Soy Milk Experiment

I did try making my own soy milk.  I searched numerous recipes, gleaned tips and tricks, researched my health food store, and finally took the plunge.

I have almost used all of my quart of purchased soy milk by now.  I've used it over cereal, added it to Pero, and had a small glass or two plain.  I tried the original flavor so I could better compare the prepared stuff to my homemade stuff.  It is so expensive that I really want an alternative.

Saturday afternoon I set the beans to soaking.  Sunday afternoon I set to work.  I carefully made sure the bean hulls all came off and were discarded to make the flavor milder, which took nearly an hour.  I ground batch after batch of soaked soy-beans with water in my blender which leaked all over.  I put them in my big pan and painstakingly stirred and monitored it to prevent scorching while it came to a boil.  By that point I was pretty sure it stank. 

I added a bit of orange rind (carefully excluding the bitter pithy part) in order to further neutralize any lingering beany taste.  I added sugar and a touch of salt as per the recipes and recommendations.  And I let it cool a bit, cracking the door open a bit to wash the bean stink out of the house.

Finally I got a square of unbleached muslin from my fabric stash (clean with no fabric softener) and lined a colander with it.  I poured batch after batch of pulpy juicy into the colander, gathered the edges of the cloth and "milked" the juice through the fabric, leaving only bean fragments behind.  I burned my hands trying to just finish it and dripped "milk" on the counter and dropped bean fragments on the floor.

After the milk had cooled further I carefully transferred it to a sealed glass pitcher in the refrigerator.  I decided to wait until it was thoroughly chilled to really taste it so I could try to keep a proper perspective.  It had a beautiful creamy color and texture and I tried to keep an open mind.

When I opened the pitcher for a taste it stank like beans.  It tastes more like fresh green bean soup than anything like milk.  Gag!  I tried warming it up and adding it to sugar and cocoa powder like the hot chocolate I once drank.  No amount of sugar and cocoa  could mask the flavor.

So here's my personal experience: Homemade soy milk is sick and disgusting. I can handle the store bought stuff, but this half-gallon of headache is going down the drain.  And now I need to go scrub the pots, bowls, colander, counter top, floor, and wash a load of laundry with the offended cloth.  What a mess!

Next stop: rice milk.  It can't be any worse, right?

And it begins...

This last week my gastroenterologist started me on an elimination diet because medications alone are not fixing the symptoms of my eosinophilic disorder.  It appears that I have EGID (Eosinophilic GastroIntestinal Disorder)  Basically it's an inflammatory response to allergens which causes various pains, inflammation, and other issues through my digestive system.  The doctor also agreed that some, many or perhaps all of my other chronic issues should be corrected by identifying and removing the triggers for me.  Interstitial cystitis, ear infections, migraines, kidney stones...  I could live without all of those.  Happily this sounds and feels like it makes a lot of sense.  It coincides with questions and concerns I've had for some times now.  Unfortunately, it's going to mean some big changes; and I don't like big changes.

As of a few days ago I am now eating entirely dairy free.  Lactose-free eating is similar, but not entirely the same.  I also have to avoid casein which is still present in many lactose-free foods and is also highly prevalent in manufactured foods.  Most store-bought bread contains dairy, as well as margarine (butter is obvious).  The church cannery potato pearls are a no-no now too.  I'm getting really good at reading labels!

Being a highly emotional eater (and I mean any emotion -- anxiety, joy, boredom...) any major dietary change is difficult for me.  Being on an extremely limited budget makes any major dietary change difficult for me.  Thanks to so many wonderful friends nearby and online I have been blessed with a wonderful support group to get me started.  Thursday night I could be found standing in the kitchen with my stomach rumbling and a "deer-in-the-headlights" stare towards the pantry and fridge.  Right now I'm happily fed and even just had some brownies and soy milk!  The key for me is knowing what I can eat.  Being the research fiend that I am, I've found lots of information on dietary substitution.  I was totally overwhelmed though.  With my wonderful friends I've found what's a reasonable way to begin, and how to do a lot of it with things I even have on my shelf!

Since I get really excited about my discoveries and love learning new things, I'm sure I'll post a lot of my experiences here.  In one month I will also be going wheat free.   There's a difference between wheat free and gluten free -- explained here.  So much for my brownies, right?  Well, I'm learning ways around that too.  I've been pretty sneaky in some of my adventuring and I just might accidentally get my family healthier at the same time ;)  The key to wheat free seems to be my wheat grinder!  I got a wheat grinder quite a while ago, because what good are buckets of wheat without a grinder?!  I love the grinder I got.  It takes up very little space, connects easily to my kitchenaid, and also came with a hand crank so it can be used without power.  I have compared the grind from the popular "Nutrimill" and my mill, the KitchenAid Grain Mill.  With each on the finest setting I could not tell a difference at all.  I now have a small selection of white bean flour and rice flour made with the stuff sitting in my pantry!  In two months I will see the doctor again and we'll re-evaluate my symptoms.  If they are not resolved then we'll remove the next three major allergens from my diet: soy, peanuts, and shellfish.  I also have allergy testing scheduled for next week which may help identify other allergens.

My sweet neighbor invited me over the other day, knowing that I was completely overwhelmed (and starving).  She has had experience preparing and eating dairy free, wheat free, and even vegan (at different times) so she is a huge help.  One of her recipe books I looked at, Country Beans, had recipes for "Cream" of Chicken Soup, among other things.  It's made with white bean flour and it's really good.  Who would have guessed???  I also saw a recipe there for Instant Pea Soup that I based a recipe off.  Okay, so here are my discoveries:

****I already mentioned the Cream of Chicken Soup.  It's made of boiling water, ground white bean flour, seasonings, and chicken.  It took minutes to prepare and is wonderful by itself or used in recipes.

****I made spaghetti for dinner last night.  I make my sauce from scratch and usually add a can of tomato paste to thicken the sauce.  I had tried my hand (well, my grinder) at making white bean flour since I had a bag of white beans in the pantry.  I had about 1/4 cup of the flour sitting in a bowl by the stove because it didn't fit in the container with the rest.  So I gave it a shot!  The bean flour thickened the sauce beautifully and nobody knew!  (I never did tell the girls and I only let Michael in on the secret tonight, lol).  Instead of Parmesan cheese on my spaghetti I tried out Nutritional Yeast.  Sounds nasty, right?  Well, it's not what you expect!  It's not like the yeast you use in bread at all.  It has a wonderful naturally cheesy flavor and was a great spaghetti topper!

**** In playing in my pantry I also found a couple of bags of dried split peas.  I really don't like split pea soup, but I know my mom does and I was having fun playing with my grinder.  I ground the split peas into fine flour and mixed in seasonings (I'd seen a proper recipe for it in the Country Beans book).  I took it to my mom tonight and she tried it out.  Two Tbsp. of the powder was mixed into hot water.  It ended up really needing a blender or food processor (she has a cute baby food processor which worked great).  After a few seconds of good pulverization there were no lumps and it was a thick, creamy pea soup.  It wasn't the classic pea soup, though.  I took a taste and actually liked it!  It tastes like fresh peas from the garden!!!  We discussed such ideas as serving it garnished with fresh diced tomatoes... and maybe some crumbled bacon.  I may have to grind my other bag up and make some for me!

****I love popcorn.  I really do.  I really love home popped theater-style popcorn.  I have some theater type buttery flavored oil (artificially butter flavored) and buttery popcorn salt that I got for a Christmas gift.  The oil is fine, but the salt has dairy in it.  Last night I popped up a pan of popcorn and added a touch of salt and then sprinkled it with the Nutritional Yeast.  It was delicious!  I would eat that if I'm going dairy-free or not! 

****This morning (okay, afternoon.  I finally slept well last night!  and all morning, lol) I wanted to make some hashbrowns for "breakfast".  I usually use freshly grated potatoes in hot oil, then add butter halfway through for more flavor.  I had a fresh onion on hand so I was using that too.  Since I can't use the butter or margarine I used the buttery flavored popcorn oil in place of the oil/butter combo!  It looked funny, thanks to the artificial coloring, LOL, but it was very tasty.

****I have been researching the best way to replace an occasional glass of milk (like with my brownies) and milk in recipes.  Soy milk is the obvious replacement.  Rice milk is also pretty widely available.  Neither fits well into the $0 budget.  So I learned how to make my own!  I did buy a quart of prepared soy milk at the health food store today so I have something to compare to, then a bit of instant dry soy milk (lots cheaper, but I'm wary of dried milks), and also some plain soybeans.  Right now I have soybeans soaking in water in my fridge.  Tomorrow I'll see how the homemade variety turns out.  I'm going to add a touch of sweet brown rice for extra flavor and texture.  The quart of milk, powdered milk to make a quart prepared, and beans to try making my own (at least a quart when I'm done) all together cost $5.  If this dairy-free thing is going to happen for years instead of weeks, hopefully someday I can get a soymilk machine.  Purchased in bulk the beans can be very inexpensive.  Even if I end up not being able to eat soy, the machine works for all sorts of other alternative milks (rice, beans, etc.which are all quite cheap)  Considering the cost of the prepared milks at the store, the machine would pay for itself in no time. 

****Tonight I needed a good reason to want to drink milk.  I love milk and could happily drink it alone, but I mean a good reason to make me want milk enough that I could be happy with the soy milk.  So I made brownies.  I made them from scratch partly because I didn't have a mix on had, partly because they're not very hard anyway, and partly because I bet the mix ones have dairy in them.  I had to replace the melted butter/marg. for oil.  Then when it came to adding the 1 1/2 cups of flour, I pulled out my smallish bin of flour from the pantry and it only had 1 c. in it.  I had my big thing of flour right there in the pantry, but unfortunately I'm lazy.  My canister of bean flour was just right there, and it and it had worked so well in the spaghetti...  Well, I finished mixing it up, added some walnuts, and spread it in the pan.  While they were in the oven I set to "cleaning" the bowl.  Nasty.  The original flavor was fine, but the aftertaste was supremely beany.  Nasty indeed.  Oh well, the brownies were already in the oven.  I was very brave and tasted a bit of brownie when they were done.  It actually tasted fine.  So I took a whole piece with a glass of soy milk.  The flavor was a bit different, but not noticeably beany!!!  Michael took a brownie later (I didn't warn him, of course).  He mentioned that they tasted a little different also, but ate the whole thing.  When I admitted about the bean flour he could see that that was the difference, but even according to him it wasn't bad, just different.  Phew!!!  The milk was okay.  I didn't like drinking it by itself, but between bites of brownie it was fine.  I'm a little suspicious of the soy because this is the most soy I've had at at time before and my tongue felt a little funky.  I may end up losing it after all, but I'm game to give it a shot first.

If any of you happen to know great dairy free or wheat free recipes, I'm always happy to collect them :)  I have to say, though, that if I go through all this and don't lose some weight I'm going to be very upset, LOL.  Along with everything else I'll have to be very careful about my chocolate.  And you probably know how I feel about chocolate -- pretty much the same way I feel about my right hand: I expect it to be there and perform its duties! I suppose I could live without it, but it would be a very sad thing.  Fortunately I do like dark chocolate.  Any chocolate 70% cocoa or darker is very unlikely to have dairy in it.  I will have to be a good ingredient reader.  Mostly things will be made from scratch so I can monitor the diary (and eventually wheat) content.  There are dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips available, but even in bulk they're about $4/lb.  Pre-packaged they were closer to $6/lb!  I'll have to find an alternative to my comforting mug of hot cocoa.

All I can say is that if it makes everything else better, it will be worth it.

 Picture of my soybeans soaking over night in preparation for milking them tomorrow.  Moo.

Welcome to the Year of the Tiger.

Since Michael was born in the year of the Tiger he's supposed to wear something red every day this year to keep bad luck away.  I'm considering sewing red tags into the back of all his shirts just to be on the safe side ;) ;)
My family (aka the Jarbh family -- my mom, my siblings, and their families) celebrated the Chinese New Year yesterday (with a dash of Valentine's day mixed in) at our monthly family gathering.  My oldest brother and his family have made some wonderful Chinese friends, spent quite a bit of time in China, and the parentals even take Chinese lessons (the language, that is) in anticipation of more visits there.  We have had a chance to include some of their friends in various family gatherings and have really come to appreciate the culture, the food, and the language.

Yesterday their house was all decked out in proper Chinese fashion.  We had some vegetables with a peanut dip of some sort which was really quite good.  Then there were dumplings (yum!) and a basket of assorted Chinese treats.  We also got to taste the exotic dragon fruit.  Surprisingly, the dragon fruit originally came from Mexico, but has acclimated well to Asian countries.  While beautiful, it actually doesn't have a lot of flavor.  Botanically speaking, it is the fruit of a cactus and also can grow as nearby as southern Utah!  I'm afraid I could never become too into Chinese food -- they're horribly devoid of chocolate in their desserts!  Actually desserts as a whole are pretty scant. For the purpose of this celebration, however, we did have hot chocolate with heart shaped marshmallows as well as a delicious chocolate / cream / raspberry dessert.  Delicious!!!

Since it was also Valentine's day yesterday there were a couple of activities to take that into account.  Since it's a household of teenage boys, they don't typically go gung-ho on the holiday ;)  The Chinese began wood block printing, which we had a chance to try.  Instead of carving actual wood blocks (time consuming and not the safest activity for the young'uns) there were styrofoam blocks to make impressions on with pencils.  Then they got a generous coating of paint and were printed onto paper.  Many of these ended up being valentine's themed :) 

Two other families got together earlier in the day and made cute woven heart shaped pouches for everyone with ribbon to make them into necklaces which were lots of fun.







My sister-in-law, Carol, read us a story about the Kitchen god and the beginning of candied melon which is a traditional treat shared at the New Year. 

During the evening, we learned how to sing the song "Love at Home" in Chinese.  The Chinese characters, with the Chinese words beneath each, were posted on the wall and we learned how to attempt each word.  Coming from a family who has mostly studied European languages, this was a bit tricky!  Since I'm still unable to sing, I took the opportunity to video the activity.

As a parting gift each child got a valentine from Grandma -- a traditional Red Envelope that contained a bit of money.  It's a Chinese New Year thing, but worked beautifully as a valentine also!  Each envelope also had a little note in it that said something great about the receiver.

When all is said and done... what's a Jarbh gathering without a little air-hockey :D

Baby Names (It's not what you're thinking)

No, we're not expecting a baby.
Kate just decided that when she grows up she wants to name all her children starting with the letter "G".  Here are her ideas:

Girls:
Granaea
Granette
Girlie
Gabby
Gannae

Boys:
Gary
Gadsmen
Gladder
Gaigo
George

I had to write these down so I can pull them out when she's expecting her firstborn.  ;)

Adios.

Goodbye, January.  I won't miss you one little bit.

You're welcome, WalMart.  Your next pharmacy renovation's on me.  Apparently.

 

I was up early this morning since I couldn't sleep.  When I opened the back curtains the sun was just coming up over the mountains on the other side of the house from this pic.  The moon was still up and mostly full.  The reflection of the sun was brilliant!

I am done with all my antibiotics and steroids.  Now I'm being treated for a pretty large scale fungal infection in my ear.  Best case scenario I will use these drops 3x/day for 10 days and be all better.  Let's just keep hoping and praying that this time the drops will be enough. 
Doc did a CT scan today and ruled out any super nasty worst case scenarios (like infectious tumors).  My CT was not normal, but he said everything he saw could be due to the fungus or if it isn't (I'll know if I don't feel much better in a couple of days) it's all stuff that can be dealt with.  May require more meds or surgery, but it can be dealt with.

So goodbye January.  Don't let the couch hit ya on the way out.

Yes, Purple *is* my favorite color, but this is taking it a little far.

The excessive use of steroid/antibiotic ear drops the doctors kept telling me I have to take led to a secondary fungal infection in my ear canal.  Yes, it hurts.  So when I saw the ENT doc yesterday he painted the ear canal with gentian violet.  It is indeed a loverly shade of dark purple :) 
I have to stop by tomorrow to make sure the g.v. is all cleared out of the ear canal before I start the lotrimin drops he then prescribed because I still have a perforation in my ear drum and they can't risk the g.v being washed into my middle ear with the new drops because I still have a bacterial infection in my middle ear.  Confused yet?  Yeah, me too.  And thanks to the steroids I'm on my heart rate yesterday was 220(!).  I've been taking xanex (anti-anxiety drug I sometimes require) the last two nights so I can calm down to sleep, but the minute it wears off I wake up.  So even going to sleep at a good hour just means I'm restless and wakeful by 2 AM!  Very irritating.

On the plus side, it might be helping the pain a little.  Maybe.  The doc said he expects he'll have to do surgery to close the perf in the ear drum, but they can't do that until the infection is cleared.  It looks like I may not beat last years record after all.  Last year I hit our $3,000 deductible on February 2nd, I believe.

But now I gotta go play mancala with my very impatient 4 year old. :)

Opinionated

I just read an article online from the Daily Herald about the problem of prescription drug abuse.  And because of the unfortunate timing, I have to leave a little rant here...

I understand that RX abuse is a big issue and every bit as dangerous as any other drug abuse.  It needs to be addressed.  I have been on narcotic pain relievers enough over the last few years to be very aware of the risks involved.  I have been exceedingly careful with my pain meds and often will make-do with pain for some period of time just to keep my body from becoming dependent or addicted to the meds, and to assure myself that I am still the one in control -- not the meds.  I understand there are people who have to take pain meds frequently for severe pain, and I am not judging them at all.  I really understand where they're coming from.  So don't anyone think I'm discounting severe pain or pain from unknown sources.  Those are my disclaimers.

The current newest law they're discussing is sending a letter to the doctor for patients who come to the ER overdosed on prescription meds.  They want to make the doctors more aware of the issues they may be inadvertently causing by prescribing narcotic pain relievers to particular patients.  Okay.  Fine idea.  Except I can think of probably half dozen ways people will easily get around that if they really want to just get the drugs!  They say right there in the article that the system will run about 3 weeks behind the times.  So if you really wanted to get drugs all you have to do is go ER hopping over the course of a couple of weeks and you're set.  Doesn't really help. 
I'm sure there are legitimate cases of accidental overdose.  In those cases education of the patients is what needs to happen.  Whether they need to better understand the potential danger of the meds (I'm often shocked by how many people -- even people who have been taking these sorts of meds -- don't understand the dangers associated with them) or put in place better safeguards so they don't forget they've already taken them or whatever the problem was.  I don't see how doctor information will stop that sort of abuse.  And unless they catch up the database faster than 3 weeks, that's not really going to be a big help either! 
I'm glad they're trying to make a difference, but I dont' think this is the only right answer.  I can think of a few things I think would help at least as much:

*Coordinated care between doctors and specialists: I currently have half a dozen doctors in my phone.  I have the dentist, pediatrician, my regular doctor, Otolaryngologist, Urologist, and Gastroenterolotist.  I have seen each of these doctors within the last several months.  (Well, ignore the pediatrician, cause I don't see him for me of course :))  Almost all of those doctors have prescribed me lortab or percocet at some point.  My urologist, who had to control my pain for several months (those pesky kidney stones, as you may recall), did ask me a few times if there was any other doctor treating me for pain.  He also was very up front about the risks of long term or regular use or overuse of pain meds.  When the cause of the pain could no longer be found he discussed long term chronic pain treatment through a chronic pain center.  Fortunately for me, I managed to get the pain under control before having to deal with that issue. I think he handled the situation quite well.  My pain was controlled, a long term solution was discussed, and other sources of meds were checked.  However -- it would have been really easy to lie.  Perhaps a centralized database that they could check -- pull up the database, type in my name and birthdate and see if / when I was last prescribed pain medications.  Maybe that's not as easy at it sounds to me, but if he could type in my info and see that the last time I was given lortab was, say, a bottle of 10 'X'mg pills last June then he has a pretty good idea that I'm likely out and really need more.  OR he could see that my doctor prescribed a bottle of 30 pills two weeks ago, and then he'd know he needs to discuss that further -- is the pain really that bad?  or am I just pill hunting?  Doesn't that sound easier?

*Speed of treatment:  To first get in to see a specialist of any sort is often a 3-6 week wait.  If you're directed to a specialist there's probably already a pretty major concern, but you have to just deal with it until you can get in to be seen!  This last month I've been suffering through a severe ear infection.  I've had a couple of appointments through my regular doctor until it was clear that the meds he was prescribing weren't helping.  So then I had to get in to see the ENT specialist (That's the Ear, Nose, Throat guy -- Otolaryngologist).  They were going to make me wait nearly a month!!!  I was able to sweet-talk my way into an appointment in 15 minutes from that time :)  but I really had to be convincing.  (It helped that the last time they treated me for an ear infection there it had already gotten to the bone before they saw me.)  I saw the doctor last Friday.  They removed my ear tube from my ear canal (pushed out by the infection) and gave me an even stronger antibiotic and more ear drops.  I was supposed to be feeling at least some better by yesterday.  Well guess what -- I slept on the recliner again last night because it's getting more painful, etc. again.  I called today and have been jumping through hoops all morning hoping they'll let me get in to see them before the follow-up appointment already scheduled in another week and a half.  What option do people have while they're waiting to see the next doctor?  Basically they have to manage their pain.  Which frequently translates into more pain medication.  If treatment or resolution of pain was able to be addressed more quickly then fewer pain meds would be needed and therefore less likelihood of pain med abuse or accidental overuse.

*Patient awareness: Every patient who walks out of the doctor's office or hospital with a prescription for narcotic pain meds needs to understand the risks associated with those meds.  If accidental pain medication abuse could be reigned in then people will be much better off.  Just the "may cause dizziness" or "may cause drowsiness" labels on the prescription bottle isn't enough.  Actual patient education needs to take place.  This doesn't have to take a long time, but the patient needs to be in control of their own health and body.  I had a friend several years ago whose sister was prescribed pain pills after a car accident.  She ended up forging some paperwork to get more pain pills, not understanding why she "needed" them so much.  She was arrested and went through a long and difficult process trying to get through withdrawals and come to terms with the fact that the medications she thought were helpful were also addicting.  She had honestly never been told that the meds were addictive!  This should never happen! 

Okay, I'm done.  There's your essay of the day :)  I'm still waiting to hear back from the doctor's office about this infection.  Hopefully they can fix the problem instead of just stringing this issue along.  I'm ready to be able to be more involved in life :)

(Picture: Sabrina cuddled up on Grandma Abuela's bed)