RECIPE | Homemade Raw Almond Milk

Making your own almond milk is easy and delicious!

My hubby hates almond milk (store bought) but loves this version! It is sure to win over some people that don't normally like it. 

It turns out smooth & creamy just like regular milk but much tastier!

When I look on the cartons of store bought almond milk, most brands use about 1%-2% almonds in the whole carton, so you are basically paying for water with other nasty ingredients. 

I add no sugar to the mix, you can add maple syrup as I have listed below or could try stevia or rice malt syrup.

The below quantity makes roughly 1.5 litres (depends on how much milk you squeeze out at the end!)

Ingredients:

2 cups raw almonds

5 cups filtered water (plus more to soak almonds)

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

A pinch of good quality sea salt

+ a cheese cloth or muslin wrap (to strain the milk)

+ strainer

+ bottles to store your milk in

Directions:

Soak almonds over night, covered in water and a pinch of salt. This will soften them and make them sprout.

Once ready, rinse the almonds and throw away the water that you used to soak them.

Into a blender, put all of the almonds with 2 cups of filtered water and a mix until it forms a smooth paste. 

Once smooth, add rest of water and all remaining ingredients and blend until very smooth (I leave the blender on for a couple of minutes, how long you will need to blend will depend on how strong your blender is).

Now you need to strain the milk, if you leave it as is, it will be powdery from the skin of the almonds and not a very nice consistency.

Put a couple of layers of your cheese cloth or muslin wrap over a strainer and strain the milk into a bowl, then be sure to squeeze any excess milk out of the cloth.

Then pour into clean bottles (I use a funnel to get it in without any mess).

You can keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days.

You will be left with almond meal in your cloth. You can dry this out in a very low oven and store it to replace store bought almond meal or you can keep it "wet" in the fridge for a few days and use it in the same way. 

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Bee xx

A Couple DEEEELICIOUS Smoothie Recipes

How good are smoothies in summer?! You can pack them full of anything you like to give your body exactly what it needs. They are such an easy way to get extra fruit & vegetables into your diet.

There are many different variations to smoothies that you can make and if you are a regular smoothie maker you have probably mixed and matched many different flavours. For the newbies, it's nice to have a couple of recipes to follow.

Below are a couple of my favourite summer smoothie recipes. So refreshing & delicious!

Green Tropical Smoothie
1 cup of coconut milk ( I use coco quench by Pure Harvest instead of canned coconut milk, it is a milk blend of coconut milk and brown rice milk, you can find it in coles and health food stores). If you can't find coco quench, you could use half a can of coconut milk with half a glass of water, or almond or rice milk).
1 frozen banana (the frozen part makes all the difference!)
1 mango, all of the flesh
1 big handful of kale (stems removed)

Blend all until smooth. You may need to add a little extra water to get the right consistency.

I like to have this one for breakfast sometimes instead of the usual green smoothie (Bee's Glorious Green Smoothie - recipe for that one here).

Summer Pink Goddess Smoothie
1 cup of coconut milk - Coco Quench (see my notes in the above recipe regarding the milk)
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 cup chopped cold watermelon

Blend all until smooth. You may need to add a little extra water to get the right consistency.

This is so refreshing in summer. You could even use it as a base to make popsicles, the kids would love it!

Let me know what is your favourite combination in the comments section below.

Enjoy! 

Bee xx