I love it when I type the word “Milly,” on any Apple device. It’s the name of our sweet, vivacious daughter and it always gets changed to “Milky.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to invite your friends’ daughter, in the email you’re composing, to come over and play with Milky?!” Ummm, no. And I doubt she would even have any friends… If her name was “Milky…”
Now, when it comes to our dairy preferences… “milky” is definitely a nice choice of word.
Almond milk or hemp milk is how we roll at our house and I make it every week myself.
Here’s why…
In most almond milk you find on store shelves, there are lots of additives and preservatives.
Things I can’t pronounce like Carrageenan; a controversial texturizing additive known to cause severe digestion issues and inflammation.
There are also some things I can pronounce like, “sugar.” Except it’s not called sugar, but “dried cane syrup,” or, “evaporated cane juice,” or, “cane sugar.”
Sugar brings on a whole host of body ailments. It’s been linked to behavioral issues in children (like ADHD), it causes inflammation… and where there’s inflammation there’s disease.
Plus, if you’re trying to actually lose some weight… you burn sugar off before you burn fat off, so your hour on the treadmill may only end up working off the 20 grams of sugar you drank in your almond milk, before you ever even get to those added pounds you’re trying to lose. Not to mention the food cravings and energy crashes sugar brings on. Ugh! Why is there sugar in anything???!!
Hopping off that soapbox now!
Hopefully, you can see why it’s counterproductive to have a healthy drink tarnished by unhealthy ingredients. Just make it yourself. It’s so easy to do. Here’s what you’ll need:
Ingredients:
5 c. of filtered water
0 to 5 pitted medjool dates
1/2 c. raw almonds
1 tsp. alcohol free vanilla
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1. Soak 1/2 cup of almonds over night.
Just cover the almonds with water and leave it on the countertop , covered, all night.
2. In the morning, drain the water off the almonds and give them rinse.
3. Dump the almonds in a blender along with all the other ingredients- water, dates, vanilla & sea salt. **Note if you want to make this sugar free don’t add dates. I usually use 1 to 2 dates tops, but for a sweeter batch use all 5.
Blend really well until it gets nice and frothy!
4. After blending, you can pour the milk through a cheesecloth to strain it, or just use a fine mesh strainer, then store it in a sealed container.
We prefer a little sediment in our milk, however, so I pour ours directly from the blender into an air tight jug.
Milk will last 5 to 7 days.
It’s so quick and simple to make, it could easily become a part of your weekly meal-prep rituals. Cheers!
*Tip- if you want to make this even easier, do everything the night before. Have your blender already loaded with the water, vanilla and sea salt and place it in the fridge. Have your dates already pitted. Just store them in a little container or baggie and place them next to your covered almonds. The next morning, all you have to do is put the almonds and dates inside the blender and blend. Too. Easy.
*Additional Tip- if you’re a coffee drinker, scoop a little of the froth off the top of the blended milk before you store it away, and put it on top of your morning coffee. Sprinkle a little cinnamon over the froth and you’ve got yourself a little vanilla-cinnamon latte! (This is only when you first make it though, the froth goes away, once the milk settles in the fridge.)
*Since I posted this entry, Mind Body Green published a really great article about Carrageenan. If you’re interested in learning more, check it out. http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-21059/why-im-avoiding-carrageenan-a-cardiologist-explains.html
