Homemade Almond Nut Milk - Simple, easy, inexpensive, healthy! :)

I've heard of people making nut milk before but I thought it would be a time consuming, tricky process that I couldn't be bothered with. Was I wrong! It was simple, it tastes great and it saves so much money! Next, I will use it to make yogurt in my crock pot. :) Another, easy, inexpensive, healthy treat! :) I'll post that recipe later.

Nut Milk:







Take a cup of your favourite nuts, soak them overnite.
Put those nuts in the blender with 4 and 1/2 cups of water (according to raw-food-living.com, “The soak water will contain the enzyme inhibitors which is very acidic to the body so make sure to rinse your nuts and seeds well.” ) and blend til smooth.

Run the nuts/milk combo thru a nut bag or cheesecloth into a container. I didn't have either so I used a coffee filter and a sieve, but got impatient with waiting so, dumped the filter and ran it thru the sieve.

I then returned the milk back to the blender, reserving the nuts to use in my latest dog food recipe, found on this site, and added to the blender 1tsp of vanilla and 2 tsp of agave syrup. Blended. Tastes great!!!

Will invest in a nut bag or cheesecloth though because it was kinda grainy at the bottom, but worth it! :) Going out to buy more nuts! :)

I would say this might have cost me a $1 to make. Awesome!

It worked great!!

Update on Homemade Dog food - New Recipe!!! :)

So, the food I made last week that cost me about $2 to make lasted me a week. This was giving Noah about half a cup twice per day. He is a 12 pound dog. He loved it!!!

The first day I mixed 1/2 cup of the new food with 1/4 cup of his dry dog food, he ate it all. Later that evening I gave him another 1/4 cup of his dry food with the new food and he pulled the little bits of dry food out as he ate the new food. After some stern, "eat your foods" he ate it. He did get a little more than a cup a day the first few days as we used up his dry food.

That didn't work so well the next day. So, I just didn't give him any new food til he ate the old food. He was so happy when all the dry food was gone, so was I because I wasn't going to force it down his throat and I really wanted him to consume both at the same time because his tummy doesn't handle it too well. Larger dogs don't seem to have this issue so much, at least in my experience.

In any case, the transition was fine! So, I made a new recipe today and of course, Noah loves it! I am not worried so much about transition because the basic ingredients are the same. Oatmeal, eggs and turnip greens. I just changed from carrot to lima beans (because that's what I had). And added a bit of almond meal, sunflower seeds, flax seeds and chicken, and switched up the spices a bit.

So here is the recipe (probably cost me about $2 also):

3c cooked oatmeal (not quick oats)
2 eggs scrambled in 1/2 tsp EVOO
1 c frozen lima beans (steamed)
2 c chicken soup broth
1/4 c carrots (from the soup)
1/4 c celery (from the soup)
1/4 c chicken (from the soup)
1 c almond pulp (left over from making almond milk - will add recipe here, turned out great!)
1 c oat bran
1/2 c flax seed (ground in coffee grinder or food processor)
1/2 c sunflower seed (ground in coffee grinder or food processor)
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp oregano

I put everything but the oatmeal in the blender or food processor because Noah apparently doesn't chew. He had to chew dry food, but anyway... I suspect this is because he's so excited about getting people food that he just wolfs it down, or he's afraid that it will get taken away in short order is what usually happens if people food falls within his reach.  I'm hoping this will change soon once he gets used to the idea because I think it's good for him to actually chew stuff!

So, will let you know how this week goes! Still a little nervous about all this as I'm not a dietitian, or a veterinarian, but I do understand about healthy eating and have researched a lot and combined that with intuition and just plain common sense.

Let me know your experiences and how you like it!

Homemade Granola/Cereal

So, I've searched around on this for a few weeks and finally came up with my own recipe. It turned out pretty good, but don't cook it any longer than 45 minutes or it WILL burn, even if it doesn't look done yet.. :( not with standing, the extra toasty flavour didn't do too much to damage it. :)

Here is the recipe I made:

Dry Ingredients;
3c oats; 1/2 c bran;
1/2 c ground flax (I ground flax seeds in coffee grinder),
 1/2 c sunflower seeds,
1/2 c chopped almonds (don't use the coffee grinder - turns to a flour, try a food processor or blender and pulse, watching closely)
2 tsp cinnamon (I will use more next time)
1 tsp cloves (I will use more next time)
1 tsp ginger (I will use more next time)
1/2 tsp coffee (for mocha flavour)
1 tblsp cocoa powder (for antioxidants, and flavour if you like it)
1/4 c brown sugar (I almost didn't put this in, and I actually could have had more, trying to be careful of this kinda stuff in my diet tho...)

Wet ingredients
1/8 c honey
1/8 c agave
1 tblsp vanilla
1/3c EVOO
1/3c almond milk
1tsp salt (I know, it's not wet)
2 tblsp butter

Fruit suggestions (use about a cup total):
dried cranberries
dried cherries
raisins
dried blueberries
apricots
I only used about 1/2 c raisins  - sugar...

Simmer wet ingredients for a few minutes, then mix with dry until all coated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F; Bake for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes til well toasted in a cookie sheet. I put a sheet of parchment paper on it and I was glad I did, it barely all fit and made it easier to stir.

Remove and cool, stir occasionally (I forgot, it survived)

Add fruit, store in air tight containers.

Let me know if you tried it and how you like it! I'm going to use some when I make my dog food  - for the first time - after I am positive the ingredients won't hurt him. I set some aside for him before I put the raisins in because I know they shouldn't have grapes. Will post when I make the dog food, with or without the granola...

Happy trails to you! :)