I splashed out last year when I was about to start weaning my boy and bought myself the Dualit handblender plus accessories. Previously I had a cheap plastic handblender which used to drive me crackers as when I tried to make soup, the casing used to warp in the heat, so I was determined that with the amount of use the blender was going to have, I was going to buy a quality piece of kit.

Like other Dualit products, the look of the product shouts quality. It has a lovely shiny heavy metal casing, which withstands even the hottest veggies and soups to whizz up.

The blender has a standard speed of between 9000rpm and 16,000 rpm (depending on how hard you push the button) and a pulse button for extra power up to 17,000 rpm. If like me, these figures don't mean anything, take it from me that it is very quick, and whizzes up veggies a real treat. As my boy has moved on from purees now, my blender's primary use is for soups and for smoothies - banana, blueberry and milk is my boy's favourite and is made in approx 20 seconds by my lovely blender.

When I purchased the blender I bought it with the accessories pack shown in the Dooyoo picture above - ie with the balloon whisk, blending beaters, chrome beaker and mini food processor - great for chopping up nuts or making breadcrumbs. As I have always managed without a full sized mixer or processor in the past, this has opened a whole new culinary world to me, and I can honestly say that I use it pretty much everyday.

The blender is easy to take apart and super quick and easy to clean (dishwasher safe!) - a priority for me, as I can never be bothered to use kitchen appliances that are supposed to make your life easy, but you end up spending forever cleaning them.

I spent around £65 for my blender last year, though I notice it seems to have increased by £10 to £75 in John Lewis now. This may seem a lot for a blender, but I have no doubt that it will be in pretty much daily use for years to come and I have confidence in the brand that it won't let me down.