Black & Decker H306 Food Processor: 1 & 1/2 Cup Capacity

I already have a big food processor for chopping up nuts for breads or pies, or to use on Holidays when I have to make a truckload of dressing. There was no way I was dragging that thing out though, for small everyday jobs like cutting up a bit of garlic or onion to go in a dish I'm preparing. I would go a couple of years where I would buy those very inexpensive, no name food choppers on Black Friday and since you "get what you pay for", they always burned out within months. I received a Black & Decker Food Processor as a Holiday gift 3 years ago, and it's been reliable and such a great help in the kitchen.

The Black and Decker H306 Food Processoris still available and easily found online and in few stores. It retails around $10 usually and has a 1.5 cup capacity. It's a small white food processor that has a single stainless steel blade which will dice your food, a clear plastic bowl and lid, and a small sheet of instructions. This unit came with a one year warranty which I never had to use, as well. It's also super small which is great for those that have limited space to store kitchen gadgets when not in use. Usually I keep most of my kitchen gadgets in the box stored away if they're not used often, but since this one has become a staple, I just leave a little space for it in my cabinet and tossed the box in the trash.

Using it is pretty simple. You place cut up chunks of vegetables (or whatever food) into the clear bowl, turn it and the lid into a locking position, and then plug the unit into an outlet. There is only one button and it works as the ON/PULSE button. You will need to hold down the button to get the machine to start pulsing the food you placed into it. It is recommended not to hold the button for longer than 30 seconds at a time and be careful of causing it to overheat. Depending on what food you are pulsing, that may be sufficient anyway. But it takes a few extra spins of the blade once you depress the button, so you may want to be wary of how fine the mixture is once you decide to stop pulsing. If it's at the brink of being too fine, those extra spins may make it so. One is able to see, thanks to the see-through bowl, the process and you can judge when the time is right to stop.

A great thing about this unit, and something I'm glad to see in any might-cut-your-finger-off gadget, is that it has a safety feature. If the lid and bowl are not aligned properly and completely locked, it will not work. So, if you have it set up and it does nothing, chances are it's not set up correctly. Cleanup is a breeze as well since you can place the bowl, blade, and lid into the dishwasher. The unit itself you can wipe off by hand.

I mostly use this for onion and celery. I do not care for the taste of onion and I absolutely refuse to eat anything with celery in it. Some of my daughter's favorite recipes however, include those so I am always having to pick through my plated food to remove those offensive ingredients. But with this processor, the bits of onion and celery pulse to really small morsels and blend in better with the other ingredients in the dish (instead of stand out in chunks), and I hardly taste them at all. I certainly do not crunch into them which has always made my skin crawl. It's been an invaluable tool in my kitchen for this alone.

I also have used it to chop eggs with other ingredients to make a blend for egg salad and it works well for that. I have never tried to use it with any hard foods like nuts mainly because it is so inexpensive that I worry about the quality. I don't want to risk breaking it.. It seems durable, but it seems like it's best built for softer foods or nothing much harder than a carrot chunk. Besides the foods I have mentioned ( as well as a few herbs ) I do not use it to process any other food. It's worked wonderfully for me, though, and so far it's lasted 3 years of using it 4-5 times a week. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that wants a small food processor that's inexpensive and is great for chopping /pulsing softer foods.