Kitchen Essentials

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Things that I find essential in my kitchen:

1. A good chef's knife.
In the world of WeightWatchers, you're (hopefully) going to be eating a lot of vegetables. Chopping them with a less than stellar knife can be frustrating! A good chef's knife should cut through most veggies very easily.

2. A good cutting board or prep table.
The last thing you want is nowhere to cut up your vegetables or prepare your food. I personally have two cutting boards - one large wooden one, and a smaller, plastic one. Both come in handy, especially in a kitchen like mine (aka, VERY TINY).

3. PAM Olive Oil cooking spray
I use this stuff for almost everything. Nearly everything that I cook in a skillet gets a spray of this beforehand. Not only is it (close to) zero calories, it also gives you a nice even coating of olive oil. PAM also makes sprays for grilling and baking, too.

4. A food scale.
I measure EVERYTHING. In my experience, the moment you start to estimate is the moment you start eating extra points. Even if you're actually underestimating, is it worth the stress of not knowing for sure? I don't think so (and yeah, maybe I'm crazy, but I DO stress about that stuff =P). I love my WW scale. It's $40 from the online WW store and worth every penny. Not only does it measure grams and ounces, but it stores basic foods in it's memory bank. I can put a bowl on the scale, zero the scale, type in "grapes" and then start putting my grapes in the bowl. One point..... two points..... three points! Stop! It will know how many ounces of grapes are how many points, so you can easily see how many points you're eating. REALLY convenient.

5. Other measuring essentials!
I'm talking about tablespoons, teaspoons, liquid measuring cups, dry measuring cups - all of the above. When in doubt, measure!

What about you guys - what essentials do you have in your kitchen?