The simple way to wean your baby (Sainsbury's Basics Hand Blender)

Member Name: abbadabbado

Product:	Sainsbury's Basics Hand Blender
Date:	20/08/09 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap

Disadvantages: no attachments

When my now toddler was at weaning stage, I was determined to make all my own meals for her rather than buying jars. To be able to blend all the food down to mush, I knew I was going to need a hand blender.
Sainsburys seems to be my best friend when I need new things, although it could be the fact that the supermarket is the nearest to me. There wasn't a lot of choice when I went to buy my blender so I resorted to picking up their basics range one and paying only £3.99 for it. Two years on and it not retails for £4.89, but even so, under a fiver you can't seem to go wrong with these little electrical gadgets.

The blender comes in a small box with just the one unit and a plastic section for wall mounting if that's what you want to do. Personally I chose to store mine in the cupboard for space saving means but it's easy enough to attach to the wall. I'm not sure I can find enough tile free space in my kitchen if I tried.
The unit itself comes apart into two for cleaning by a simple twist about three quarters of the way down. This enables the blades to be removed along with the base section of plastic. The blades are tucked neatly inside a plastic casing, so unless you actually put your fingers inside then you shouldn't cut yourself very easily.
Surrounding the blades within the plastic are little gaps which enable any food being whizzed to be able to move out of the immediate area and let the air flow attract more food and whizz it back out again. I do find that if you are blending larger lumps or stodgy foods then this area is a magnet for attracting blockages. When this happens you just need to remove the obstruction with a wooden spoon or similar item and start again. It doesn't then generally take too long to blend the food down.

Using the blender is fairly easy. It seems to fit comfortably in my hand, but I wouldn't want to hold it for too long in one go as I think the small neck would become uncomfortable for larger hands. There are two speed buttons which need to be pressed downwards to enable to blender to work. It's basically a fast and a slow, but to be honest I usually always pulse the buttons as I find this works better.
If you position your hand the wrong way round for the buttons, this can be slightly uncomfortable trying to press into the button with your thumb. It's better to have the buttons in your general thumb area when holding the unit.

The cord on the blender is a decent length and I find this is easier than having a short cord. It doesn't get in the way the same way that the whisk does, in fact gives you more room for movement if you're blending in a small area.
You won't get any fancy extras with this blender such as jug or attachments; it really is just the unit and the wall mounting. I don't find this makes the blender any less of a unit compared to others that I have used in the past. I wanted this to do a job of blending baby food and it served me really well in that purpose.
Since we have moved on from baby food, I still use the blender on lots of occasions, for example when I need to make passata and am using chopped tomatoes. I would use this for puree rather than chopping as I don't think the blender is capable of just doing half a job without going too far.

Overall this is a little bargain machine and if you need one but don't want to spend too much then I would highly recommend this unit.

Summary: a great budget blender