Chopper, blender or both?

[whit340 1]

Is there a favorite amongst the veterans? Favorite brand?

[roundisashape 712]

By no means a vet, but I love my little Hamilton Beach $15 blender. It's one with a lid you can use to drink from if you make a smoothie, and so far it's handled everything I've thrown at it - chicken, beef cubes cooked in a crock pot, shakes, veggies, whatever. The only thing it struggled with was refried Beans, and it turns out I didn't really need to blend those anyway.

[Elode 8,093]

I have the ninja chopper/purée mini machine. It works awesome, it's small, and it was only like 20 bucks at Walmart!

[wannaBthinsoon 1,634]

I'm super spoiled. I have a vita mixer.

[Bufflehead 6,358]

I have a cuisinart mini food processor that I used for pureed foods, and a cuisinart hand/immersion blender that I use for Protein Shakes. I love the immersion blender because it doesn't add any air to the shake -- a lot of regular blenders will leave you with a shake so foamy it needs to sit in the fridge for hours while the bubbles die down.

This is the blender I use:

http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CSB-75BC-2-Speed-Immersion-Blender/dp/B00ARQVM5O/

It is super easy to use and clean, comes in tons of different colors, and with a mixing beaker you can use to make your shakes. I've used mine every day for the past 18 months and it still works perfectly.

[whit340 1]

Thanks to everyone so far. My wife is the one having surgery and im just trying to help her out.