as a brush,” she says. What a great idea to have a brush you not only don’t have to wash, but that you can also eat when you’re finished using it!
5. A Plastic Bag and a Can
“Growing up, my mom always used a handheld chopper to chop or crush nuts for recipes,” says Amy Gorin, a registered dietitian and owner Amy Gorin Nutrition. But since she lives in the New York City area, where sprawling kitchen space is rare, she saves space by using a zip-top sandwich bag to chop foods. “I simply put them in there, seal the top and crush them with a can or whatever heavy item is sitting on my countertop,” Gorin says. (Word to the wise: I’ve tried this trick and, although it’s fast and easy, be sure you take care to release the air from the bag before sealing it or its contents could end up all over your kitchen.)
6. A Wine Bottle
When registered dietitian Mandy Enright, of the couples nutrition blog Nutrition Nuptials, broke her rolling pin a few years ago around the holidays, instead of dealing with the long lines in stores, she remembered a girlfriend who was excited to finally receive a rolling pin at her bridal shower to replace the wine bottle she had used for so many years. Enright followed suit. “I used an empty bottle so I could wash it and remove the label for easy rolling and to prevent sticking, but a full bottle would work just as well and provide some added weight if needed,” she says. If you really want to be a wine aficionado, try a tall and slender Bordeaux bottle, since the neck provides a comfortable handle while rolling, says Enright, who also suggests using a bottle at room temperature.
[See: 8 Dairy-Free Desserts.]
7. Two Pots
Registered dietitian Maggie Moon, author of forthcoming book “The MIND Diet” is not a fan of having lots of specific tools around that only serve one or two purposes. Instead, she likes to create her own gadgets that are just as effective and take up less space. She improvises a double boiler by placing a smaller pot inside of a larger one. “This works great for melting dark chocolate, which could be so welcoming for dipping beautiful long-stemmed strawberries in.” she says. Moon also peels ginger with a spoon instead of a peeler or paring knife — a safe tip for those of us who are kitchen klutzes.
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7 Genius Kitchen Gadget Hacks originally appeared on usnews.com
