My kids love the Kitchen Aid. If you want a nut grinder, I think they are available on the market. I use my food processor to chop nuts.

I love, love, love my Ninja. I bought a set that included a food processor and a blender and I actually use the processor most often.

The blender came with bullet cups for small things and I use those to make smoothies and to crush spices like mustard seeds, cumin seeds, pepper corns, chop nuts, etc. When I make a smoothie with ice, it does a fantastic job of pulverizing the ice cubes. I never found so much as a tiny piece of ice in my smoothies.

The food processor came with a dough hook attachment and that has pretty much eliminated kneading from my life unless it's a huge batch of dough. In that case, I usually divide the dough so that it will fit in the container and process it that way.

It's also very easy to clean. Most of the parts are dishwasher safe and there are no nooks or crannies where bits of food can hide.

A couple of years ago, I got a little kitchen aid mini chopper for next to nothing as a promotional “thing” at Bed Bath and Beyond. I stuck it on a shelf and never used it until last month when I had to chop up some pecans for Thanksgiving. It chopped them up to the perfect size and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to work with.

I have a Kitchenaid theme in my kitchen. I have the stand mixer, counter depth frig, dishwasher & convection double ovens. Yes....I LOVE my Kitchenaid blender. I've had it for years. Mine is silver: $49 This is a GREAT BUY!

But....honestly, I chop nuts with a knife. When I was a kid we had a hand crank chopper we loved.

i have a Vitamix and use it daily.

i don't think i used it for nuts but it purees the seeds on raspberries so i would assume nuts would not be a problem.? you can always call them, they have great customer service and they should be able to answer any questions.

Good Luck :)

I have a Vitamix too and love it. I love that little hand chopper shown above. That was my chore in the kitchen as a child.

Me too! I have a Vitamix and I LOVE IT! Best kitchen appliance I own!

thank you for your opinions everyone :-)

I do have a KitchenAid food processor but I don't find it works very well because the blade misses a bunch of the nuts. Unless I'm doing something wrong?

Wow. I'm standing in front of a million choices. . No Vitamix though. Oh boy this is going to be tougher than I thought. Oh they all have two types to choose from. I think I need smaller. For some things anyway.

KitchenAid seems to have a lot of things for it stand mixer. The spiralizer the meat grinder, the noodle maker. I I have to figure out how to get more use out of my food processor. Too bad there's no spiralizer on that one or for that one.

I want to grind the nuts into a nut meal if you will so I can mix it in with my food without any chunky pieces. For a bunch of recipes I do want chunky but for others I need smooth to make a meatloaf sort of thing.

I'm just trying to figure out do I need a couple of different kinds of machines? One for making smoothies one for doing nut meal etc. It would be nice to have one machine for everything but maybe that's not realistic.

Thanks for trying to help me with my blender dilemma.

Smoothies? I just got my daughter a nutribullet. She used her other one so much it wore out. That might be a good alternative, though I’m not sure they do nuts...don’t see why they wouldn’t but...

Another Vitamix vote. Pricey but will last forever.

I was just reading about the kitchenAid blender over on automaticwasher.org someone said they leave a lot to be desired as far as blenders go and their opinion is KitchenAid should stick to mixers. I'm repeating what I read. I don't own one, but have used one at Church...i was not impressed. The old blenders from the 70's & 80's are the best blenders I've ever used.. they just never die and can crush ice like many of the new ones can't. I often see them in thrift stores for a dime...ok more like 3 $ but still a great buy.

I had the first Bullet when it came out..LOVED that thing and used it for years until it died.

If you really use it a lot and need serious power, Vitamix is the way to go. I can't justify upwards of $400-$500 for a blender! I know people who have them. Interestingly they all seem to have a blender also and use them both. Haven't quite figured that out but that's what they do. I also know someone who has the Ninja version that's similar in concept to Vitamix and is very happy and it's much cheaper. For her use, it works just fine. It really depends on your needs and if you care about price.

I have a Blendtec, and I love it!

I left the store without buying one. They didn't have Vitamix to look at for one thing and I want to buy something that works for the both so I'm going to do my due diligence. I'll research it a bit more tonight.

Interesting that the the KitchenAid blender with its stronger motor isn't on par with the other ones with the big motors. I guess big motors even aren't necessarily better. ;!/

The price of the Blendtec definitely surprised me. Over $600 Canadian is a bit steep. Vitamix was priced at around $450 at Costco apparently. The rest are around the 250 mark. I'm okay with paying a larger amount. After all my family can inherit it. :). Thanks for telling me your favourites.

I had a vintage Oster. It was a tough old workhorse and did everything well. My daughter took it with her when she moved out. I thought it was no biggie to just buy a new one. I went through a few bad ones before I got the Vitamix. The old 1970's Oster is still working well I hear.

Lukkiirish, there was something on the news tonight about the Nutrbullet exploding I think. People were getting hurt from them. One lady had her hands on it and when it exploded it cut her hands pretty bad.

I bought mine, and the one for my daughter over QVC, "on sale". Less than 400 bucks each. If you can wait for a sale...

I have a kitchenaid blender that works great for smoothies. Much more powerful than the Hamilton beach I had before that. I would chop nuts in my kitchenaid food processor by repeatedly pulsing them so they don’t get wedged under the blade. them.

I've gone thru 3 blenders in about 20 years. I always wanted a Vitamix but kept talking myself out of it b/c of price. About 6 months ago, I finally said what the heck and got one. Best decision ever. My family uses it at least once a day, usually twice. It can't compare to any of the cheaper brands. I haven't tried a Blendtec and did read some reviews that almost made me get one instead, but I have no regrets about the vitamix (except that it isn't all that attractive).

My sister and I each have a Blendtec. Neither of us knew what the other had when we bought ours. We both love our Blendtecs and use them a LOT.

And, in case it matters to anyone, The Pioneer Woman uses Blendtec.

I have a Kitchen Aid, but also like My Oster the best. I have two Osterizers and bought them used. My first one was an Oaster. I also have the little nut chopper like the one pictured. Have had it for over sixty years. I have a food processor and have used it for large batches of nuts, use a little Black and Decker mini electric chopper a lot. I don't use the blender much at all for nuts. Other things though. I like the osterizer because you can put a regular mouth jar on it and use those for the things you are blending.

Sue

Marylmi, Oh wow, I hadn’t heard about that so thanks for the heads up, I will let my daughter know!

The blender that lasted me the longest, and I would probably STILL have had I not broken the glass jar (I won't own a blender with a plastic jar), is my Oster blender. I had it well over 20 years. I bought it when I had my first baby in 1978 to make his baby food. I bought it at Safeway! I replaced it with another Oster blender. I don't use it nearly as often. I used it mainly to make smoothies, which I really don't drink anymore as they're full of sugar. I should sell it............ ;)

Lukkiirish, I'm glad you seen my post! Sorry I don't have much information on it as I wasn't really paying a lot of attention until it showed the hands of one lady and the face of another one.

I think my brother-in-law has a VitaMix blender. While visiting him I used it once and it is powerful, but it is also so loud I felt I needed industrial strength ear protection.

here's a good read

i bought mine through her and received a discount and free spatulas. that was in 2014 so not sure what she is offering now.

she is quick with reply emails and everything went seamless. would buy through her again.

you can make peanut butter in the Vitamix, so i am sure you can ground nuts. i don't know how i forgot that, duh!!!

i found her prices to be better than BBB and QVC but YMMV...

Me too MarylMI! After reading your post, I googled the issue to get more info and immediately sent my DD a text to let her know. As it turns out she hasn’t used the one I got her yet so we’re going to return it and get her a different one. I thank you again for the heads up!!! It’s too bad because she really liked her old one.

I have a vintage Oster, too! It was a wedding present in 1969, and I still have it. (Still have the husband, too!!) It is h-e-a-v-y, no plastic parts, and the blender jar is thick glass. I use it mostly in the summer to make slushy margaritas---yummmmmmm.

I'd be pretty sad if it "died", as I'm sure the new ones are not as well made.

Lovely vintage Oster Summer. I can't say even my Vitamix is better. Oster invented it and I think used to do it best.

Thanks, Elizabeth. I don't think they make them like that these days.

Let me get this right. Are you suggesting I go out and buy a vintage Oster? :-). I certainly would give it a whirl:-). Is it as noisy as the Vitamix?

So far I'm really veering towards the noisy expensive Vitamix. I want to make more smoothies. Lately I've just been taking out fruit, throwing yogurt and nuts on it and eating it like that. I miss my smoothies.

I love the Ninja blender, mine came with a small chopper also

The exploding NutriBullet issues were from people not reading the directions before use. They put hot substances in the container before blending, something you are not supposed to do with this device.

The NutriBullet comes with an interchangeable blade that chops nuts and seeds perfectly.

I doubt that there's anything easier to use for smoothies than the NutriBullet. It pulverizes everything beautifully and is so easy to wash. I like that it's small and light, as well.

Vitamix is next on my list :-)

I have a vitamix also. I have made almond butter and flour in it, it works great. It can really take a beating. I did get a "faux" vitamix at Aldi for the cabin for 79.99, which seems to work really well also. DH fills it up with veggies to make his smoothies. The problem with Aldi is products area seasonal, and I don't think they have it now.

I got my VM at costco

Ninja here, too. Haven't found anything it can't handle.