11 Brilliant Ways Tech Can Make Cooking Easier

Cooking can be a hassle, but the right tech can make preparing dinner a delicious breeze. Here are some handy kitchen tools that culinary techies will love.

1. Plan your menus

Ditch the old recipe binder and keep track of your favorites with an incredibly helpful app. MealBoard is like a personal sous chef: It stores recipes, generates grocery lists, and even tells you when you’re running out of ingredients. The app can help you create meals and set prep reminders to help you create gourmet masterpieces every night.

Find it: MealBoard.com

2. Determine the nutrition content of your meals

The Orange Chef Co. Prep Pad, a unique scale that connects to your tablet, combined with the Countertop app tells you the details of everything you’re eating. The finely tuned gadget lets you add or remove ingredients until you find the healthiest possible meal. Simply plug in your dietary goals, and the scale will help you meet them.

Find it: Williams Sonoma

3. Keep your recipe in plain sight

Once you have your meals and recipes planned out, it’s helpful to be able to see them while you’re cooking. Keep your tablet visible at all times with this adjustable holder. It can mount to walls and counters, or it can work as a tabletop stand.

Find it: Amazon.com

4. Get rid of the need to touch your tablet at all

Cooking can be pretty messy, so it’s understandable if you want to keep your expensive gadgets out of the fray. Intel has teamed up with the Food Network to create a digital, camera-optimized cooking experience in which you will be able to use gesture control and voice commands to scroll through and explore RealSense-enabled Food Network recipes without getting flour all over your screen. It launches this April.

Coming soon: Intel

5. Slow cook on the go

With short prep times and long cooking times, slow cookers are ideal for people who don’t want to be chained to the kitchen. Crock Pot has models that make you even more independent: You can control them remotely from a smart phone or tablet. Using a special app, you can increase or lower the pot’s temperature. Now you won’t have to rush home to keep your food from over-cooking.

Find it: Crock Pot

6. Make coffee with your voice

This voice-activated coffee maker is perfect to help ease those hectic mornings. Simply press one button and then talk to set the brew time.

Find it: Hamilton Beach

7. Get the best ingredients

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell the ripeness of the produce you’re buying. To prevent yourself from buying fruits and vegetables that will spoil in a few days, download the Perfect Produce app. In addition to helping consumers get the best possible food, it also gives tips on the best way to store it. That way you won’t have to worry about extra trips to the grocery store.

Find it: SparkPeople.com

8. Grill perfectly

The T-Fal Optigrill takes the guesswork out of grilling. Perfect for anyone who doesn’t have space for a real grill, this gadget fits snugly on your countertop. It can grill anything from paninis to burgers, using sensors that ensure everything is cooked perfectly.

Find it: optigrill.t-falusa.com

9. Steam three courses at once

Fledgling chefs know it’s difficult to complete all the different parts of a meal at once. The Only Three Course Electric Steamer can cook three different foods at once at various temperatures, but finishes cooking all three at once. Now you can have all the sides you want without worrying about timing.

Find it: Hammacher.com

10. Find substitutions

If you ever run out of a vital ingredient while cooking, you can check your phone instead of running next door for a cup of sugar. Find Substitutions is a handy app that gives other options for ingredients when cooking. It comes with over a thousand different recipe alternatives, so you can tailor your meals to suit your needs.

Find it: Gormaya.com

11. Streamline your dinner party

Take your multi-course meal from the planning stages to the dinner table with the help of a 2 in 1 device. Once you find your favorite recipes on the web (we won’t tell your boss you were searching during office hours), convert your laptop to a tablet and take it right into the kitchen with you.

Find it: Intel

Whatever you’re cooking, Intel® RealSense™ technology is poised to make your kitchen smarter than ever before. Learn more here.