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.
Soaked and Peeled Almonds
My daughter enthusiastically dumped 1 cup of peeled almonds into the blender that was filled with 4.5 cups of filtered water.
Blending Almonds and 4.5 cups of 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!
Adding 2 Pitted Dates
Once the dates were added, 2 vanilla beans were split and scraped into the blender.
Splitting the Vanilla Bean
The almond milk was blended once more and then strained through a nut bag while squeezing out the milk.
Pouring milk into the nut bag
Squeezing milk out of the bag
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.)
Sealing the jars
The finished product
**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
ThreeFecta 