Thursday, March 4, 2010

homemade rice milk, oh yeah.

My handsome hombre is a true eco-activist, always looking for ways to make our earth footprint smaller. He really likes to eat, and we go through boxes and boxes of rice milk. One day he said, "Enough!" and we went on a quest to make homemade rice milk.

For about $40.00, we got a used soymilk maker on Ebay. It's pretty easy, and even though we are still figuring out a super tasty recipe, I thought I'd share how simple it is to make homemade rice milk.
Ryan bought organic brown rice in bulk. To start the milk, the rice needs to be soaked for about 30 minutes.
Next, you add the soaked rice milk to the handy-dandy "Soybella" milk maker. The instructions are simple - attach the metal rice holder to the machine, clamp down the lid, and press "milk."
In 15 minutes - you will have warm soy or rice milk! We are trying to get the right consistency, so we are using a paint strainer (a new one! not used) to strain the milk to make it as smooth as possible.
After that, I added in a touch of agave, a sprinkle of vanilla extract, and a tiny dash of salt. Viola!
The rice mush that is left in the container from making the milk can be composted (or, if you are super clever like my friend Katherine, you can use it to make cookies).

Our homemade rice milk isn't quite as good as Rice Dream, but hey - we are thrilled to not have another package to throw away. I feel a bit like a pioneer woman (with electricity) making my own rice milk. :)

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

consider roofing materials

We need a new roof, and we are narrowing in on our roofing choice.

Today we are most excited about the metal roofs made by armor lite roofing.

Why are we excited?

First, the price! Their website quotes $110.00/square. A "square" in roofing lingo means 100 square feet of roof. Ryan thinks it is 1.8 times the square footage of the house. He guesses our roof if 25 squares. Tune in later to see if he is right!

Second, a metal roof is more eco-friendly than asphalt shingles. The armor lite roofs are energy star rated. It qualifies for the stimulus energy efficiency tax credit. And supposedly there is better insulation and the roof will reflect more of the sun's heat. Yay, a cooler house in the summer!

Third, armor lite guarantees the roof for 40 years.

We love the look of the "Nu-slate patina" option.

Hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to update the blog with a photo of our fabulous new roof!

Monday, March 1, 2010

jackfruit fun

Ryan is afraid of no fruit - including the jackfruit. We've eaten it several times in restaurants (our favorite - BBQ jackfruit, from Pure Luck or Nick's BBQ). Figueroa Produce, our beloved local market, had fresh jackfruit for sale and we had to try it.
Ryan cracked that thing open and was so proud! We heard it was full of a latex-y material, but all we found was the fibrous fruity insides.

We ate some fresh - it was OK. We definitely preferred it cooked - as part of a vegan BBQ pizza. Think: homemade pizza crust, BBQ sauce, onion, mushrooms, jackfruit, and daiya vegan cheese. All ingredients bought at Figueroa Produce. A winner!