Surprising hacks and handy kitchen tools like yolk separators and dumpling molds that’ll take you by the hand and remind you that cooking can actually be FUN. Or if not fun, it can at least be very easy.
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Pack a nutritional breakfast without ever running late thanks to easy-peasy mason jar morning recipes. These literally take two minutes so your adulting will be over before you know it.
Check out even more from Bed Bath and Beyond for two-minute breakfast recipes!
End your struggles of dividing the whites from the yolk with an egg separator. It even cracks the egg open for you if you're one to usually drop shells into your recipes (so no excuses now).
Promising review: "I love to make cakes, but I am terrible at separating the egg whites. I'm really pleased with this eggs cracker. It works really well! I just couldn't crack an egg without making a mess. Now it's no problem. Great product!" —wendy
Get it from Amazon for $12.99 or a similar product from Walmart for $19.99.
Don't *strain* yourself when it comes to making pasta. Use this colander and bowl set that fits perfectly together (hello, storage solutions) and will help you avoid messes. All you need to do is boil water and eat — I BELIEVE in you.
Plus, the bowl has a silicone bottom to ensure it will stay put.
Get it from the Tasty Collection at Walmart for $12.44.
Speaking of messes, say farewell to bell pepper seeds taking over your counter and your evening (HOW AM I STILL CLEANING THESE UP?!). Cut ~around~ the middle so that everything remains nice and compact — and will end up in the garbage faster than your food is in your mouth.
Check out more from Gimme Some Oven for four easy yet life-changing ways to cut bell peppers!
Fret not if your precious avocado is still too unripe to use. Just wrap 'er in foil and pop it in the oven for ten minutes — that's about the length of three commercials a.k.a. you won't even notice.
If you don't finish your favorite snack, preserve it with an avocado holder ($4.70 on Amazon). Check out a BuzzFeeder's review on how she became a believer in this hack!
Gyan Yankovich / BuzzFeed
Conquer deceptively easy meals like dumplings and ravioli with a stainless steel mold specially made for these recipes. All you need to do is buy the dough (you're not making it, let's be real), and stuff the middle with a filler. And, well, cook it, but this will do all the hard work.
Promising review: "This is perfect for making ravioli! I returned my big, fancy KitchenAid ravioli maker and bought this one and all the frustration went out the window. This is so much simpler and it works easily (with no waste)."—Jay Tee
Get it from Amazon for $12.99 or a similar product from Walmart for $9.99.
Master the extremely simple art of scrambled eggs that only require TWO ingredients: butter and, um, eggs. Now you'll always have an easy go-to, even when you're feeling lazy!
Did I mention butter? And if you're feeling fancy, add a dash of pepper (unless that sends you over the edge).
Check out more Tasty 101 for the basics of cooking eggs!
~Cut~ painstaking prep sessions in half by using a pair of five-blade stainless steel scissors to efficiently cut greens and herbs. You can even do this while watching Netflix, because it requires exactly zero thought.
Plus they're dishwasher safe, because this is here to make your life easy!
Promising review: "These scissors are the best tool ever! Instead of chopping up my fresh herbs and scraping them into whatever dish I'm making, I just hold the herbs over the dish and clip away. It's fast, convenient, not messy, and has no fuss. In the morning, when I'm preparing a fresh salad to take to work, instead of having to drag out the knife and cutting board, I just snip the fresh basil into the salad!" —Amazon Customer
Get it from Amazon for $8.99 or a similar product from Walmart for $7.49.
Try some microwave meals if it's been a long day. Yes, it's fine. In fact, there are plenty of interesting and healthyish dishes that taste equally delicious when cooked this way. I really do believe you can handle putting things in a bowl and hitting buttons, don't you?
Check out more surprisingly tasty meals that are made for the microwave!
Taylor Miller / BuzzFeed
Squeeze out tiresome tasks like cutting and pressing lemons with a citrus sprayer, thanks to its time-saving screw design. Fewer dirty dishes + fun spritzing = happy you and happy stomach.
They come in two sizes: the smaller for things like lemons and limes, and a bigger one for fruits like grapefruit. All you need to do is insert their screw-like design, aim, and spray. They even come with a base so you can rest the fruit on the counter. And they're dishwasher-safe!
Promising review: "This actually works! Screw it into any citrus, and you have instant lemon, lime, or orange juice to spritz on whatever you want. Great item!" —Succotash
Get a two-pack from Amazon for $5.39 or a similar product from Walmart for $5.17.
Fear not the intimidating task of converting measurements. Rely on this handy chart for speeding up any attempts at math when using cookbooks (all I have is this tea spoon, ok Ina Garten?).
Get this illustration from Zazzle for $17.75.
Organize yourself before diving into a recipe with glass mixing bowls. You won't feel as frazzled when everything has its own place.
Not to mention the fact that they're clear makes it easy to track what the heck is going on! Plus, they're easily stackable (Who has cabinet room? Not I), have *handy* grips, and are microwave-, freezer-, and dishwasher-safe!
Get it from the Tasty collection at Walmart $17.44.
Minimize the amount of ingredients and manpower you need to put in when specifically cooking for one by planning ahead at the grocery store. Just one person means very, very little effort.
Be sure to check out some yummy and easy solo recipes like this microwavable Middle Eastern baked egg dish in spicy tomato sauce!
Lauren Volo via The Kitchn / Via thekitchn.com
Clean up your messes as you go along to avoid the dreaded aftermath of cooking by sweeping everything into a cupboard garbage bag holder. No more, "well I don't want to deal with scraps" — they're already gone, calm down.
Promising review: "I love this product, because I'm always chopping vegetables and cutting up meat. I would be making several trips to the trash. Now I'm able to make meal preps quickly, easily, and cleaner!" —Ellen Holcomb
Get it from Amazon for $6.99 or a similar product from Walmart for $9.99.
Dodge splattering by using a pair of non-stick silicone tongs that have their own stands so food residue never touches your countertops. Even the messiest of us really can't screw this up!
They have silicone grips so nothing slips away while you're cooking and are dishwasher-safe!
Promising review: "These tongs are one of the best investments I've found for my kitchen in a very, very long time! I love the 'kick stand' feature which keeps my counter free from smears. I do a lot of pressure cooking of meats which makes it hard to remove the meat from the pressure cooker, because the meat tends to fall apart or away from the bone. These grip well, the silicone 'spoon' portion is a great size, and there is a substantial thickness of silicone on the 'spoon' portion. It feels like I have more control in handling foods. For storage, the locking mechanism is fantastic." —O. Sutherland
Get a two-pack from Amazon for $14.24 or a similar product from Walmart for $14.34.
Combine your ingredients onto a sheet pan for an extremely streamlined process — and choosing healthy ingredients comes naturally with this method! *Plops everything onto sheet*. *Leaves*.
Check out a bunch of recipes for incredibly easy sheet pan meals!
Get a sheet pan from Amazon for $9.97.
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed
Escape unnecessary dirty dishes and messes while draining canned goods with an attachable strainer. Also, you'll just feel like you beat the system, which is pretty satisfying.
Not to mention it's dishwasher-safe!
Promising review: "What a clever little thing!! Now I don't have to drain my tuna over the tin lid (messy) or dirty a sieve to get perfectly-drained tuna. For the cost, it's well worth your investment!" —javajunkie
Get it from Amazon for $4.38 or from Walmart for $6.03.
Inspire yourself to "barbecue" even in colder weather with a ceramic non-stick grill pan. Its ridged cooking surface will simulate warmer days of burgers and other summer dishes (with equally tasty results!). Frozen pizza can't do that.
Plus, its heavy-gauge forged aluminum evenly distributes heat for fast and even cooking, while its surface allows fat and grease to move away from the food.
Get it from the Tasty Collection at Walmart for $24.88.
Keep things moving as you cook (without giving up) with a stainless steel food scooper. It'll avoid wasting food and help speed things up when you don't need to keep picking up chopped vegetables a little at a time.
Btw, its grippy handle is convenient for both righties *and* lefties! Plus its edge is thin enough to scrape up things like shallots (which, as we know, are super annoying to transfer). AND it's dishwasher safe.
Promising review: "I absolutely LOVE this bench scraper. I am a pastry chef and I use this literally every day. The handle is somewhat cushioned and feels nice in your hand and the edge is slightly tapered so it has some good cutting ability. It picks up quite a bit of product off your work table to put in a bowl, mixer, or the trash. Anyone at work that borrows it, loves it! This is a keeper." —Chrysta
Get it from Amazon or Walmart for $7.99.
Plan ahead and know when you need to start marinating your meat — it's a lot worse when you're hungry and realize you forgot this step!
Check out even more info for everything you need to know about marinating!
*Slice* the painful process of cutting tough foods like sweet potatoes in half with a vegetable mandolin. No more ruing the lack of our upper body strength (or taking a 30 minute break).
The knob handle is adjustable to the vegetable you need to chop! All you need to do is guide the knob down the mandolin, and it'll take care of the rest! You can choose from 0mm to 9mm slice thickness, 4.5mm, or 9mm Julienne strip.
Promising review: "I love this mandolin. Our household is mainly vegetarian, and this mandolin has come in so handy. It's a kitchen tool we use every single day. I've owned other mandolins, and I prefer this one over other models because of how easy it is to use. During the holidays, we had 30 people over for breakfast and decided to slice potatoes, which took all of five minutes or less for a group of this size. It's a great product!" —C. Bhakti
Get it from Amazon for $24.95 or a similar product from Walmart for $25.19.
Feel fancy while also doing the bare minimum when you cook everything directly into a pre-seasoned cast iron skillet. You can humblebrag on Instagram, and totally forget to mention that you literally dumped all the ingredients in one place.
Check out some thankfully easy one-and-done cast iron recipes like this chipotle bbq chicken cast iron skillet pizza!
Promising review: "This is one of the best purchases ever! It can make a great amount of food in one sitting. It is heavy and durable like I wanted it to be." —Glo
Get it from Amazon for $19.83.
Protect your stovetop from pesky crumbs and spills with non-stick gas range covers. Don't worry, your kitchen will still look completely untouched, as usual.
They're pre-cut (10.6’’x 10.6’’) and can resist temperatures of up to 500° Fahrenheit!
Promising review: "Why didn’t I find these sooner?! My stove has definitely been so much easier to keep clean with these burner protectors. I highly recommend these, especially if you like to make stews that take a while and might spill. I'm very happy with my purchase." —JenJen
Get a four-pack from Amazon for $10.99 or a similar eight-pack from Walmart for $12.99.
Ensure that your efforts don't go unnoticed when entertaining by creating pretty presentations — you're essentially mimicking professional cooking (but way easier).
Because doing more than calling the Chinese restaurant better come with a hell of a lot of compliments.
Check out more from Bed Bath and Beyond on how to become the host with the most!
Cry only from happiness when cutting onions when you finally chop even pieces, thanks to a vegetable holder that guides your slicing.
This can also help proportion potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggs! And the universal handle makes this task easy for both left- and right-handed people.
Promising review: "This makes slicing so much easier. Not only is it easier to slice onions and veggies with it, but it also holds the slices in place so that you can dice them if you want to. I'm very glad to have it — it takes away the apprehensive feeling and frustration when slicing hard veggies." —Lady of the Lake
Get it from Amazon for $12.96 or a similar product from Walmart for $5.48.
Measure out your ingredients accurately with a digital scale so you don't waste food (for future meals) and can skip going back and forth between different measuring spoons. This will feel like a lot less effort.
It can weigh both liquid and dry ingredients up to an15 pounds and features an easy-to-read display screen that can show measurements in liquid (fl oz, ml) and dry ingredients (g, oz, lb + oz.).
Promising review: "I couldn't live without this scale. I have two of them. My husband and I are obsessed. We weigh things instead of using measuring spoon and measuring cups. It's so easy and way less messy! It's a nice sleek design, and it gives you every type of measurement you could want." —Princess
Get it from Amazon for $30.17 (available in 17 colors) or Escali for $59.95.
Don't *steam* over how long it normally takes to make rice. Instead, turn to a microwave rice cooker that'll pressure your food to be ready much faster. Feel free to watch eagerly.
It features an 11-cup capacity and rice paddle, and is dishwasher-safe!
Promising review: "This little microwaveable rice cooker is super easy to use and makes making rice a breeze. For the longest time, I used the traditional rice cooker and it worked great, but it just took way too long to make rice —almost 45 minutes. This rice cooker does it in half that time, so i's super convenient." —randstarr
Get it from Amazon for $17.64 or a similar product from Walmart for $5.97.
And if you still need some motivation, just watch some "Ratatouille."
The reviews for this post have been edited for length and clarity.
Pixar Animation Studios
Check out the entire collection of Tasty kitchenware at Walmart!
Tasty
via BuzzFeed/Food