Hasta La Ideas

I’m always trying to eat healthily, some days I fail, and on others, I succeed. Eating healthy food also implies cooking healthy food. And that’s not always the easiest task. Especially since unhealthy food is just so damn accessible and yummy! It’s simply easier to opt for some junk for lunch. In an attempt to encourage a healthier diet, and help you eat better, we’ve curated a collection of kitchen appliances that makes healthy cooking easy and simple! From an electric bamboo food steamer to a smart fridge that helps you achieve portion control – these super cool kitchen appliances will help you achieve the health regime you’ve been dreaming of!

1. The Panasonic HomeCHEF 7-in-1 Compact Oven

The Panasonic HomeCHEF 7-in-1 Compact Oven has functions such as Steam and Steam Convection. These two promise healthier dishes since they’re able to preserve more nutrients compared to other cooking methods. That brings the number of functions to seven (hence the name), including Air Fry, Convection Bake, Slow Cook, Sanitize, and Ferment.

Why is it noteworthy?

The Panasonic HomeCHEF 7-in-1 Compact Oven is expanding its size and its features in order to also expand the number of healthy dishes one can prepare at home. Although it doesn’t completely remove the work that needs to be done to prepare these meals (not to mention the cleanup afterward), it tries to reduce the number of cooking appliances you have to juggle. It’s easy enough to downplay these conveniences, but ease-of-use and reducing the friction to get started go a long way in setting people on the right track to healthier living.

What we like

• The Steam and Steam Convection functions preserve more nutrients compared to other cooking methods

What we dislike

• Calling the HomeCHEF 7-in-1 “compact” might be a bit of a stretch, at least when compared to its siblings. This newest addition to the lineup is larger to accommodate the more spacious 20L capacity and bigger 800ml water tank

2. The Bamboo Food Steamer

Compared to traditional bamboo steamers, this product is cleaner, more portable, and easily accessible for consumers who are less familiar with Chinese culture and cooking techniques. The steamer seems very-user friendly, as it only has one control: a circular LED timer. Simply plug in the device, set your timer- no extra on/off switch needed. These small touches make the Bamboo Food Steamer the easiest purchase you could make in order to support healthy and environmentally-sustainable choices.

Why is it noteworthy?

But what is the advantage of using the Bamboo Food Steamer? First off, bamboo steamers have been a staple in Chinese cuisine for over 5,000 years. They consist of stackable layers with slatted bottoms, making it possible to cook multiple items simultaneously. The bamboo also absorbs excess steam, which keeps vegetables from becoming too soggy. As a bonus: the Bamboo Food Steamer promotes environmentally-friendly practices in addition to healthy eating because, unlike trees, bamboo stalks grow back after being cut and require minimal effort from their farmers.

What we like

Encourages steaming of food – one of the healthiest methods of cooking

Promotes eco-friendly practices as its made from bamboo

What we dislike

No complaints!

3. The Fresh Fridge

Ditching trendy diets for mindful eating, the Fresh Fridge designed by Tati Feruccio is paired with an array of technical features that encourage a health-conscious lifestyle. The Fresh Fridge is a sort of smart refrigerator that analyzes each user’s distinct eating and health habits to portion out nutritious meals throughout the day. The main technical detail that stands out is the Fresh Fridge’s digital interface that’s located just above the small refrigerator.

Why is it noteworthy?

Broadcasting mindful facts and cooking recipes from its screen, the digital interface is like your own personal cooking show for various meals throughout the day. Just below the interface, allocated space for meal preparation feels intuitive and makes following along with recipes while chopping up produce items easier than ever before.

What we like

• Encourages mindful eating over trendy short-term diets
• An integrated digital interface

What we dislike

• We don’t know how well would the fridge’s analyzed portions work for everyone

4. STEAMIE

STEAMIE, designed and developed by award-winning Mindsailors Design Studio, reintroduces steam into mainstream cooking. Steam has a way of cooking food without diluting its flavor, giving you healthy food that’s rich in nutrients as well as packed with great taste. The tabletop appliance uses this power to help prepare food that’s both nutritious and tasty. The layered appliance houses a water bath below, and food (be it veggies or meat) is placed in perforated trays above.

Why is it noteworthy?

STEAMIE was created by Mindsailors, a Europe-based holistic design studio that designed and engineered the appliance around the technology developed by STEAMIE Ltd. The appliance comes with its own in-built scale that helps you measure your food before you cook it, and even has a bamboo-wood lid that doubles up as a cutting board for food prep. A frosted-acrylic food bowl helps you watch your meal be prepared, while an intuitive display on the front allows you to input and check preparation times, giving you unprecedented control over your food prep.

What we like

•  Uses a unique turbo convection method to rapidly steam-cook the food

What we dislike

• Bulky and heavy form

5. On2Cook

The idea behind On2Cook sounds so simple that you’d probably be left wondering why no one has thought of it before. It basically combines two of the most common methods of cooking, namely stove or induction stove, and microwave, to cut down on the time that food needs to cook. It offers the best of both worlds with almost no drawbacks, or at least that’s the premise.

Why is it noteworthy?

Conventional flame or induction cooking cooks the food from the bottom and outside, which leads to the familiar brown color that stove-cooked foods have. The microwave part, on the other hand, cooks from the top and starts from the inside, yielding in a more evenly cooked and often moist dish. This “Combination Cooking” technology also manages to retain the juices and nutrients better than either cooking method in isolation.

What we like

• Reduces power consumption
• Combines two common methods of cooking
• Promotes healthy eating

What we dislike

• Large bulky appliance
• Unsuitable for homes with space constraints
• Unsuitable for cooking certain dishes

6. Balance

Balance, a plant cultivator designed by Designer Dot, is designed for those of us who’d like access to a personal supply of fresh produce at home without the hassle of tending to a garden day-in, day-out.

Why is it noteworthy?

The pandemic proved that having access to your source of produce should be as commonplace as having access to clean drinking water. Still, the majority of us rely on grocery stores and delivery apps to get our produce and fresh greenery. While keeping our eyes peeled for buzz words like organic and local harvest is a personal choice, there’s no way of knowing exactly under what conditions and where our produce is harvested. When creating Balance, the team at Designer Dot sought to conceptualize an at-home plant cultivator that’s compact enough to fit into any modern kitchen and inconspicuous in its minimalist design to adapt to any interior design scheme.

What we like

• The drawers can be removed to allow ceiling height for taller plants to grow
•  Gives access to a personal supply of fresh produce at home

What we dislike

• Bulky form
• Cleaning all the different drawers could be a task

7. The Kefirko fermentation station

The Kefirko makes pickling easy, with a glass bottle that holds your veggies and brine, a weight to keep the veggies completely submerged, and an auto-burping mechanism that allows carbon dioxide to pass through a one-way-valve to release pressure. What’s more, the pickling jar even comes with a daytimer on the top that counts down the number of days you’ve kept your veggies to pickle. The one-of-a-kind fermentation station makes it ridiculously easy to pickle practically anything, from veggies to kimchi, or even some sauerkraut!

Why is it noteworthy?

The Kefirko fermentation station comes in two sizes, and with an easy-to-use setup that allows even the most amateur pickers to master the art of fermentation. The glass jar acts as an inert container, allowing the brine and veggies to ferment without reacting with the walls of the jar. To make sure the veggies are completely submerged in the brine (any air contact can ruin the pickling process), a spring-loaded glass weight helps press them down, creating a volume of air on the top that can easily be pumped out by pushing a button on the top of the lid. As CO2 builds up into the jar (a natural by-product of the fermentation process), one-way air-valves help ‘burp’ the jar too, by letting any extra air out to prevent too much pressure from building up inside.

What we like

• The features make pickling veggies extremely easy
• Each pickling jar even comes with its own handbook with over 25 recipes

What we dislike

No complaints!

8. Yumme

Designed to function primarily as an IoT household product, Yumme is a smart food tray that analyzes the nutrition facts and calories of each food item that makes up your meal.

Why is it noteworthy?

Conceptualized in three different forms, Yumme’s plate options vary depending on the user’s diet. The first tray comes with five different food compartments for users who’d like to explore the full spectrum of a balanced meal. Embedded sensors are located inside the food tray to analyze each meal’s contents. Split into two parts, Yumme’s top lid is made from Tritan, an eco-friendly and heat-resistant material, while its bottom module is coated in silicone to avoid slipping. Another food tray features only three compartments for users with a more limited diet. Finally, a third food tray split into two layers hosts compartments for four different food items and keeps a portable size to bring lunch with you on the go.

What we like

• Comes with an accompanying app that tracks and analyzes your every meal so you can always stay on top of your health
• You can connect with other Yumme users through the integrated social aspect of Yumme’s application

What we dislike

• It’s still a concept!

9. The AAVI

Street food is of course famous for its “cuisine” and culture but not so much for its hygiene. Having a small cart or place on the street doesn’t really give much space for cleaning and disinfecting as thoroughly as we would expect from an actual restaurant. The AAVI is a design concept that aims to make it easier for street food vendors to disinfect their plates and maybe even other utensils by utilizing the power of steam.

Why is it noteworthy?

At first glance, it actually looks like a lamp or a decorative device. But the design and functionality of the AAVI are actually based on the steamers that are used in dumplings and rice cakes. In fact, the designer says since it’s based on that, it can also be used in preparing dishes that need to be steamed.

What we like

• Makes street food more hygienic

What we dislike

• It’s a disinfecting and a cooking device, and we’re not sure if people would be comfortable seeing a device that does both

10. Nutrio

Designed by Germany-based Aurora Life Science, Nutrio takes the guesswork out of your diet. Sure, outwardly it looks like a cross between a cutting board and a cashier’s billing desk at the supermarket, but the Nutrio is in fact a comprehensive nutrition calculator that lets you measure your food in an absolutely new way. The chopping board comes with an entire host of sensors that can detect your food, weigh the food, and display all its nutritional information. Whether you’re using raw ingredients or even packaged products, Nutrio lets you scan your food, calculate your caloric and nutritional intake, and absolutely crush your diet because you’re much more aware of what you cook and eat.

Why is it noteworthy?

Nutrio comes with interchangeable wooden cutting boards that sit on its proprietary smart platform with a display. Sensors within the platform help Nutrio detect food, both unpackaged as well as packaged, and even through containers. Once a food item is scanned, just select it and let Nutrio know which meal it’s a part of. Then just use the large 43cm x 28 cm cutting board to prepare your food, whether it’s chopping, peeling, carving, de-boning, or portioning. The board’s waterproof design ensures the sensors don’t get affected by water, juices, gravies, or anything that may spill on it… and to keep your food prep clean and simple, interchangeable wooden boards let you easily snap off a dirty board and replace it with a cleaner one.WHat we like

What we like

• The board’s waterproof design ensures the sensors don’t get affected by water
• A 4mm thick anodized aluminum platform increases the longevity of the electronics within the Nutrio

What we dislike

• There’s a risk of becoming too calorie conscious

The post Top 10 kitchen appliances to help fitness lovers cook + eat healthier first appeared on Yanko Design.

Nestled in the coastal woods of Colonia, Casa ZGZ is a prefabricated, single-story cabin that’s clad in black to hide the modern home in plain sight.

Montevideo-based architecture firm iHouse constructs prefabricated homes using the latest dry construction methods currently trending on the international stage. With only 70 days to build a home for Conrado, an Uruguayan living in London, on his family’s property in Colonia, iHouse was well-equipped to take on the project. Formed by the merging of two modules, Casa ZGZ was constructed offsite and then installed on the family’s property in just five days.

Designer: iHouse

As Colonia is one of Uruguay’s oldest towns, the team behind Casa ZGZ hoped to maintain the spirit of the region’s historical architecture while contemporizing the cabin to accommodate modern needs. The single-level residence is clad in black in an effort to present hide the home in plain sight amongst the many elements of nature that surround it. The black exterior also warms up the home’s wooden interior, which is paneled with wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Speaking to this, the firm’s cofounders Marcelo Mederos and Andres Garcia explain, “The commission was to generate a rest home, cozy as are the small typical wooden cabins of the hemisphere where it resides, but in a contemporary enclave that can also withstand the vertiginousness of modern life and contemplate all the comforts of it, as well as rational use of resources trying to minimize the environmental impact.”

Minimizing the home’s impact on the region’s environment and land, Casa ZGZ was constructed offsite in two modules. Joined together by their longest side, one module houses the home’s wet services, including the bathrooms and kitchen. Then, the other module hosts the bedrooms and common spaces, like the dining area and living room.

Designed as an artificial structure that “coexists in harmony with a space alien to its language,” it was important for the architects to equip the home in close proximity to the nature that surrounds it. Comprising only one floor, Casa ZGZ finds space and height through an open floor layout and floor-to-ceiling window facades. Describing the creative choice for window facades, the cofounders explain, “The fully glazed main facade with a large gallery allows the total opening of each of the areas of the house, thus virtually expanding its area towards nature.”

The post This prefabricated modern cabin is clad in black and hidden in plain sight on Colonia’s coast first appeared on Yanko Design.

Clearly made for people who want more than just ‘coffee from a pod’.

Created to let you manually brew your own coffee, the Flair 58 is an espresso maker that requires a bit of elbow grease. A lever-operated design lets you physically ‘pump’ your espresso, while a pressure gauge lets you know whether you’re hitting the exact 9 bars needed to make a delightfully brewed cup. The Flair 58, as its name suggests, comes outfitted with an industry-standard 58mm portafilter, allowing you to use existing filters/tampers with your device. If you’re the kind of person to obsess over the coffee they drink (as are a lot of people), the Flair 58 is the perfect addition to your coffee-making ritual, giving you the ability to make a cup that’s as artisanal and fresh as it gets!

Designer: Flair Espresso

The beauty of the Flair 58 lies in its exquisite form. Given that the espresso-maker operates manually, its form is entirely informed by its function (unlike coffee makers that can look like monolithic blocks that just magically churn out your brew). The overall design of the Flair 58 is achieved by die-casting aluminum. It bestows what I can only describe is a wonderfully retro aesthetic to the device, which, coupled with wooden accents on the basket handle and lever, looks absolutely stunning. The aluminum, complete with a black anodized finish, withstands years upon years of constant and consistent use, so your coffee tastes stunning even a decade from when you buy the Flair 58.

Even though the Flair 58 is, for the most part, a manual device… it does come with a cable that plugs into a power outlet. This helps preheat your brewing chamber to the right temperature, because since metal is inherently conductive, pouring hot water into your brewing chamber can cause its temperature to instantly drop as the room-temperature stainless steel chamber ends up ‘leeching’ some of that heat away. The Flair 58 offers 3 temperature settings to choose from. Once the brewing chamber heats up to your desired temperature, you can pour hot water into it and be sure that your brew is exactly how you want it, and consistent every time.

Using the Flair 58 is intuitive, whether you’re a novice or an expert. Once you figure out how to pack your coffee in the portafilter basket, it’s just about lowering the Flair 58’s lever and watching the brewed coffee bubble through the filter and into your espresso cup. A pressure gauge lets you know how much force you’re exerting, and the gauge even lets you know what range you need to hit for just the right espresso. The Flair 58 lets you use any standard 58mm portafilter basket, tamping & distribution tools (especially effective if you already own a few), and cleaning up after brewing your espresso is just about the same as with any other espresso machine – just empty the coffee grounds out and rinse the basket and portafilter like you normally would!

The post This retro lever-operated espresso machine gives you a delightfully artisanal coffee-making experience first appeared on Yanko Design.

There are two different kinds of lamps in our homes. One type is to provide adequate lighting to actually do things, while another kind is meant to set the mood, often with a more relaxing atmosphere. The latter often employ different kinds of colors or intensities to contrast with the blaring brightness of typical fluorescent or LED bulbs. This lamp concept, however, tries for something a bit novel by using both an unusual shape and a slightly different material to create a more pleasant lighting effect to soothe your eyes and your mind.

Designer: Somya Chowdhary

Mood lamps and night lamps both try to calm your senses by flooding an area with a gentler glow. This is often done through filters or different hues, trying to exploit the psychology of colors to have that kind of effect. What most of them all have in common is that lamps themselves can be painful to look at directly because they still emit strong direct light, no matter the end result.

LAMPE tries to minimize the intensity of direct light by using a form that more effectively diffuses light right from the source. Instead of a simple shape like a cylinder, sphere, or even a block, the concept uses a hollow tube with a wide gap in the front. This creates an image of a candle that has melted off to one side and hollowed out its contents.

Just like the gentle light of a candle, this kind of structure is designed to better diffuse light that’s coming from the bottom of the lamp. That light source is also arranged in such a way that there is no single point where the light comes from and instead distributes it around the base. This makes the light easier on the eyes even when you’re looking at it directly.

LAMPE is also minimalist in how it can create different color effects simply by using different materials for its body. Just like how a candle’s light and color smoothly diffuse the further you go away from the light, LAMPE creates a more pleasing and comfortable aesthetic that is just as soothing as the natural light source that inspired it. It’s almost the perfect lighting decoration for a nightstand or shelf, but it can also go well on top of your workspace for those times when you want to just turn off all other lights and bathe in the lamp’s soothing glow.

The post LAMPE looks like a hollow candle to give you a softer, more comforting glow first appeared on Yanko Design.

The unmistakable (and hopeful) scent that emerges around springtime has long been traced to an organic source: the soil-based compound geosmin. Scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the John Innes Centre and Lund University have attributed the familiar yet often unplaceable smell—much like a rainy day or freshly turned earth—to a “symbiotic relationship between a six-legged worm, known as the springtail, and Streptomyces, a type of bacteria commonly found in soil,” according to Popular Mechanics. Moreover, the earthy odor of geosmin acts as a chemical signal guiding springtails toward Streptomyces, which is its necessary food source. Read more about the much appreciated annual scent and the process behind it at Popular Mechanics.

Image courtesy of The Spruce