The Best Kitchen Gadgets to Make Cooking Weeknight Dinners So Much Easier

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Cooking can be a creative outlet, a way of showing affection, and a way to take control of your health. But cooking can also be stressful and time-consuming, especially on a weeknight when you're already exhausted from a long day at work and you've got a hungry family (or just yourself) to feed. Ordering in is always tempting, but that gets expensive and can have an adverse impact on your waistline.

You might already have some of the more obvious and established time-saving appliances in your kitchen, but you can always shave a few more minutes and adrenaline spikes off your nightly cook. These kitchen gadgets will make cooking weeknight dinners easier no matter what the menu looks like.

Snap-on strainers prevent you from dumping pasta in the sink

If you have ever had a weeknight dinner go off the rails due to a pot of pasta accidentally dumped in the sink during a straining misadventure, know that snap-on strainers exist. Just pop one onto your pot, and you can easily strain without worrying about the dreaded dump out (or a fourth-degree burn from pasta water). These strainers are flexible and will fit just about any pot or pan you need to strain out of.

An automatic pot stirrer will stir while you finish other tasks

Cooking is often a series of dull, repetitive tasks, and sometimes those tasks need to be performed simultaneously—so why not at least outsource all that pot stirring? This battery-operated device does just what it says: You place it in your pot or pan, press the button, and it stirs anything that needs it while you go and live your life (or chop vegetables).

"Souper Cubes" help you better portion food to freeze for later

Here's a mistake I make over and over again when prepping sauces, stock, or soup for future dinners: I forget to divide it up before I pop it in the freezer. When it's time to make that weekday dinner, I have plenty of pre-made sauce—or, rather, I have too much of it, and I either defrost the whole bit and waste some or try hacking off a piece. Enter: Souper Cubes. These are like ice cube trays for food, and make it easy to freeze precise amounts of prepped or leftover food.

Oven guards protect your hands from hot racks

Anyone who cooks regularly has the minor wounds and scars to show for it—including the tell-tale burns from hurriedly grabbing stuff from a hot oven. Oven rack guards allow you to throw caution to the wind when pulling trays out of a crowded oven, even when reaching into a lower rack or grabbing something that's migrated to the rear of the oven.

A self-stirring cooker lets you outsource most of the meal's work

If an automated pot stirrer is cool, a cooker that also stirs itself is even cooler. If your life goals include being able to make dinner every night while somehow doing other things, this is the kitchen appliance you need. It can cook a wide range of meals more or less on its own, and will stir meals automatically. Just load up your ingredients, set your parameters, and walk away.

An automatic can opener saves time and effort

Cooking using canned ingredients is nothing to be ashamed of, but opening all those cans can be a chore that keeps you away from other cooking tasks. Enter the automatic can opener—just pop it on a can, press the button, and let it do its thing while you do literally anything more useful with your time.

A warming mat will keep everything hot for you

If your dinner plans involve more than one dish, you know the stress of being on the clock when something is ready long before the rest of the meal. Serving up cold sides or sauces is no fun, so a warming mat like this is the answer. Just place dishes on it as they're ready and keep working on the balance of the meal, and everything will still be piping hot by the time you're ready to sit down.

A divided skillet lets you cook multiple things at once

We've all been there: You need to fry up several different things, but you only have one skillet. Your choice is to desperately cook and put aside each portion of the meal, or get yourself a divided non-stick skillet that makes it easy to cook several things simultaneously, speeding up your dinner process and ensuring that everything hits the table hot and ready.

A "Thaw Claw" can speed up your defrosting process

If you're like me and you consistently forget to plan ahead when it comes to thawing out frozen ingredients ahead of time, you also know the struggle of trying to speed up the process. Submerging frozen meat in cold water is a proven way of speeding up the thawing process—unless your frozen goods just float to the surface. Enter the Thaw Claw, a simple device that clamps your frozen food to the bottom of your sink or bowl so it can defrost more quickly and effectively.

Digital measuring spoons save you time on measuring

Saving time when cooking dinner is all about accumulating small wins. The time spent weighing and measuring all the ingredients for your meal adds up, so having a digital measuring spoon can make the process faster and more efficient, since you won't have to place anything on a scale, adjust, and then use a separate implement to transfer it to your pots and skillets. Just measure as you scoop and keep moving.

"Fry Away" disposes of oil or grease more easily

Cleanup is part of the time and effort of any mid-week meal, and if you were tired before you started making dinner, you're not going to be less tired after eating. So make cleanup a little easier with Fry Away, which makes disposing of all that grease and oil a very simple process: Add some to hot oil or grease, let it cool, and then peel off the somewhat gross results and toss into the trash. Not having a jar of old oil sitting on the kitchen counter (or not calling a plumber to clean your drains if you're too lazy to have a jar of old oil on your kitchen counter) or needing to scrub away at a greasy pan? This is the way.