Picture Tutorial: Homemade Almond Milk

Before I say anything else, I need to give a giant THANK YOU to all of you who stopped by yesterday and participated in our candid discussion on birth control. I read every single comment and email as they came in, and I know that all of the different stories and opinions were not only enlightening to me, but others as well. I think the most important thing that we can all take away is that we all have different bodies, and different things work for different women. At the same time, it is very important for everyone to be aware of their own bodies and what’s going on (i.e. realize that if your migraines went away that month you forgot to take your BCP, then there may be a direct correlation). And of course, find a doctor you trust and talk to them about any concerns you have and discuss options for yourself.

I’m not going to post any food from yesterday because there wasn’t anything special (last day before going grocery shopping) and I don’t want to play “catch up” with my eats. There was something special this morning, though!

Homemade Almond Milk!

It’s actually really easy to make, and I have step-by-step pictures to make it even easier for you.

Start by soaking 1 cup of almonds (I used raw almonds) over night (picture is post-soak).

Rinse soaked almonds.

Measure out three cups of filtered water (mine was just from the Brita pitcher in our fridge).

Blender + Almonds + Water:

I was a little worried about my blender, because I obviously don’t have a super cool VitaMix or Blendtec (although that’d be awesome!). My little guy held up great though. It’s a 14-speed Oster blender, and I put it on the fifth speed (labeled “Nuts”).

Blend, blend, blend!

To strain, I used a doubled-over piece of cheesecloth set in my colander, which I had draining over my Pyrex container.

To get all of the liquid out, you’re going to need to squeeze the cheesecloth (opportunity for some fun husband-wife photography!)

The resulting product – pure, unadultereated almond milk!

Now is where you can get creative, if you’d like! The options are up to you – add a little sea salt for a more savory “plain” almond milk, or add cocoa and agave for chocolate almond milk…you get the picture. All you have to do is rinse out your blender (it’ll still have almond remnants in it) and gently re-blend whatever you add in.

I was feeling the vanilla this morning…

Then after a taste-test thought it could use some sweetener (raw agave, because agave in its raw state actually retains some nutrients).

Blend again, and voila! Almond milk!

I want to do a cost analysis, and see if it would be cheaper to get almond milk at the store or to make your own. At this point, my guess would be it’s cheaper to get it at the store (especially when I can find Almond Breeze on sale for $2.50). But we shall see!

The other fun thing about making your own almond milk is that you have all the leftover almond pulp to play with!

I don’t have a dehydrator, so my almond remnants are currently on a cookie sheet in my oven on “Warm” – I think it’s actually working pretty well as a poor-woman’s dehydrator so far!

Naturally I had to enjoy the fruits of my labors for breakfast this morning:

Let me know if you decide to make any homemade nut-milks! I believe this same method would work for all sorts of nut milks. I am allergic to tree nuts, so I’m limited to almond milk, cashew milk and maybe peanut milk (we’ll see how that goes!). I also want to try pepita (raw pumpkin seed) milk. I’m just giddy over the endless options. If you experiment with any nut milks send me a picture at mrslcblog at gmail dot com and I’ll feature it on the blog (someone do me a favor and try macademia nut milk…that’s the only nut I wish I could have that I can’t. Oooh and pistachio milk..I bet it’d be green! Someone do it, please!).

Time to get crackin’ on my to do list, I’ll see you all later tonight!