Make Your Own Aloe Juice

I had not planned on making aloe juice when I saw this giant aloe leaf for sale at No Frills. I just saw it and thought it looked neat and maybe I could eat it. I failed to find any good recipes for it so it sat in my fridge for a while until I saw how to make aloe juice on TV. I think it was on Steven & Chris but I don't remember. Though there are a few steps involved none are difficult and aloe juice is good for you. One leaf makes a lot of "juice" so it is pretty economical and there are no stabilizers in it liked the bottled aloe juice. Aloe helps keep your digestive system healthy so be warned, if you have never had aloe juice before it may effect you in some way. I did not notice any affect so my guess is the juice is not too strong.
 

Step 1: Cut off the base and top of the leaf. Trim off the sides as well. Place in a pitcher and let the bitter juice drain out for at least 30 minutes. Discard the bitter juice.

Step 2: Carefully cut off (or fillet) the straighter green bit.

Step 3: Once off, scrape out the innards with a spoon. 

Step 4: Add the jelly to a pitcher and fill with water.

Step 5: Let it sit for 6 hours, I put mine in the fridge for this. 

Step 6: Strain the infused water into another pitcher and it is ready to drink! Keep any excess jelly as you can add more water to that jelly to make more juice. You can reuse the jelly over and over again until it all dissolves away. 

Super Creamy Vegan Beer and Mozzarella Mac and Cheese

I have made this recipe twice now and it keeps getting better. The amounts are estimates because I am still working on it and when I am developing my own recipes I don't usually measure. I will next time I make it. This is a recipe that doesn't need exactness so I am going to post it now anyway.

Ingredients

• pasta (enough for 4 people)
• 4 Tb oil
• 5 Tb flour
• 3/4 cup strong beer 
• Water
• 1/2 package mozzarella Daiya
• Pinch red pepper flakes 
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1Tb nutritional yeast 

Directions 

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile heat oil in separate pot.
2. Gradually stir in flour. Gradually stir in beer. 
3. Add a bit of water and stir. Continue to add water and stir until you have a creamy white sauce.
4. Stir in cheese, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and nutritional yeast.
5. Mix finished pasta into the sauce and serve with a sprinkle of paprika. 
6. Eat some awesome mac n' cheese.

*****UPDATE*****

A sprinkle of paprika adds a lot of flavour to the dish. You can substitute cheddar Daiya for the mozzarella for a beer and cheddar version. 

Really Easy Tahini Pasta

This is my go to recipe when I want to eat a whole lot of pasta with out going to the trouble to make a tomato or cream sauce. It is a great weeknight meal because it is fast. I usually make a lot of it and have a huge serving.

Ingredients
Pasta (enough for 2-4 people)
1/4 cup tahini
1 T lemon juice
1 1/2 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup margarine
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile mix the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. When pasta is cooked mix it in with the rest and your done. Super easy :)

Super Tasty Roasted Red Pepper Soup

This recipe involves minimal work and is pretty quick to make. Most importantly though, it tastes really good. This is one of the more flavourful recipes in my repertoire.

Ingredients
1 jar of roasted red peppers
3 cups veggie broth
1 cup orzo (or any pasta you like, or even rice)
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
pinch of red pepper flakes

Directions
1. Dump the jar of peppers into a blender, liquid and all, and blend. Set aside.
2. Bring 3 cups of broth to a boil and add orzo (or pasta or rice). Cook until tender while stirring frequently. To save time you can add all the seasonings to the boiling broth as the orzo cooks.
3. Once orzo is tender add the red pepper puree. Cook until heated through and serve. Enjoy!

Quick and easy Breakfast Smoothie

One of my favorite and super easy recipes to make for breakfast is a Banana-Strawberry Smoothie. I like to have some protein in it so I throw in a spoonful or two of hemp seed. Hemp seed is full of high quality protein. It's one of the best sources you can get. I also add ground flax seed which has fiber and omega 3 fatty acids. I choose ground over whole seed because it is easier to absorb nutrients from the ground seed. Also, it is important to choose brown flax seed. The golden flax does not have as high a concentration of omega 3 fatty acids. For a more filling smoothie, you could add half a cup of raw, soaked cashews which will also make the smoothie seem creamier.

To make the smoothie, blend...
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 banana
2 tbsp hemp seed
1 tbsp ground brown flax seed
a few ice cubes

Healthy Reset Week

Fourth Floor Homestead has recently moved onto the eighth floor of a high rise building in a brand new, more urban neighborhood. As a result of this, all of my time has been devoted to moving and cleaning as well as taking care of baby. Healthy eating has not been the priority it should be for the last month. For this reason I have decided to pour some energy into developing an extra healthy meal plan for the week ahead.

The recipes I am including are all high in vegetables and low in processed goods and sugars. Though this is not a detox I will still try to drink lots of water as I have been finding it difficult to stay hydrated. Breast feeding takes a lot of liquid out of you and I don't like the taste of the water here. I am back to buying water unfortunately but I try to buy as big of a container as possible so as to not add water bottles to landfills.

I have been relying on fried foods and sugars to keep my calories up but this reset will force me to find a healthier way of doing that. Perhaps increasing the serving size will suffice, I'll have to experiment a bit. I made a large batch of hummus to snack on through out the day and intend to make lots of snacks. I hope to post the recipes here as I go. Hopefully I'll have the time to do it :)

The hummus recipe I used will be in it's own post. For supper tonight we had this Spicy Raw Vegan Carrot Soup from Beautiful Vegan and toast with hummus. I made the recipe with a few changes, most notably I cooked it. I was hoping to eat it raw but I am an onion wimp and the soup was too spicy for my so I mellowed it with a couple minutes on the stove. The consistency remained the same so the soup didn't cook too much. I sprinkled on some flax oil, paprika, sunflower seeds and cilantro to garnish. I quite enjoyed the soup and would make it again.

Easy Hummus

Hummus is such a blank slate. It's easy to make and there is so much you can do with it. Chickpeas are healthy and a great source of protein so it's a good idea to add them to your diet when you can. This week I experimented with herbs and garlic. I'm going to try to make up a new hummus every week for a while. I am happy with the result so here is the recipe.


1 cup dried chickpeas
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic
paprika
1/2 tsp dry oregano
pinch of tarragon
salt and pepper


a few basil leaves
a small bunch of cilantro


1. Cook the chickpeas in a slow cooker until tender in about 4 cups of water. This takes a few hours. Drain the peas and add them to a food processor with all the other ingredients except the fresh herbs.
2. Blend until creamy. Add herbs and blend until well mixed. Enjoy!

Fajitas

Before swearing off meat I used to enjoy fajitas rather regularly. Since then I tried making them with just the fried pepper and onion but I found them a little plain. Marinated mushrooms were the solution to that problem. I found the marinade recipe in the cookbook Vegan Fire & Spice that I got from the library. I since returned the book so I might be missing a few minor ingredients but I committed the main ones to memory and I didn't follow the recipe exactly anyway. We really liked how this turned out and are planning to have it again.

Marinade Ingredients
1/2 cup lime juice
1 jalapeno, seeded and sliced
1 tsp salt
1 clove minced garlic

Other Ingredients
2 portabello mushrooms, sliced
red pepper, sliced
onion, sliced
zucchini, sliced
1 tbsp oil

tortillas
salsa
vegan sour cream

Directions
1. Mix marinade ingredients together and mix in mushrooms. Let sit in the fridge for a few hours.
2. Fry onions in a skillet in the oil until they start to brown. Add pepper, zucchini and mushrooms. Fry until mushrooms are cooked.
3. Load up your tortillas with the salsa, sour cream and veggie mix. Roll or fold and enjoy :)

Awesome Slow Cooker Chili

I got a slow cooker yesterday and had to make some chili to try it out. It worked great despite costing around $20. This chili tasted great. I've made it before without the slow cooker by using canned beans but I like the slow cooker version because dried beans are so much cheaper. I always use fresh tomatoes as they are much healthier than canned tomatoes and taste so much better. Tomatoes, being rather acidic, leach BPA out of the plastic lining inside the can. Fresh tastes better anyway so th BPA gives me an excuse to use them. I served this chili in big mugs with a home made bread.

Ingredients

1 cup of dried beans (I used half kidney, half black eyed peas)

5 cups of water

1 tbsp oil

1 large chopped onion

2 cloves minced garlic

4 chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp curry powder

2 tsp cumin, ground

1/4 tsp ground cayenne

salt to taste

Directions

place beans and water in slow cooker on high until beans are cooked. This took my slow cooker about 5 hours. If there is a lot of water remaining after cooking time, ladle some out (there should not be a full layer of water covering the beans). Heat oil in frying pan then add onion. Fry for about five minutes then add garlic and continue to fry until garlic is golden but not browned. Add to the slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients to cooker. Simmer for 30 minutes and serve.