Thursday Experiment: Soy Milk

We have discovered something totally awesome! Tonight C and I made soy milk and it is:

• super cheap
• super easy
• super delicious
• AND makes no trash!
  

I was inspired by this video on youtube by The Daily English Show. I figure if you can teach someone to make soy milk in a little over 2 minutes, then it can't be too hard. And it's not.

C picked up some bulk organic soy beans at WF. They cost .99 a pound. If you buy a pound and bring your own bag, they only cost .89. A pound of soy beans makes a LOT of soy milk.

Here's the procedure:
1. Soak the beans overnight.
2. Rinse them. Measure 1 cup of beans and 3 cups of water into the blender.
3. Blend like crazy.
4. Put blended beans and water (now, amazingly, white) into the biggest pot you have.
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until you have used all your beans or until the pot is about 1/2 full.
6. Cook -- I'm not sure how long. Maybe 10 minutes? Let it boil, but BE CAREFUL because it gets very foamy and will quickly boil over (I know this from experience.) Skim the foam off. The heating step is important because it deactivates some enzyme in the beans that will make your tummy hurt.
7. At this point, I mixed in 1/4 c. sugar and 1/2 teas. vanilla per 2 c. beans b/c I like vanilla soy milk.
8. Pour the hot liquid into a cheese cloth that is inside a colander resting in a bowl. Squish the cheesecloth until the stuff inside (okara) is pretty dry. Set aside the okara for more fancy experimentation.
9. Turn to your husband (or whoever is near) and say "This is amazing!"

I'm hoping that this will cut down our milk budget (the kids can really chug some milk, and it is getting expensive) and on the packaging. We really like soy milk, but hate the packages, which are not recyclable here.

More news about WF Composting
I asked an employee at Whole Foods about the composting. She told me that they have been composting food waste for years, but have just now opened it up to customers. You can compost any food or paper. She told me that they compost at some wildlife refuge and then resell the compost. Just proves that being green can pay.

When are my worms going to start eating? They seem like they're getting ready for prom, the way they eat.