FoodSavers - luxury, essential, or necessity?

FoodSaver - get one at a fraction of the cost from Craigslist.

Just to be clear I am not one to hoard kitchen appliances. Even though a have a few in my name I will only commit after having done extensive research on the item: first, it must be multi purpose and of excellent quality and second, is the price right?

Marinated Chicken Recipe for FoodSaver

Rosemary and lemon marinated chicken.

I have wanted a FoodSaver for the longest time, but shied away from buying one, because they are just a little out of my budget for a kitchen appliance that is not used on a daily base. So, I found one NIB on Craigslist for $35 including 3 new rolls of bags - DEAL!

Pureed Vegetable Soups

Pureed Curried-Cauliflower Soup with Florets.

I recently received a gift from my two best friends: a Breville Juice & Blend. The juicer and blender 'attachments' share one powerful motorized base. I've only had it for a few weeks, but I have made numerous pureed vegetables soups that are not only low in calories, but absolutely delicious, inexpensive and easy to prepare. If you don't have a blender you can also use an immersion blender.

I'm not giving you exact measurements for these recipes, but rather ratios that will work for many kinds of vegetables like carrots, broccoli with stems, frozen peas, corn, cauliflower, potato, asparagus, etc. For every 1 lb of vegetables use 1/2 onion - this amount is usually enough for 2 generous servings.