Friday Favorites

At one point some of my blogging friends did something called, Friday Favorites, where they would share about something that they loved.  Maybe just because I have something that I'm excited to share about, or the fact that I just needed something else to blog about, I have decided to bring back the Friday Favorites in hopes that others might do so as well! 

So, today I would like to tell you about something that has recently made my morning routine a bit easier.  I like to have a smoothie for breakfast in the morning. So, for years I've been getting out the big blender and fighting with it to get it to the right consistency.  When we registered for our wedding we chose a nice, moderately priced blender that had all the bells and whistles thinking that it would do the job.  It does pretty well with other things but it just couldn't handle the smoothie making.  I would love to say that we went out and bought a Vitamix, but we all know that I'm not going to pay $400 for a blender!  There was also the annoying mess that I had to hear about from my husband:)  I never had time to clean it before I went to work and then it was there when Erik got home to start dinner so he usually ended up having to clean it:) 

Well, recently I was reading on a blog about one lady's own problems with her blender and she showed all of the blenders she had gown through before choosing to buy one of those super expensive ones.  She was basically saying that with all the money she had spent she could have just bought a good one to begin with.  She showed an immersion blender and said that it was her second favorite way to make a smoothie.  So, when I was telling Erik about it he reminded me that we had an immersion blender.  A year and a half after getting married I am now using this nifty little gadget that I remember thinking was essential to register for.  Why have I not thought about this before?  Who knows?  But I sure am glad that I did.  It works so much better than a regular blender and actually blends everything up to the correct consistency!  The clean up is quick too!  All I have to do is rinse out the cup that I blended it and the end of the blender and I even have enough time to put it away before I go to work.  This makes my husband very happy:) 

So, my Friday Favorite is the Cuisinart Hand Blender.  It can do way more than just smoothies!  Erik has used it to make salsa before as well.  Now that I know how easy it is to use I'm sure I will be finding a lot more ways to use it!

What are some of your favorite kitchen gadgets?