Ground Beef Chopper

Sometimes I find something that at one time seemed gimmicky to me that is really useful now. Before the MS symptoms and the wheelchair, I easily browned ground beef and sausage with a wooden spoon or a spatula or whatever was handy. I remember seeing the ground beef chopper and thinking it was a useless single task item. Not anymore.

Trying to brown ground meat and break it up from a wheelchair is much more difficult. There is a certain height I need to be at to have the leverage to do it. While my chair has a seat elevate function, it takes a lot of time to move up and down. When I’m in the kitchen, I don’t usually have the time to mess with this. I also need to be able to have my feet on the floor to push back into the chair when I begin to slide forward a bit. All that reaching, cutting, and stirring really shifts me around.

Recipes using a ground beef chopper:
American Chopped Suey
Instant Pot Bolognese Sauce
Taco Soup

A few months back, I became frustrated while browning off ground beef. My arms were so exhausted that I was having trouble lifting them. My spoon wasn’t breaking up the meat like I used to be able to. I was lucky enough to be able to call in a daughter who likes browning ground beef. I knew I had to do something differently because what I had always done wasn’t working anymore. Grudgingly, I thought I would try a ground beef chopper. Problem solved. This actually works! It is light and easily cuts through the meat to break it up. I have used it on both ground beef and sausage, and it has made it so that I can actually do this again. Maybe it is a single task item, but, at his point, I am OK with this now. I have no idea why I didn’t get one sooner.