George Foreman GR10AWHT Champ Grill

I bought the George Foreman grill as a joke for my husband (it DOES say "Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine" on it), but we used it for three weeks solid after it arrived. The reason? It's EASY, and the food turns out really tasty! This particular model is big enough only for two hamburgers (if you make them to fit... pre-frozen patties are too big and have to be cooked one at a time). More often, you have to cook one portion of meat at a time. The grill is tilted and comes with a trough so that all excess fat is drained away from your food. Pretty nifty! It's also fairly easy to clean up -- you just wipe down the grill and throw the trough in the dishwasher. We've used the grill for chicken breasts, Boca Burgers, regular burgers, pork chops, steaks, and even bacon strips (it's GREAT for avoiding a bunch of messy bacon grease). It cooks even frozen meat in a relatively short period of time, and it cooks it thoroughly. It's easy to throw something on the grill, sprinkle some seasonings on it (BAM!), and let it cook for a few minutes while you fix the rest of the meal. It is hard to overcook things, and it's fun to have grill-lines on your food. It was hard for me to believe the hype about the George Foreman Grills, but they are easy to use and deliver good results. In fact, this might be a good way to introduce your older children (12 and up) to rudimentary cooking. The George Foreman grill would be great for people who don't have a lot of time to cook & clean, who aren't yet confident cooks or don't have a lot of cooking experience. This small model would work in a dorm suite, a bachelor pad, for newlyweds, or anyone who doesn't want to feed a crowd (although you could do it with this one, it would just take awhile).

I have used this machine a couple dozen times now, and with great success. Fish, burgers, egglplant, greenbeans, chicken breast... -- Meat, cooked from both sides, is done very quickly (Ignore the hamburger packaging that tells you to cook for ten minutes) -- You'll enjoy watching the excess fat drip into the small drip-tray instead of sticking to a metal cooking pot that you'd have to scrub clean later. -- Eggplant came out soft and delicious. Green beans were crispy and juicy. -- There are no temperature settings. There is not even an on/off switch. Plug it in to pre-heat & cook, unplug it when you're finished. The only thing you need to control is the timer on your microwave. (I overcooked tuna steaks when I first got this grill, so that they were a little dry. Since then, I have learned to shorten the cooking time). -- Cleanup: the best part. Clean with a wet paper towel or damp sponge. Especially easy while still warm. Use NO abrasives. (I use nothing other than the water that dampens the paper towel. -- Smoke: Yes, there is a bit of smoke and steam that escapes, especially when I'm cooking beef & I lift the grilltop to add more seasoning. I usually grill by the window, so it's not a problem. -- Size: the one drawback. If you're cooking for two, it's not easy to cram more than hamburger patty on this thing. Consider a larger one. -- Price: note that there's a special shipping fee. The total price was still lower than that offered at my local store, though.

I ordered one for my kitchen, and we use it all the time. It's great for a couple, and though it is small, you can still cook two burgers on it at once (or if you want to pig out on huge juicy ones, it takes very little time to do them one at a time. By the time one person has added all the fixings to their bun, the second burger will be just about done). It's also great for steak and chicken, and the flavour of hotdogs is ten times better that just zapping them in the microwave, which is what we did before. I liked mine so much that I bought one for my teenage brother for the holidays. He was ecstatic. It's given him more freedom in the kitchen to make all the things that teen boys like to eat, but has cut back on the fattiness without him even noticing. This is a fantastic present for a single person, a young couple, or a university student just starting to put together a functional kitchen space. You may also want to think about getting the grills with the bun warmers, but really, this basic model is *so* cheap and *so* useful that you probably won't even care about the extras on other units. It stays on our counter, taking up very little space but adds a tonne of convenience and tasty food to our lives. When we have more money, I am looking forward to upgrading to a larger grill, but for now, I am very pleased with this product. Despite all the good, I'm giving it 4 stars because it can be a really big pain to clean. And because you have to plug it in to turn it on. But for the price, it's a fantastic tool. Just make sure you clean it as soon as it has cooled, it's a total pain to deal with cleanup if you leave it overnight...