Are you tired of frozen foods and restaurant meals? Home-cooked meals are healthier, more convenient and more sanitary. With these gadgets and some smart methods, home cooking can be faster and less effort than hitting the drive-thru.
Crockpots
A small crockpot lets you make effortless stews and soups. If you have two, you can keep a simple soup ready all the time in one: just add chicken stock and mushrooms. When you serve yourself soup, add some more mushrooms and stock to the crockpot. Buy fully-cooked frozen Chinese dumplings if you want protein. Toss them into the soup for ten minutes to warm them up.
A Sous Vide
This is a water bath, which holds a tub of water at an exact temperature. Foods are sealed in plastic and gently cooked, and then kept warm in the bath. Cooking times are extremely forgiving, flavors are kept inside, and cooking is energy efficient. You can make meals ahead, freeze them and then heat them up perfectly at your leisure.
Pressure Cooker
Today's pressure cookers are safe and cook homey comfort foods super fast. Toss carrots, potatoes, beef, and stock into the pressure cooker and you'll have stew before you know it. Spend a little extra and get a stainless steel model if you're concerned about aluminum.
The Fasta Pasta microwave pasta cooker
The fastest, most energy efficient way to cook pasta. You put the pasta in, add water, and nuke this great gadget in the microwave. No boiling a pot of water, no pulling out a colander. This thing does everything. Cook your pasta, then add canned spaghetti sauce, and you've got dinner. Endless variations are possible.
A fuzzy logic rice cooker
You can set this ahead and have hot oatmeal waiting for you when you wake up. To make jambalaya, simply put the uncooked rice in the machine but use chicken stock instead of water. Mix in some Cajun seasoning. Place frozen shrimp on top of the rice, add some frozen vegetables and set it to cook.
To purchase any of these gadgets on Amazon, click here . For easy, no-nonsense cooking methods, click here .
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/five-gadgets-that-make-home-cooking-faster-than-the-drive-thru?cid=roadrunner