Homemade soy milk and other wonders

Back in our Year of Less, we dabbled with homemade almond and soy milk. It was just too much work without a good blender or with our undersized food processor.

I'd long been itching for a Vitamix or Blendtec. It was time. Rather than a replace-it-every-three-years foreign-made blender, we went for the gold standard. Something with a kick-ass warranty that you'd eventually repair rather than replace.

I'm not really cool with dropping $500 on a blender, but it turns out you can buy factory-refurbished units direct from Vitamix for a substantial discount. Done.

The thing is amazing. I haven't bought soy milk since! It takes ridiculously little time (and perhaps 25 cents' worth organic soybeans) to make a 1.5L batch. In addition, it makes the world's best smoothies. And if you're a vegetarian like me who sometimes doesn't really like to eat his vegetables, now you can drink them!