This post was written by my sister-in-law, Samanthia Corcoran. I have always admired the time, energy and choices she puts forth in feeding her family. The first home-grown garden vegetables our family ate came from her garden and they were delicious! She is also the first person I knew who owned a Vitamix, which has been instrumental in getting wholesome veggies and fruits into my kids’ tummies!
The following post contains her recipe for Almond Milk. One the 10 Foods You Should Never Buy is store-bought alternative milks. These milks are often full of added sugars, preservatives, and thickeners such as carrageenan, which research has shown causes inflammation. When laboratory mice are exposed to low concentrations of carrageenan for 18 days, they develop “profound” glucose intolerance and impaired insulin action which can lead to diabetes and other chronic diseases.
If you don’t have time to make it on your own, it is good to remember that while most store-bought almond milk contains carrageenan, Silk Almond milk does not. If you choose to buy your Almond Milk, Silk brand is a good choice. If you want to try almond milk in a recipe, try our Banana Almond Smoothie.
A+ For Homemade Almond Milk
I grew up never drinking milk, unless it had a ton of chocolate or strawberry mix in it. I always wished I had liked it, and I did have it on cereal. My sister was, and still is allergic to milk, so it was never pushed. When I married my husband, who was also allergic to milk, we would have to work to finish a half gallon before it went bad, but then we had kids. As we tried to get our kids to drink milk, we told them stories of their uncle who’s foot was run over by a car and didn’t break. The doctor attributed his strong bones to milk. We were always told Milk is the perfect food, and it is if you are a cow.
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, author of the Ultra Wellness Library and contributor to Huffington post, my brother-in-law’s miracle was probably due to the amount of exercise he did, and in-fact milk may increase your risk of fractures by 50 percent. If you would like to read more on why we should avoid milk, check out Dr. Hyman’s article Dairy: 6 Reasons You Should Avoid It at All Cost or Why Following the USDA Food Pyramid Guidelines is Bad for Your Health. For my daughter, we only needed one reason to switch to almond milk. She gets sick. She has horrible stomach aches, and is very vocal about it.
Because dairy is an animal protein, it has an acidic affect on your body. To balance out the pH, your body turns to its own alkaline mineral reserves and leeches calcium from your bones. So therefore, dairy actually takes calcium from your body rather than introduces it. Try milk made from either almonds, coconut, oats, hemp, or rice.
About 6 months ago, we switched to Almond Milk, and thankfully she had a lot less problems. So for fun (I don’t get out much), we made homemade Almond Milk. At first, it wasn’t good. It was hot from blending and unsweetened, so we doctored it up. We split our batch in half and made one half Banana/Date Almond Milk and the other half Honey Almond Milk. We let them chill and did a blind taste test. We included Silk Original Almond Milk and our two in our test. My son and I were blown away by the Banana/Date with Honey coming in second. My daughter, our long time Almond milk drinker, preferred her familiar silk with the Banana/Date coming in a close second.
As a mom, what I like about the homemade version is I not only can pronounce each ingredient I know where it came from. Although, Silk Almond Milk gets an A- at FoodFacts.com, homemade gets an A+ with me.
A+ For Homemade Almond Milk
Prep Time: 8 hours, 10 minutes
Number of servings: 3 8oz servings
This recipe takes 8 hours and 10 minutes (8 hours soak, 10 minutes work, but no cooking☺).
Ingredients
- 1 cup Almonds
- 1 cup Water for soaking
- 3 cups Filtered Water
- 1 Banana (ripe)
- 3 Pitted Dates
Instructions
- Soak the almonds in water for eight hours or overnight.
- Strain the almonds and discard the water.
- Place the almonds, filtered water, banana, and dates in blender. Blend until liquid.
- Strain the mixture through your cheese cloth.
- Refrigerate.
Notes:
Hardware:
Sturdy Blender or Food Processor
Nut Milk Bag, Cheese Cloth or Cloth Diaper (clean of course :))
1 cup Almonds
1 cup Water for soaking
3 cups Filtered Water
1 Banana (ripe)
3 Pitted Dates
1. Soak the almonds in water for eight hours or overnight.
2. Strain the almonds and discard the water.
3. Place the almonds, filtered water, banana, and dates in blender. Blend until liquid.
4. Strain the mixture through your cheese cloth.
5. Refrigerate.
Note: Use the solid remains on top of oatmeal or yogurt and nothing will go to waste!
Wishing you a beautiful day!
