Shenzhen Ceramic Knives Fruit and Vegetable Set {Review & Giveaway}

{This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, CherylS22!}

With 2011 right around the corner, it's time to make another year's worth of resolutions in hopes of achieving some of the changes, whether big or small, that we'd all like to make in our lives.

For me, there are many... but one is the amount of time that I spend in the kitchen. Instead of having my husband pick up take-out on the way home or make meals that mostly come out of a box, I am resolving to make more home-cooked dinners that my whole family can gather around the table and enjoy.

I can hope, right?

So, with plans to do more cooking, that means I'll need the tools to make the process easier, faster and more convenient. Which is exactly what I've found now that I've been introduced to Shenzhen Ceramic Knives.

The leading online retailer of ceramic knives and ceramic knife sets, Shenzhen Knives not only offers you a superior slicing and cutting product, but their direct distribution results in a significantly lower price than would be found elsewhere. With options of purchasing a single Paring Knife up to a complete 3-piece Chef Set, these are the perfect complement to the steel knives that we all own and use every day.

So, what are the benefits of ceramic knives? With blades made from ziconium oxide instead of steel, each one is lightweight, resistant to acids, germs, oils and rust, does not affect the taste of food and, due to ceramic being harder than steel, stays sharper longer. Now who wouldn't want all that?

Thinking that ceramic knives sounded pretty good to me, I couldn't wait to give the Shenzhen Knives 2-piece Fruit and Vegetable Set a try. When they arrived in their bright green box, I was impressed just by seeing them still in the packaging.

Pulling the 3.2" paring knife and 4.8" slicing knife out of the box, I couldn't help but notice that these were indeed much lighter than my traditional knives. The handles are extremely comfortable and, with very light pressure, the blades do indeed cut through fruits and vegetables with ease.

Plus, is it weird to think that the stark white of these knives just looks better than steel? Will their attractiveness make me cook better?

Giving the horizontal blade ceramic peeler a try, I found that it also slid easily down the vegetables and proved to make very precise movements, just like the knives. All in all, the three items in this set really have come in handy in the kitchen and I can see using them for quite a long time... and, due to the fact that the zirconium oxide is nearly as hard as diamonds, I love that I won't have to sharpen them for quite a while - a big plus.

And, as these knives are built to last and resist stains, rust and that gross metallic taste all while the non-stick surface makes them easy to clean (hand wash only), they really are a nice addition to any cook's current cutlery set. With a 30-day money back guarantee on top of their already affordable prices, these durable tools are ones that will surely withstand all of the ups and downs that I put them through in my future cooking endeavors.

Think you're ready to join the large group of ceramic knives fans out there? Right now when you purchase a 6" Chef's Knife at Shenzhen Knives, enter the code FREEPEEL3 at checkout and receive one of these great Ceramic Peelers for free (a $9.99 value)! That's not all, also thanks to the generosity of Shenzhen Knives, one person will also be able to slice and dice their fruits, vegetables and more with ease, because...

One lucky person will win a 2-Piece Fruit and Vegetable Set from Shenzhen Knives! ARV $44.98!

To enter to win: Visit Shenzhen Knives and tell me something you learned there or another of their high quality products that you would like to own.

Extra Entries (available after the mandatory entry above is completed; please leave a separate comment for each entry in order for them to be counted).

1 Extra Entry if you Like Shenzhen Knives on Facebook.
1 Extra Entry (per giveaway entered) - Enter any (or all) of the giveaways running on Thanks, Mail Carrier for the duration of this giveaway.
1 Extra Entry if you follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway by copying and pasting the tweet below and leaving me the link. Tweet daily for an extra entry every day!

WIN a Shenzhen Knives Fruit and Vegetable Ceramic Knife Set + Peeler (ARV $45)! #thxmailcarrier http://bit.ly/dSZian #giveaway #win

2 Extra Entries (per follow method) if you follow me with Google Friend Connect, subscribe to my RSS feed, subscribe to Thanks, Mail Carrier by email or become a fan on Facebook.
3 Extra Entries if you put my cute button up on your blog. Please leave an address where it can be found.
3 Extra Entries if you blog about this giveaway linking back to Thanks, Mail Carrier and Shenzhen Knives. Please leave an address where it can be found.

Giveaway will end on January 21st at 11:59pm CST. Do me the favor of leaving an email address or making absolutely sure it is visible in your profile, I have to have a way to contact the winner. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to contact me or respond to notification or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

A big thank you to Shenzhen Knives for providing a 2-piece Fruit and Vegetable Set for me to review as well as for one lucky giveaway winner. The opinions shared are my own and honest and if you really need to see more, click here to see how I roll.