Presto 02970 Professional SaladShooter Electric Slicer/Shredder, Black,1 count

Living in a small apartment, I try to be selective about the gadgets that inhabit my kitchen. They have to be things that I use regularly and genuinely make my work in the kitchen easier. To that end, my "major" appliance-type purchases are a Vitaminx blender, and a stand mixer. The Vitamix let's me do a lot of prep-type work in it, I can do course chopping and such if I don't care if the pieces are uniform. Everything else, including shredding cheese, I'd been doing by hand. I cook a lot and we LOVE cheese (and don't like the wood pulp that they coat pre-shredded cheese in), and it was very time consuming. I'd been considering a food processor, but I didn't want the extra bowl to wash, and in part that would overlap with what my Vitamix does for me, so I didn't think that was necessary. After some research, I settled on a SaladShooter, and I couldn't be happier.Use:This thing shreds cheese like nobody's business. I take out a block of cheese, cut it into a few chunks and feed it through... and boom. a big pile of cheese. The shredder that comes with it is a larger shredder, I'm considering picking up another one for more fine shredding. This one is about the same size as the big bags of mozzarella that you can get at Walmart, the big thick shreds. Which is a great size for hashbrowns, too. I've shredded everything from hard Parmesan to cheddar to room temperature mozzarella with no problems (which is almost impossible by hand), though I'd really recommend against using warm mozz - it does a much better job when it's cold, of course. It does get thin slices of unshredded cheese stuck around the shredding cone, but this happens when you shred it by hand, too, and I think it gets more of the cheese shredded than doing it by hand does anyway.We use a lot of shredded cheese, so after I go grocery shopping I just get this thing out, shred a few blocks, divide it up into 1 cup sections in a freezer sandwich bag, label, and stick in the freezer. Usually use some right there to make mac and cheese sauce to freeze, and that cuts down meal prep and dishes for later.The other cones are great for slicing sweet or regular potatoes or zucchini for roasted or fried potatoes, slice cucumbers for salads or sandwiches, slicing fruit or veggies to dehydrate (Homemade apple chips? Amazing!), shredding broccoli stems and cabbage for slaw, etc.Clean up:There are inevitably some unshredded/unsliced bits that get stuck in and around the cone and in the little plastic divots and locking ring. I just take the ring off, slide the cone out, wipe all the leftover bits with a damp paper towel. then the cone and locking ring goes into the dishwasher, and I clean the body with a soapy cloth. Fast and very simple.Misc. comments:I do wish that it had some sort of storage case to keep all the cones and parts together. The cones keep getting separated as I move things about in my cabinets. I probably need to just start keeping it all in a big tupperware container or something.Always always always unplug the unit before taking the cone out. The on/off button sticks out a bit from handle, and is on the opposite side from the cone and I once got to talking and got careless while I was starting to change it and bumped the button against a nearby bowl on my counter, turning the unit on. Luckily I hadn't removed the ring yet, but it was a good reminder on kitchen safety.It's a bit on the loud side, but worth the noise, in my opinion.The thin slice cone is grey, making it easy to tell apart from the thick slice one, which is nice.The shape (long and relatively thin) allows me to choose whether to store it sideways in a drawer or upright in a cabinet - great for small kitchens.Purely cosmetic, I know, but I wish it came in black, every other appliance in my kitchen is black and this stands out like a sore thumb.Overall, I couldn't be happier with this purchase. It fills the exact need that I'd been missing, saves me SO much time in the kitchen, is effective and easy to clean.

I've been trying to incorporate more whole foods in our meals. However, slicing up tons of veggies can be quite time consuming. I ordered the Presto 02970 Salad Shooter a few days ago, received it with free 2-day shipping (thank you PRIME!), and couldn't wait to rip it out of the box and get started. I started with some small, English cucumbers. I was able to put about 3 in the chute at once. I used the thinnest slicing attachment and got super-thin, almost paper-thin slices for a dish. Used the larger size slicer for the onions to get those a bit thicker. All of this was done in a matter of one minute or less! Took longer to wash and slice the ends off the veggies than the actual Salad Shooter took to slice them. So this dish that would normally take me 10+ minutes to make, took only 2 from start to finish! WOW! The Salad Shooter just shot them right onto a plate. Kinda fun to use, actually!Next, I moved on to slicing some beets super thin to make beet chips baked in the oven. Amazing! This gadget worked SO GREAT! I cut the large beet into 3 long chunks and sliced up enough beet chips for a party in less than a minute. Can't wait to try it on other fruits/veggies to make healthy, homemade snacks.The slicer/grater blade holder turns and comes off so easily. I just rinsed mine under warm water with a drop of dish soap. Came clean without any scrubbing. I'm sure you'd need a little more work to get the grater clean if you used it with cheese, but with fruits and veggies, it just rinses clean. The motor section should be fairly difficult to get dirty, but is easy to just wipe clean. The power cord is plenty long, too. Perfect length without being in the way.I haven't tried the cheese grater yet, since I just received the Salad Shooter yesterday, but I know others have said it works beautifully for that. Can't wait to try that out, too.I have started a little gardening. I hope to be able to use this gadget to help me can and preserve the fruits (and veggies) of my labor!One bonus that I want to tell everyone about is that you can get this Salad Shooter for almost half the price of the regular one by going to the Warehouse Deals. There's even a link on the description page for this one. I was able to get it super cheap. There is another version of the Salad Shooter, but with fewer attachments. I would go ahead and get the 02970 model just so you have everything you'll need and won't regret not getting the extra attachments.