Favorite Thing Friday: Food Processor

Today’s Favorite Thing Friday is truly one of my most favorite things that I use in my kitchen. It has so many functions and capabilities I’m not sure what I ever did before I owned my food processor.

I personally have the Cuisinart  Prep 11 Plus 11 Cup Food Processor. It comes with four different blades: stainless steel medium slicing disc, stainless steel shredding disc, metal dough blade and a chopping/mixing blade. I feel like I’m am continually finding new uses for it.

Here are the top eleven ways I use my food processor:

1. Shredding cheese – I can literally shred an entire block of cheese in under 30 seconds. Sounds like a party trick, right?? I love the texture so much more of freshly shredded cheese vs. pre-shredded bought from the store. And seriously, what is that white crap that they put on the pre-shredded cheese? Grosses me out!

2. Pureeing vegetables for making baby food – Super easy and you can make it super smooth for a younger baby, or leave it a little chunky for an older child.

3. Making salsa – I make this salsa almost every single week. After throwing everything in, it takes about 10 seconds to get the consistency I want.

4. Pureeing soups – I don’t have a great blender, so I use my food processor instead.

5. Making peanut butter – All natural no sugar added peanut butter can get pricey! That’s why I love to make my own. It is so simple to do and comes together in just minutes. Just add plain dry roasted peanuts to the bowl of the food processor. Put the lid on. Open the top part where you can pour in liquids. Add about 1/4 c. of an oil of your choice. Make sure it is a mild tasting oil. Start the food processor and watch the peanuts start becoming peanut butter. Add more oil if it looks to dry. Add a generous pinch of salt if desired. Let the food processor run until it is your desired consistency. SO easy!

6. Shredding potatoes for hash browns – beats the pre-frozen potatoes any day, and is cheaper just to shred them yourself.

7. Shredding carrots and zucchini – I shred a bunch at a time for soups or stir-fry and just freeze what I’m not using.

8. Shredding soap – I’ve started making my own laundry soap and liquid hand soap. Both require shredding a bar of soap, and I can do it in less than 30 seconds this way. Now before anyone freaks out and thinks its gross to shred soap in the same thing I use for food prep, I wash it EXTREMELY well after I shred the soap.

9. Slicing meat – We don’t eat a lot of deli meat in our house, but when the sticks of pepperoni are on sale for cheaper than the pre-sliced variety, I will slice my own. You definitely could slice lunch meat out of a chub of ham or turkey as well.

10. Making hummus – in the last year I’ve grown to love hummus, and it is so easy to make at home. Try this recipe for a basic hummus.

11. In place of a pastry cutter – when I am making a recipe that instructs me to use a pastry cutter to cut the butter in, I use the food processor instead. Not only can you do it quickly, but by using the pulse function you won’t take it too far and over process it.

If you don’t own a food processor you should. It will make your life in the kitchen so much more simple. If you have any great uses that I haven’t listed, be sure to leave them in the comments below.