Let's Talk about Almond Milk!

Mmmm a frothy pitcher of milk... or is it!? This is a batch of my very own, homemade almond milk!

So, my husband is lactose intolerant, which means that I try to limit the amount of milk that he consumes. We still eat normal cheeses and yogurt, and these things don't bother him too much, but milk for morning cereal or oatmeal, or even a splash of it in his coffee is a terrible idea. When we were younger we would buy lactaid or soy milk, but we discovered almond milk not too long ago as a much better (and tastier!) alternative. 

The only problem though, was that almond milk is significantly more expensive than regular milk. Generally, the sale price is about 5 dollars a gallon, and that's if I remember to carefully plan and make sure only to buy when it's on sale! However, I recently discovered that almond milk can be made, both cheaply and easily! 

So, here's how it's done:

1. First, you're going to need to "sprout" your raw almonds. This is essentially a fancy word for soaking them overnight. You'll want to make sure that they're completely submerged, and I also recommend using a tupperware container so that you can cover it up. 
2. Once they've soaked (for at least 5-6 hours), it's time to make almond milk! Place the "sprouted" almonds into your blender. For every half cup of almonds, add 5 cups of water. 
3. Blend! Do this until the water looks milky and there are no large chunks of almond swimming around inside the mix. 
4. Next, you'll need to filter out the larger pieces of sediment. You can do this with virtually any very fine sifter. Many health food stores sell nut-milk bags, but cheese cloth, or even many other improvisations will work fine. 
5. And viola! Almond milk. You can then sweeten the milk with your desired sweetener. I usually don't sweeten the whole batch so I can use it in thinks that are meant to be savory. I also usually leave a spoon or whisk in the pitcher so that I can shake it up before serving, as it tends to settle a bit. 

It will stay good for upwards of a week in the refrigerator. The savings is also very nice! Costco has a 3 lb bag of raw organic almonds for 12 dollars, which I can usually make about four gallons of almond milk with. Thats a savings of 8 dollars (assuming I caught the sale price on that store-bought almond milk). I also feel much better giving my family an organic, homemade product without any preservatives or additives. 

Anyway, I hope that this will be helpful! God bless.