I just made this for the first time today and it seriously blew my socks off at how clean it made me feel inside. It even cleaned the "grass stains" off the VitaMix carafe.


I used a T. of Birch bark Xylitol and water instead of the orange juice. I also filleted and washed off the aloe before blending it.

I was in a hurry so instead of messing around cutting off all the big thorns or straining the mess through a nut milk bag I wrapped my knife handle with a piece of a green scrubby and scrubbed the thorns off with that. It worked perfectly well and took only a minute or two to remove the thorns from five nopals.

To me the smoothie tasted (the way I prepared it) like a slightly sweet cross between green beans, asparagus, and Granny Smith apple. Very refreshing and fast. I'm planning on having it every day. If you haven't already - try it!

[www.youtube.com]

I need to start growing some aloe vera inside, I've been doing more and more research into it lately and it's something I definitely want to start consuming. Do you grow aloe vera? Aloe is also loaded in powerful immune-boosting polysaccharides and of course the gel is great for the skin. I thought it was kind of funny in this video how at the beginning he says he would never recommend drinking orange juice straight but wasn't concerned because of the fiber from the cactus and aloe.... and then he strains out all the fiber at the end lol. He also said the foam indicates a lot of enzymes and life-force, not sure where he got that from. Looks like a great drink, though.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2015 03:03AM by jtprindl.

jtprindl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I need to start growing some aloe vera inside,
> I've been doing more and more research into it
> lately and it's something I definitely want to
> start consuming. Do you grow aloe vera?

I have a few "rescue" aloe vines but I don't eat them. THey are kind of like pets and I don't know if they are the "vera" type so I wouldn't eat them anyway.

Aloe is
> also loaded in powerful immune-boosting
> polysaccharides and of course the gel is great for
> the skin.

Yeah, it's crazy but it was only a few minutes before it hit my skin and made it look kind of silvery/pearly. How can that be bad, lol?


I thought it was kind of funny in this
> video how at the beginning he says he would never
> recommend drinking orange juice straight but
> wasn't concerned because of the fiber from the
> cactus and aloe.... and then he strains out all
> the fiber at the end lol. He also said the foam
> indicates a lot of enzymes and life-force, not
> sure where he got that from. Looks like a great
> drink, though.

Tell me about it. Don't get me started - I know, I know... I was practically tearing my hair out with the uncookbook but I'm very glad I was too lazy to return it. It's all half "figure it out yourself" with him after he gives it an unedited shot and is on to his next project . A lot.IMO. You just have to take it or leave it. He's just an untrained guy bumbling around like most of us are and doesn't present himself otherwise.

Tai recommended to me to blend aloe vera to get clean inside, but have never seen it in shops as yet. Will try and grow it. Want to start getting into herbs a bit more.

The Sproutarian Man Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tai recommended to me to blend aloe vera to get
> clean inside, but have never seen it in shops as
> yet. Will try and grow it. Want to start getting
> into herbs a bit more.


There was a brief period of time this summer where I could've gotten them but I wasn't as interested in it as I am now and at the time didn't know what to do with it except smear the gel on my face lol. I didn't know the entire thing was edible.

Herbs are an extraordinary class of foods, amazing healing properties with unique phytochemicals and many are associated with longevity. There's so many wonderful plants nature has provided us with, it would be a shame to only consume fruits and vegetables - an insult to nature!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2015 03:51AM by jtprindl.

Guys, your best bet for finding these smoothie ingredients is in Mexican and International grocery stores and in those communities. You want the largest plumpest aloe leaves you can find. I get the ones that are about 2 1/2 feet long and 6" at the base. Where I am they cost $1.79 each and are around 5 years growth - which is what you want.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2015 04:02AM by SueZ.

SueZ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Guys, your best bet for finding these smoothie
> ingredients is in Mexican and International
> grocery stores and in those communities. You want
> the largest plumpest aloe leaves you can find. I
> get the ones that are about 2 1/2 feet long and 6"
> at the base. Where I am they cost $1.79 each and
> are around 5 years growth - which is what you
> want.


Is aloe almost always organic since it's so easy to grow?

jtprindl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SueZ Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Guys, your best bet for finding these smoothie
> > ingredients is in Mexican and International
> > grocery stores and in those communities. You
> want
> > the largest plumpest aloe leaves you can find.
> I
> > get the ones that are about 2 1/2 feet long and
> 6"
> > at the base. Where I am they cost $1.79 each
> and
> > are around 5 years growth - which is what you
> > want.
>
>
> Is aloe almost always organic since it's so easy
> to grow?

I don't know. I never assume that.

seems to be quite a few potential negatives.

plus all that fructose and glucose, lol.

[www.aloeverahq.com]

[www.livestrong.com]

[www.stylecraze.com]

but of course we will now be bombarded with musings of how none of it is true, and there were no double blind placebo controlled studies.

fresh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> seems to be quite a few potential negatives.
>
> plus all that fructose and glucose, lol.
>
> [www.aloeverahq.com]
> -drinking-aloe-vera-juice/
>
> [www.livestrong.com]
> sks-benefits-of-taking-aloe-vera-juice-internally/
>
>
> [www.stylecraze.com]
> -aloe-vera-juice/
>
> but of course we will now be bombarded with
> musings of how none of it is true, and there were
> no double blind placebo controlled studies.

Yesterday it took me less than a minute to filet a giant aloe leaf and rinse off the gooey latex even though I had never done it before. It's easy. Problem solved.

latex is not the only issue.

To Fresh,
I am an acupuncturist and herbalist. When I have time, I will write up a case study of a woman I helped who was slated for surgery: to remove her sigmoid colon and in the interim, to have a colostomy bag. Through my intervention, she healed in 3 months and no longer needed surgery.

One of the most important things I used was aloe vera. I have used it a lot for a variety of problems with people.

When you read those warnings about Aloe Vera, consider if the aloe was pasteurized and sitting in a plastic or glass jar for months with a preservative. Consider if it was picked fresh from the plant or cut from a farm in Mexico and had been sitting around for weeks. A lot to consider with Aloe. In Chinese medicine, we even have dried aloe resin.

Young plants are different from medium sized plants and they are even different from the even older plants.

SO much variation in how it affects the body...and there are different varieties of Aloe vera.

I hope this helps you to not rush to judgement.

fresh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> latex is not the only issue.

Yeah.

*** Medical Disclaimer*** Any one on medication and also every pregnant women should talk with their real doctors and their other qualified health professionals before eating or drinking anything that can interact with their medications or affect the fetus.

You can really make a mess of your health with even very good nutritious foods if they interact with your meds - and many, many of them do.

I like to experiment. Today I had Marcus' Cactus-Aloe Smoothie with aloe which I had frozen and a lb. of cactus I had dehydrated. The smoothie had the same good feeling and taste I experienced from the fresh one yesterday.

Today I drove to a further away Mexican grocery store because there was some kind of brown/yellow "rust" on the cactus of the nearby International market's offerings which I wasn't interested in buying. Now I have a couple of huge bags of the smoothie ingredients - enough for "as is", freezing, and dehydrating. I may even try freeze drying the aloe, etc.

SueZ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Guys, your best bet for finding these smoothie
> ingredients is in Mexican and International
> grocery stores and in those communities. You want
> the largest plumpest aloe leaves you can find. I
> get the ones that are about 2 1/2 feet long and 6"
> at the base. Where I am they cost $1.79 each and
> are around 5 years growth - which is what you
> want.

Thanks for the suggestion, and thanks for the storage ideas with freezing seeds also. Always good helpful real world suggestions, so this is good.

Best regards,

The Sproutarian.

Tai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To Fresh,
> I am an acupuncturist and herbalist. When I have
> time, I will write up a case study of a woman I
> helped who was slated for surgery: to remove her
> sigmoid colon and in the interim, to have a
> colostomy bag. Through my intervention, she
> healed in 3 months and no longer needed surgery.
>

that's wonderful.

>
> One of the most important things I used was aloe
> vera. I have used it a lot for a variety of
> problems with people.
>

it's not possible to accurately state
"i employed aloe vera"
then
"woman healed"
therefore aloe vera helped.

nor can you say it is safe for all in all situations.
i just posted it for info purposes for those interested.


i find that millions of years of evolution has prepared our body (teeth, tastebuds, digestive system, etc) and that is what should determine a proper food, not some alleged study or other dubious claim or tale.

certainly if the body decides aloe vera or anything else, after a taste test and other tests, is proper to eat, that is in alignment with my thinking. most don't think that way, and that's fine.

Super Longevity?? Wow! Are we talking 250 years here? I'm thinking 250. Anyone thinking 250? No? 225?

For todays experiment I tried the recipe as it was created - with orange juice. I didn't like it nearly as much as it kind of masked the wonderful and unusual fresh rather subtle spring green taste.

I also had to refined my method of dethorning cactus. The green scrubby I wrapped around my knife handle yesterday worked well but in my new supply of cactus they all have monstrous thorns and the small pads are concave so a new invention was in order.

Lucky for me I was able to pull out the big guns. My thick lined silicone oven mitt and the industrial version of the dainty green home scrubby, this...

[www.webstaurantstore.com]

They worked splendidly and I highly recommend them for anyone who wants to live forever and with unbleeding fingers.

Suez I want some

I did make aloe vera drink once, a recipe from SHAZZIE.

I made this photo how to cut aloe


and here is the aloe mousse


Marcus is growing on me, thanks suez. I shall enjoy this video.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2015 10:37AM by coconutcream.

coconutcream Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Suez I want some
>
> I did make aloe vera drink once, a recipe from
> SHAZZIE.
>
> I made this photo how to cut aloe
> [1.bp.blogspot.com]
> AAAAAAAABUw/VZ0xfPbNh1o/s1600/aloe.jpg
>
> and here is the aloe mousse
> [4.bp.blogspot.com]
> AAAAAAAAAtk/A2rkb7XV4sk/s1600/maria1%2B125.jpg
>
> Marcus is growing on me, thanks suez. I shall
> enjoy this video.

You're welcome, Coconutcream. I enjoy your food pictures very much but ones like this are too efffing big and ruin the format of every effing page they are on making it really hard to read the text without scrolling back and forth for every line like a effing moron trying to learn how to read. PLEASE, is there some way you can make your pictures smaller so they fit without making reading such an effing burden? Thanks. And please excuse my French - I find it hard to get your attention on the matter using other ways.

I'd like to see your aloe mousse recipe! It's certainly different. Did you like it with bananas?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2015 12:50PM by SueZ.

For today's experiment I decided to try blending the cactus pads without removing the thorns or using a nut milk bag. To do this I put on a big silicone oven mitt over each hand in order to wash the napales without getting stabbed. This turned out to be fortuitous as the mitts actually scrubbed off the thorns as I washed them - in seconds! See, sometimes it pays not to throw out all your old stuff like cooking gear.

For a further experiment I added a few things to the mix. The lemon grass worked out ok but nothing I'll waste it on again. The second thing I added was one of the various mints the local Mexican grocery store always has plenty of. The one I tried today was labeled "Lalop/Sha Poo Mint" I threw in a stem's worth of leaves and couldn't taste any mint so I doubled up on it and still tasted no mint. Then I started to get a stimulant buzz so googled my "mint" only to find out it was really betel leaves.

From now on I will google stuff I buy with weird sounding names. Mint is not always mint. Lesson learned.

For today's experiment I added two red nopales cactus fruits to the mix and was surprised their color was so strong as to overpower all that green. The smoothie remained only slightly dulled red. The small fruits must have extraordinarily potent antioxidants to do that, IMO.

This was my favorite version of the smoothie so far although I did have to strain out the seeds as they were too much for my VitaMix to bash to smithereens in the short amount of time I allow for blending time. (I never let the blender heat up and it was starting to today).

That was a very interesting video! I am a bit leery of using the outer part of the aloe leaf, however, as I have heard it is extremely laxative in effect. However, I wonder if all those wonderful healing properties are present in the gel, as well. I guess I will have to look it up.

257 sounds like a nice number
longevity

For today's experiment I added the fresh squeezed juice from a pomegranate to the smoothie. This had the best results for me of any of the experiments with this smoothie so far. Made me feel squeaky clean inside - like I feel after I've been swimming for a really long time.

I am still experimenting with this smoothie and have found that I don't need any sweetener with it. The rinsed off aloe gel and nopales with just water added taste good as they are to me.

I also found that I can blend the smoothie the night before I drink it and it doesn't seem to degrade at all in the fridge overnight. This really surprised me and will come in handy for anyone who doesn't have the few minutes of time in the morning to blend it.

Today one of my nopales was larger than usual and one of it's big thorns actually penetrated one of the thick silicone oven mitts I've been wearing to scrub off the thorns quickly. The larger nopales taste a little too twangy to me so I added the T. of Xylitol back to the aloe/nopales/water mix I had been using until yesterday.

For todays experiment I added 2 t. of juniper berries and 1/4 t. of lavender flowers to the smoothie recipe. It was interesting but not interesting enough to do again. I'll save the rest of my juniper berries and lavender for making raw chocolates.

SueZ wrote:
Today one of my nopales was larger than usual and one of it's big thorns actually penetrated one of the thick silicone oven mitts I've been wearing to scrub off the thorns quickly

Tai:
One common method is to hold the nopal leaf with tongs and use the free hand to scrape off most thorns with a serrated knife. This might help initially, and then you can use your other method of using that mitt afterwards to get the rest off. Just a thought to cut down on those incidents.

SueZ wrote:
The larger nopales taste a little too twangy to me so I added the T. of Xylito

Tai:
Yes, the larger ones taste strong! Especially if you consume a lot, like I sometimes do. For me, it's wonderful to mix fresh fruit juice and a little fruit with it to make a smoothie, but I understand if you are avoiding fruit.

Tai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SueZ wrote:
> Today one of my nopales was larger than usual and
> one of it's big thorns actually penetrated one of
> the thick silicone oven mitts I've been wearing to
> scrub off the thorns quickly
>
> Tai:
> One common method is to hold the nopal leaf with
> tongs and use the free hand to scrape off most
> thorns with a serrated knife. This might help
> initially, and then you can use your other method
> of using that mitt afterwards to get the rest off.
> Just a thought to cut down on those incidents.


Tai, I've been doing a lot of experimenting with various techniques and even though I've got really good knife skills I have found that using the silicone oven mitts to dethorn the pads is WAY faster - takes seconds - no resharpening of knives. I don't even bother anymore dethorning the smaller pads as I've found my Vitamix demolishes them totally. Tomorrow I'm going to throw in the biggest pads I have without bothering to dethorn them. I'll report back on how that goes.



>
> SueZ wrote:
> The larger nopales taste a little too twangy to me
> so I added the T. of Xylito
>
> Tai:
> Yes, the larger ones taste strong! Especially if
> you consume a lot, like I sometimes do.


I've posted about, and have been consuming, a lb. of them a day for over a week now. Each day a different way and using different techniques.


For me,
> it's wonderful to mix fresh fruit juice and a
> little fruit with it to make a smoothie, but I
> understand if you are avoiding fruit.


Not for me. My favorite thing about the taste of the nopales/aloe smoothie is that subtle taste of the desert I've found I don't want risk overpowering. It's cold where I am and I like to be virtually transported to the desert as I drink while looking out over the snow covered landscape. It adds a lot to the experience. In the future I will probably stick to the smaller pads to avoid sweeteners - unless I find out the larger ones are more nutritionally dense.