My favorite kitchen gadget

Do you have a favorite kitchen gadget you can't live without?  I do!  This was one of those "as seen on TV" and it looked great!  So I waited for it to come to Bed, Bath & Beyond and used a $5.00 off coupon, making it $15.00.  Sure enough, it was as fabulous as they claimed!  And here it is!

It's the Chop Wizard!  I loathe cutting veggies in cubes with a knife and cutting board . . . even pretending I'm on Top Chef doesn't make it any easier.  But this makes the job fun!  We had a little boy from Uganda at Thanksgiving and he cut the celery and onions for our stuffing.  While he was working, he wished his mother had one of these too.

You'll want to cut your veggies in slices first.

It works best to do one slice at a time and then quickly do the rest.  You just take the top part on the right and slam down.  See how the potatoes are cubed now?  Sometimes I just cube these red potatoes, boil and add butter & parsley.  Love it!

It also has a measuring cup on the side so if your recipes call for a certain amount you can easily see how much you have.

One of my favorite things to do with this is to make salsa.  I chop the tomatoes with the largest grid and then the jalapenos and onions with the smallest.  All the juices remain in the bottom container.  YUM!

The Chop Wizard goes in the dishwasher and also comes with this comb-looking thing that cleans the top.  It's very easy.  I bet I use it most every day I cook, which I admit, is not that often, since it's just the hubs and me most of the time.  (I told him it's cheaper for 2 to eat out!)

I just bought 2 of these for wedding gifts.   I actually helped with an engagement party Saturday and knew I would probably help cut tomatoes and onions for the taco bar, so I included this as one of my gifts to the happy couple - knowing full well I would break it out and use it myself!  My friend makes the most awesome salsa and he had cut tomatoes for 1.5 hours.  He almost started to cry when he saw how fast and easy my Chop Wizard made the job.   I bet if I had 5 of these to sell I would have sold them all - and Laird would have probably paid a lot!

So that's mine, let me hear what your favorite kitchen gadget is!