Set up your kitchen for success

The kitchen is a vital part of the process that allows you to make good nutrition part of your life. 

You have full control of the ingredients, portion sizes, and cooking methods to ensure that your meals are not only delicious but also nourishing and healthful.

The Kitchen is the heart of our nutrition choices.

• Making it an area you enjoy going into can have a real positive shift in your outlook on nutrition and the cooking experience.

The perfect kitchen will look different for everyone depending on many things such as cooking style, how many people you are cooking for and the size of your kitchen. This starts with re-viewing your kitchen, ask yourself does this system work for me? And are there any changes I could make to improve my cooking experience? Such as moving your utensils closer to the hob. Are my ingredients close to where I cook?

Are things in order? Is there a system in place that will allow you to be effective in the preparation of food?

• Having a place for your chopping board

• Having a press for dry ingredients

• Having each shelf in your fridge for certain products e.g fresh veg / dairy products

All of these things allow for a more clear understanding of what you have available in your kitchen for dinner / lunch etc.

Having a kitchen that is well set up, with the right things in the right places, has an improvement in your efficiency, effectiveness, your enjoyment and the overall experience in the kitchen.

Ultimately it is about creating your own system that will work for you. When you step into the kitchen you are in an environment where you feel calm and relaxed. Every evening you are able to enjoy your ritual of preparing and enjoying nourishing meals.

Here are some apps that I have found helpful when re-organising my kitchen:

ARKitchen

ARKitchen is a free app that can help you design and customise your perfect kitchen. Whether you are renovating your kitchen or you simply want to re-organise your kitchen, this app allows you to add things like your kettle, chopping boards, knife rack etc. into your kitchen to see which layout best suits you. However, some items require you to pay before adding them into your kitchen such as utensils and fruit bowls. (Free on IOS and Android)

Room Planner

Room Planner is an app that allows you to plan the layout of your ideal kitchen without any additional costs on some kitchenware. This app also lets you plan an entire house, however, only one room is free and it asks for payment for a second room. So I would advise just using this for the kitchen. (Free on IOS and Android)

Tiktok

Tiktok is an app that can be used for many things, one of those things being inspiration for our kitchen. Search ‘Kitchen layout’ or ‘Kitchen organisation’ in the search tab for valuable ideas on how to improve your kitchen. Tiktok allows you to view the video while also getting information from the creator talking through-out the video and/or information from the caption below the video. (Free on IOS and Android)

Credited by Lisa McGee