Whether you’re churning out cakes, cookies and pies or casseroles, stews and stir-fries, you likely have a quality set of mixing bowls in your kitchen tool arsenal for meal prep. Indeed, large glass or stainless steel mixing bowls are critical for combining ingredients and/or holding ingredients while they’re waiting to go into the pot. But even the most varied sets of bowls usually start at 3 to 4 cups (0.75 to 1 quart) — a great size for melting a stick of butter in the microwave, but too large for making spice mixes.

That’s where the RSVP International Stainless Steel Prep Bowls come in. They are the perfect size for organizing your mise en place as you chop vegetables or for mixing spice mixes before you add them to the pot. Plus, they have tight-fitting lids that allow them to go from prep bowl to storage container in an instant.

In short, these Stainless Steel Prep Bowls are the cookware you didn’t know you were missing but won’t be able to live without. The best part: They’re only $27.

This set of four 1-cup bowls will make organizing ingredients and mixing spices a breeze. Each bowl comes with a tight-fitting lid perfect for transitioning from prep to storage.

I love my set of glass mixing bowls. I use at least one of them almost every day. That’s because, in my family, we try to make a home-cooked meal at least five nights a week — and our go-tos are usually one-pot suppers like pastas, curries and rice dishes filled with lots of veggies, all of which require chopping. Once I run out of room on my cutting board, I search for bowls to hold the chopped veggies until it’s their turn to go into the pot. This search usually ends with choosing ones that are too big and, thus, take up unnecessary room on my countertop. Or I use the bowls that are part of my dinnerware set, which I’d rather not dirty during food prep.

This is where the Stainless Steel Prep Bowls become invaluable. They’re just the right size to hold a chopped bell pepper or half of a large chopped onion, you can have a bunch of them on your counter at once and the wide rim makes it easy to pick up the bowl with one hand and toss the ingredients into your pot when it’s time. These bowls are also the perfect size for pre-mixing spices before adding them to a recipe, which is especially handy in dishes like stir-fry, which use lots of ingredients added in quick succession. Or maybe you’re hosting brunch and setting out different add-ins for pancakes or waffles. Fill these bowls with your blueberries, chocolate chips, nuts and more and line them up next to the stove or waffle maker for easy sprinkling.

When you’re finished cooking, the stainless steel makes them a cinch to clean (the bowls are dishwasher-safe) and they even come with lids (they are also dishwasher-safe) that allow them to double as storage containers if you need.

These Stainless Steel Prep Bowls (the set comes with four) will save you valuable countertop real estate while you’re cooking, allowing you to skip the too-big or too-breakable bowls in favor of housing your ingredients in compact, durable ones. They will also help you stay organized when you are mid-recipe and a child or dog comes running through the kitchen needing your attention. Finally, since the bowls are only one cup each, they nest snugly and take up hardly any space in your kitchen cabinets — the same goes for the lids.

Cooking can feel like a massive undertaking for some, but the right tools — especially those that will keep you and your kitchen organized and tidy — can turn cooking a family dinner from an overwhelming whirlwind to an effortless delight. These bowls are one such set of tools, and once you have them, you’ll be pulling them out on a daily or weekly basis. And at less than $30 for a set of four bowls and four lids, they’re well worth the price.

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