George Foreman's Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine really packs a punch in my kitchen - living well up to its brand reputation.

It all started when my mother came for Christmas and noticed that faint smell of gas that I had been trying to ignore.  This was promptly followed by a man in a Transco van who declared the cooker that is only 4 years younger than me, and whose kin made regular appearances on the Fannie Craddock cookery shows, "Dangerous - Please do Not Use".  A cooking dilmena with a family of four that is compounded by our long wait for an extension to be built - and hence not knowing what cooker we will eventually want in there.

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Looking back I remembered living just on a microwave oven in our last house and declared that along with the  steamer we already owned, all we needed now was a sandwich toaster and we'd be OK, we'd survive this cooking nightmare.

In my search for the machine that makes "coffee shop sandwiches", as my daughter calls them, I came across this wonderful machine.  And melting those sandwiches to perfection, with minimum of mess, is just one of its delights.  All manner of delicacies can be cooked in this little machine that takes up barely a square foot of work surface.  So far we have tried burgers, lamb chops, salmon fillets, sausages and hot cross buns.  The Lean Mean......Grilling Machine (sorry its name is getting too long now) cooked them all to perfection - in pretty much the time stated in the very easy to refer to handbook.

Unlike a traditional gas grill, there is no burning or charring and no "hard on the outside, uncooked on the inside" experience.  There is no working out what level to put the grill on or how high up or low down.  You just plug in, put food on grill and shut lid for required number of minutes.  You can even feel a little confident to leave it alone to do its stuff.

Other handy features include the way it sits in tilted position so that the fat rolls off the non-stick surface into a little tray below.  And on the top it has a bun warming tray - ideal for burger buns.

What's more it's even easy to clean!

I can't praise this little machine enough - and at around £30 it has saved me hundreds!! 

My only regret - I should have bought the bigger one!!