My children love to help me cook, bake and create in the kitchen.  So, I used this interest to my advantage this morning and had my daughter assist me in making our almond milk.

Last night, I soaked 1 cup of almonds in water.  I soaked them for about 8 hours.  While I was making breakfast and our morning smoothie, I peeled off the skins off the almonds and rinsed them thoroughly.

My daughter enthusiastically dumped 1 cup of peeled almonds into the blender that was filled with 4.5 cups of filtered water.  

Once the almonds and water were blended once, my daughter added 2 organic, pitted dates to the blender.  Dates are a wonderful natural sweetener!

Once the dates were added, 2 vanilla beans were split and scraped into the blender.

The almond milk was blended once more and then strained through a nut bag while squeezing out the milk. 

Once the milk was all squeezed out and pulp discarded, the milk was poured into 2 Ball jars and sealed.

(Normally we would compost the pulp, but we are moving in the near future so we have to reduce our composting.)

**Many people also dehydrate the leftover almond pulp to make yummy goodness like almond flour.  We don’t have a dehydrator YET (hmmm…possible Christmas gift idea!)** 

Having children help in the kitchen is a great educational opportunity (enhances math and science skills while learning the importance of nutrition).  Also, the sense of accomplishment they achieve in creating something delicious is priceless!

Enjoy!

Marci