Do Life Right

This is another comment that I receive just about every single time I actually have a conversation about veganism with someone who would never consider veganism for taste reasons.
Just because you are vegan doesn’t mean you only wear hemp clothing and never go to the movies. It doesn’t mean that you throw away your [...]

No, vegan meatloaf is not an oxymoron. I also don’t know why this is one of the most frequently made fun of vegan foods I hear about. I’ve tasted far more animal-meat meatloaves that tasted disgusting than vegan versions. Plus, you’ll never come across gristle or fat globs in a vegan version. [...]

Prickly Pear Jelly
I haven’t had the greatest luck in the world preparing jelly, so here is my “What to do when the recipes don’t work” directions.
Prepare syrup as pectin package indicates. Basically you need a lot of sugar, the fruit itself, and pectin. With this made, you supposedly just need [...]

Vegan Prickly Pear Ice Cream

2 cups vanilla soymilk
1 cup prickly pear syrup

Stir into a Stainless Steel Midas Non-Motorized Ice Cream Maker. Stir (or whisk) after 15 minutes. Stir after another 10-15 minutes and serve. This handy bowl makes perfect ice cream, sorbet, gelato, or Italian ice every single time. We absolute [...]

Prickly Pear Syrup

Prickly Pear Juice (approximate how much you have)
Fruit Pectin
Florida Crystals Natural Sugar

To learn how to make prickly pear juice, check out PART THREE. The pectin will have recipes inside the box. Honestly, you have to just experiment with the amounts. Every time I’ve made syrup and jelly, it [...]

Prickly Pear Margaritas

1 cup prickly pear juice (or syrup)
1 1/2 trays ice
1 1/2 cup margarita mix (this is the easy way out) - lime juice from scratch is even better
1 cup tequila, optional if you want yours alcoholic

Blend all ingredients except ice. Slowly add in ice until perfect. Delicious!

Now that we’ve made the prickly pear juice in PART THREE, we’re ready to have some yummy fun with prickly pear fruit. Click here for PART ONE. Click here for PART TWO.
In PART THREE, I explained how to get the juice out of prickly pear fruits. Boiling the way I showed works [...]

Click here to read “Prickly Pear Fruit Harvesting PART ONE”.
Click here to read “Prickly Pear Fruit Harvesting PART TWO”.
Now that you’ve picked the fruit from the prickly pear, it is time to prepare it. We prefer a “no touch” method, which doesn’t involve any knives or accidental touching. Click here for a great [...]

Click here to read “Prickly Pear Fruit Harvesting PART ONE”.
When picking prickly pear cactus fruit, it’s obvious that you need to be careful of the large needles. What isn’t so obvious is that you need to be even more careful of the almost minuscule little thinner-than-hair short needles. These small ones are so [...]

It’s officially prickly pear fruit harvesting season here in southern Arizona. Our prickly pears, a.k.a. tuna (Yes, Tuna!), are beautifully ripe. Some are even falling off their pads. We’ve been surprised at the various colors of the fruit - we especially like the bright red ones that look almost like radishes. Today’s [...]