But I will say this-do any other mammals drink the milk of another mammal? Think about it-do monkeys drink dolphin milk? Elephants drinking lion milk? Cows drinking human milk...? So why do we need cow milk? Food for thought! It's another argument for why breast milk is so important but that's another post for another time! Our pediatrician even reiterated to us that as long as you are getting calcium from other healthy sources such as leafy greens, then no one ever actually needs cow's milk! Rice and coconut milk are other options, as is hemp milk, but since we don't have nut allergies to worry about, almond was the most affordable option. A lot of people think soy milk is a healthy alternative, but if you do your research you'll find that soy is especially dangerous to the body.
My Little Miss drinks almond milk daily and she loves it. We started giving it to her around her first birthday in lieu of cow's milk. I nursed her until she was 15 months old, only stopping because at three months pregnant it was hard on my body to nourish one baby while growing another! So I'm glad we started her on a milk alternative prior to weaning so she'd transition more easily. She gets a sippy of milk with some kefir each morning when she wakes up-it's the first thing she asks for. We recently started adding blended fruits and yogurt to make a breakfast smoothie. I sneak in some kale and flaxseed as well sometimes for an added healthy boost!
Once I heard that, I truly wanted to find a better alternative. I had heard how easy it was to make my own almond milk at home, but I didn't think my blender would make it smooth enough. Then I discovered the nut milk bag purely by accident! I was looking for something to rinse and drain my quinoa in (have you ever tried to rinse quinoa in a strainer? It's nearly impossible!) and I found this cool product! At only $9.99 on Amazon I had to give it a try. Well it was totally worth it! Not only can I drain and rinse my quinoa much more easily, but I can make healthy, homemade almond milk at home as well! It also come in handy for straining the pulp out of my daughter's smoothies....she won't drink it if it has pulp. I blame Hubs for his weird aversion to any kind of pulp in his juice!
So I headed over to Pinterest and searched for homemade almond milk recipes and found this one. Seriously what did we do before Pinterest?! It's like, what did we do before Google?! But I digress.
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For homemade nut milk you'll need some sort of food processor or blender. Recently we purchased a NutriBullet, a very reasonably priced alternative to a traditional juicer that does not take up a lot of space on your counter at all! And man does this thing BLEND! It makes things super smooth and liquefied in a minute or less! If you are in the "I really want a juicer but can't afford one" club then this little gadget is definitely a reasonable alternative. It worked quite nicely for making our milk.
The first and most important step is to soak your almonds in a bowl of water overnight. This is very important as it makes the almonds soft enough to blend. Use a large bowl, 1 cup of almonds, and two cups of water. This is what our almonds looked like in the morning.
Drain your almonds and add them to the mixer of your choice. You also need to add the following:
- 6-8 cups water (you'll want to play around with this amount depending on how thin you want your milk to be)
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 3/4 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tbsp. honey
- Optional: Cinnamon to taste
After you've blended all of your ingredients (the recipe I followed said 3-5 minutes, but my NutriBullet worked in less than 2 minutes!) you need to drain the pulp out. We used a large Mason jar for our milk container. We placed the nut bag over the jar and poured the contents of the blender in slowly. We learned that it's best to put a bowl under your jar when doing this step in case of leaks or spills. Especially when you are working with a toddler! I really wish we had a FunPod because Little Miss loves helping in the kitchen, but I am always so worried about her falling. Here she is watching the pulp drain into the jar. She was very intrigued by this whole process!
Once the milk has been poured into the jar, squeeze the bag to get all the additional milk out. We ended up throwing away the pulp for now, which seemed like a waste to me. I am going to research uses for it...if anything I bet it would make good compost! Once you have set your pulp aside, cover your container and give it a good shake to make sure all the ingredients are combined. Then keep it in the fridge and you are all set! I have read that it keeps in the fridge for about a week, but I bet ours will be gone before then! Following the recipe about we got a large Mason jar and a regular sized Mason jar's worth of milk. We used the full 8 cups of water.
So now I am sure you are wondering how it compares to the store bought stuff? Well for starters it is thinner, which like I said before you will want to play with the amount of water to change up the consistency depending on your liking. I like a thinner consistency so it was perfect for me. It was not as sweet as the store bought stuff, but since we don't tend to drink it straight anyway it didn't matter to me. Since we made it yesterday we have used it in our morning smoothies, and I put it in my morning oatmeal and quinoa this morning for breakfast. I tried it last night in cereal and it was perfect. Not too sweet and just the right consistency. And Little Miss did not notice a difference in taste at all. I think we have a winner here!
Go ahead and try it...you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy, affordable, and HEALTHY it is!
Love and Laughs,
Danielle
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