Homemade "Milks"

Creamy Almond Milk

This delicious milk is creamy and high in calcium. It makes an excellent alternative to cow's milk and tastes wonderful in coffee or granola. It is also a fraction of the cost of regular milk.

Ingredients:
- Almonds* (1/2 cup)
- Vanilla extract (a splash)
- Water

Soak 1/2 cup of almonds in water overnight. Drain the almond water and add almonds to 3 or 4 cups of water (depending on desired consistency). Add a splash of vanilla and blend in blender on high until smooth and creamy (3-4 minutes).

* Blanched almonds make it smoother and prettier looking. You can buy almonds blanched or blanch them yourself by tossing them in boiling water, waiting a minute or so, dumping them out and rubbing off the skins.

Ideas:

• You can substitute almonds for any nut or seed! Or even nut butter or seed butter!
• You can fortify your milk with vitamins like B12, D, C and Calcium. Just calculate how many days it takes you to get through a litre (for me it takes 2 or 3). Then take the appropriate amount of vitamins for that number of days (so for me, it would be 2 of each vitamin) and grind them in a mortar and pestle. Then, add them in when you blend the mixture! 

Sunflower/Sesame Seed Milk

You can also replace almonds with sunflower or sesame seeds. The instructions are basically the same as almond milk, just use 1/2 cup sunflower or sesame seeds in place of almonds. Soak them over night and blend with a splash of vanilla and in slightly less water than the almonds (2 - 3.5 cups of water). I also recommend adding sugar or stevia or some other sweetner to the seed milk, as seeds are naturally less sweet than almonds. Once blended, you can either pour the milk through some cheesecloth to strain the pulp, or just stir your milk before you drink it each time (if you like to drink the pulp like I do!)


Super Soy Milk

I haven't tried this one yet, but I thought I'd share some of The Cookbook for People Who Love Animals wisdom.

Ingredients:
- Soybeans (1 cups)
- Vanilla extract (a splash)
- Water (4 cups)
- Sugar/Stevia or other sweetner (optional, to taste)

Soak soybeans overnight in water. Drain water and add beans, vanilla and water to blender. Blend on high speed for 5 minutes. Put the milk in a pot, cover it loosely (not tightly or else it will spill over), and cook it on low heat until it comes to a boil. Then, reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for 45 minutes longer. After 45 minutes, let the milk cool and then strain it through a cheesecloth. You should be left with a liquid soymilk as well as pulp. You can add sweetners to taste, if you like. Store both in the fridge.

The Cookbook says you can add banana or fruit juice to the soymilk to jazz it up a bit! They recommend using the pulp left over in grains, casseroles, burgers, or even doggy food! Groovy.