Useful Kitchen Appliances and gadgets for easy Food Optimising

To lose weight with Slimming World, you don’t need to buy any fancy gadgets, appliances, or rely on shakes and tablets – instead you’ve got the ability to head to your local supermarket and purchase normal, everyday foods and turn them into nutritious and tasty food – which also helps you to slim down!

However, everyone is looking for ways to make life simpler – and we’re the same – therefore we conducted a simple poll in November 2014 to ask visitors to the website what would be their most recommended appliance or gadget for in the kitchen to make things a little easier.

Here’s the top 5 run down of products they recommended:

5: Pineapple corer

pineapple-corerIf you’ve never heard of these, you’ve just found your next gadget.

Cutting pineapples can be a difficult process, and a large amount is wasted by slicing the sides off, then slicing it into chunks afterwards, trying to avoid the hard parts of the core and the skin. A Pineapple corer is different – it cuts straight into the middle of the pineapple after you’ve chopped off the top, and then slides into the pineapple itself, missing the hard core and the skin.

Then, tip over and you’ve got a pineapple without the other bits. You can then easily slice or chop and enjoy.

Where to buy: Amazon seems to be one of the cheaper places, from £2.13 with free delivery.

4: Hand blender

handblenderEssential for creating soups, a hand blender is a great tool to have in the house ready for the winter season (or summer if you prefer cold soup!)

The great thing about hand blenders is the price, you can pick one up for around £5 from your local supermarket, and it doesn’t need to be a high tech one – some of our members actually recommend Tesco’s basics range for these as they’re so easy to replace if / when they ever give up on you.

Fancy some inspiration? Check out our soup recipes!

Where to buy: Your local supermarket, from around £5

3: Soup maker

A step forward from a standard hand blender, a soup maker is even easier as you just throw all your vegetables into the machine, press go, and wait. Then it will beep and you’ve got a warming soup all ready to go.

We’ve been trying the Morphy Richards Soupmaker over the past few months and love it. It really is as simple as putting your ingredients in and pressing go. Cleaning is simple too – just a rinse and wipe, and you’re done.

Here’s one of the company’s videos to explain exactly how it works, it looks and is about the same size as a kettle!

Where to buy: Amazon is stocking them for £39.99 with free delivery.
If you can’t wait for delivery, ASDA is next closest, at £41.99 in local stores.

2: Tefal Actifry (or similar)

actifryIf you haven’t already heard of ActiFry, you’ve probably no idea that the product is a great accessory for anyone who is starting or continuing on a weight loss journey – and want to enjoy foods such as chips along the way.

With Slimming World’s Food Optimising plan, you can enjoy as many Slimming World Chips as you like when using a Tefal ActiFry and by replacing the oil with Frylight.

Simply chop up your potatoes (Maris Piper are the best for this in my opinion…) and then spray with Frylight – adding any herbs or spices as you like. For me, it’s paprika – and then place into the ActiFry. Set to cook for 30 minutes and you’re done – healthy and tasty chips, ready in no time – and enough to feed a family!

Where to buy:

1: Slow Cooker

Something which was very popular in the 1970’s and 80’s has made a big comeback – it’s the Slow Cooker.

At one time, the idea that you could throw ingredients into an appliance, head out and then come home to a meal was seen as an extravagance, but now, it’s a reality and Slow Cookers are available in a variety of sizes (from individual to party-size) as well as bringing a host of colours and features.

But the basics are still there – they’re an incredibly energy efficient way to make a meal, and are said to be more efficient than using an oven for a hour. They can also save you money – cheap cuts of meat become tender after a long, slow cooking process, so they’re ideal for the slow cooker.

Winter time, they’re a great place to start for casseroles and stews – or even one Syn-free mulled wine!

Where to buy

This can be difficult to judge depending on what model you’re after, and the features you’d like. We found a selection on Amazon from £9.99 however the most expensive one was £240 (designed by the Netherton Foundry). Realistically, you’d be looking at less than £20 for a good one for the home, if you’re not thinking of a design statement. Head for a 3.5 litre one to feed up to 4 people.

Over to you

What do you think – comment below and provide your insight into the products featured above, or do you have another item you think should be listed?

SWStretford

SWStretford

SWStretford provides a range of information about the Slimming World plan. The webpage was previously where a local Slimming World Consultant in Stretford, Manchester would post updates.