Chapter 1

Here are some tools and gadgets our Test Kitchens crew and editors recommend for getting dinner on the table superfast. Armed with these handy equipment must-haves, you can cut down on your time in the kitchen and actually spend more time with the ones you love.

A blender is a necessity when making quick frozen beverages, sensational smoothies, and slushy drinks. If you make frozen beverages often, choose a blender with an ice-crushing mode.

The chef’s knife is the workhorse of the Cooking Light Test Kitchens. It’s ideal for chopping herbs, onions, garlic, fruits, and vegetables, and for cutting boneless meats, slicing and dicing, and general cutting tasks.

For the best flavor, fresh citrus juice can’t be beat. A citrus press is a quick and easy way to get a lot of juice from your fruit. To get the most juice, bring your fruit to room temperature before pressing it.

A food processor is a handy piece of equipment that can save time. Use the shredder blade to quickly shred vegetables such as potatoes and carrots.

A garlic press is a real timesaver. It crushes garlic right into your pan or bowl. You don’t even have to peel the clove.

Graters, whether handheld or box, are kitchen tools that speed up preparation time. Use the smaller holes for grating hard cheese or chocolate. For ingredients such as cheddar cheese or carrots, the largest holes work best.

A grill pan is a good alternative to a gas or charcoal grill. Meat and fish turn out juicy, with no need for added fat, and you save time by not having to heat up a traditional grill.

Keep kitchen shears on hand to mince small amounts of herbs, chop canned tomatoes, trim fat from meat and skin from poultry, and make slits in bread dough.

When it comes to finely grating foods, nothing works better or faster than a Microplane grater. It works great on everything from hard cheese and citrus fruits to chocolate.

While every kitchen needs these tools, we recommend at least two sets of each in a variety of sizes. With multiples, you’ll save time by not having to rinse in the middle of a recipe.

A panini press is great for making hot sandwiches quickly. You can find one at most kitchen stores.

A peeler removes the skin from vegetables and fruits, as well as the gnarled roots of fresh ginger. Select one with a comfortable grip and an eyer to remove potato eyes and other blemishes. It also makes quick work of shaving Parmesan cheese and curling chocolate.

Give your food a bit of pungent flavor with a quick turn of a peppermill for a sprinkle of cracked or freshly ground black pepper. It’s a gotta-have kitchen gadget for quick cooking.

An easy-to-use pitter is the perfect tool to easily remove olive and cherry pits.

Everyone needs a pizza cutter for cutting pizza. But it also works great for cutting toast, focaccia, and even pancakes or waffles.

Steaming vegetables helps them retain their water-soluble vitamins. It’s a quick and easy process, especially when you use a collapsible metal vegetable steamer. Using this tool will assist you in getting vegetable sides on your table in a flash.

Nutritional Analysis

How to Use It and Why

Glance at the end of any Cooking Light recipe, and you’ll see how committed we are to helping you make the best of today’s light cooking. With chefs, registered dietitians, home economists, and a computer system that analyzes every ingredient we use, Cooking Light gives you authoritative dietary detail like no other magazine. We go to such lengths so you can see how our recipes fit into your healthful eating plan. If you’re trying to lose weight, the calorie and fat figures will probably help most. But if you’re keeping a close eye on the sodium, cholesterol, and saturated fat in your diet, we provide those numbers, too. And because many women don’t get enough iron or calcium, we can help there, as well. Finally, there’s a fiber analysis for those of us who don’t get enough roughage.

Here’s a helpful guide to put our nutritional analysis numbers into perspective. Remember, one size doesn’t fit all, so take your lifestyle, age, and circumstances into consideration when determining your nutrition needs. For example, pregnant or breast-feeding women need more protein, calories, and calcium. And women older than 50 need 1,200mg of calcium daily, 200mg more than the amount recommended for younger women.

In Our Nutritional Analysis, We Use These Abbreviations:
sat	saturated fat
mono	monounsaturated fat
poly	polyunsaturated fat
CARB	carbohydrates
CHOL	cholesterol
CALC	calcium
g	gram
mg	milligram

Daily Nutrition Guide
	Women Ages 25 to 50	Women Over 50	Men Over 24
Calories	2,000	2,000 or less	2,700
Protein	50g	50g or less	63g
Fat	65g or less	65g or less	88g or less
Saturated Fat	20g or less	20g or less	27g or less
Carbohydrates	304g	304g	410g
Fiber	25g to 35g	25g to 35g	25g to 35g
Cholesterol	300mg or less	300mg or less	300mg or less
Iron	18mg	8mg	8mg
Sodium	2,300mg or less	1,500mg or less	2,300mg or less
Calcium	1,000mg	1,200mg	1,000mg

The nutritional values used in our calculations either come from The Food Processor, Version 8.9 (ESHA Research), or are provided by food manufacturers.