Almond milk

I never liked milk and I really never had milk or cheese, and when my mum thought that I was being a spoiled child that was all the time crying because I had to drink milk, later she realised that I was  intolerant and that my stomach aches and cramps were not faking...On the 80's in Portugal there was not a lot of people speaking about lactose intolerance.

So I believe that I grew up hating even the smell of milk, until today I really don't like it. Few years ago I tried oat milk and was really good with some oats and fruit inside but then I removed all the carbohydrates from my diet and so oats and oat milk were removed.

What I realised with this diet is that there is all the time a way to find alternatives and I started to make my own almond milk.
Most of the milks that you buy in packs have preservatives, or a bit of sugar and even the fact that comes in a pack doesn't look really healthy.

Recently I heard some friend saying that this is not almond milk, is nut juice :) Is not wrong though but it looks like milk and works as milk.

For this recipe you will need a nut milk bag. Is something really easy to find, although in here I had to order from Amazon. So if you don't find a nut milk bag where you live, you can order in Amazon and they are pretty cheap.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of almonds
• 2 cups of water
• 4 dates pitted 
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract (optional)

Let's do it:

• In a container put 1 cup of almonds and soak them in water overnight. I usually soak them for at least 12h.
• After soaking, remove the water and rinse the almonds with running water.
• Pour the almonds in a blender with 2 cups of filtered water and add 4 dates. Blend it in maximum speed for 1 minute. Shake a bit the blender and turn it again in maximum speed for 30 seconds to 1 minute. 
• Place the nut milk bag inside of a bowl
• Pour the mix into the nut milk bag in small batches. With your hands squeeze it until all the milk comes out from the bag
• Pour the milk into a glass bottle. Is very important that you use a glass bottle to help to preserve longer

Some people prefer to throw away the leftovers of the almonds as most of the nutritive part of the almond is on the milk, but as I don't like to waste food I found several ways to use them. As a base of a cheesecake, to pour on the top of a crumble, to spread on the top of salads like bread crumbs, to add to smoothies. You just need imagination to use it :)

So with the leftovers of the almonds place them in a parchment paper and take them to the oven to lose the moisture, to dry and roast. After this process allow the roasted almonds to cool down and keep them is a airtight container. You can keep them for over 1 month. 

*Note* - If the almonds leftovers don't get well dry and roasted and if you close them in a container that will get some mold. So make sure that they lose all the moisture before you keep them.

Time of preparation: 12h to soak almonds + 5 minutes of preparation of the milk
Quantity: 2 cups of milk.

*Note* - You can keep the almond milk in the fridge for about 5 days. I would not recommend to make more than 2 cups of almond milk if you are not sure that you will actually consume it. I prefer all the time to do 2 cups and if I need more, I just do fresh almond milk again.

For today I leave you an Australian band that I recently discovered.
I think the world is blessed with so many good Australian bands that unfortunately are a bit unknown in the rest of the world. Lately I listen a lot music made in Australia, since rock&roll, indie music...you just name it. They have it all...
The Waifs is a rock folk band. I really like it...please listen.
I like Indie music bands with female voices so I am suspicious :)

Enjoy it :)