Monday, August 18, 2014

Making My Own Almond Milk

Hey everyone. I hope you are all doing well. This is going to be a quick post because I am exhausted. This weekend has been exactly the opposite of what I expected and has been very stressful. There is something wrong with TJ and we don't know what. He was fixed about 2 weeks ago and has not been the same since. Along with being lethargic it's like he was never house trained so I've been cleaning pretty much all weekend... and trying to figure out how to get him to go outside again... if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them because I have no clue what to do and I feel so bad for him because he is miserable.

At 9:00 tonight after almost 3 days here I finally got to a project I was meaning to do on Saturday... make my own home made almond milk for the first time. I remembered to get my almonds soaking this morning so I would be ready to blend tonight to make a yummy smoothie for breakfast tomorrow. Here's a few pics from the process...


I soaked 2 cups of almonds in filtered water. After about 5 hours I actually peeled the almonds. The skin was practically hanging off of them and I heard that it is better with peeled almonds so I made the effort and peeled them. I put the peeled almonds in a new container of fresh filtered water and soaked a few more hours.


After the almonds had soaked I drained them and rinsed them with more filtered water. Then I added the drained almonds to the high speed blender with 6 cups of fresh filtered water and blended away. After it was blended I strained out the pulp in a cheese cloth and was left with this beautiful creamy white almond milk. I'm really happy with how my first batch came out! I didn't add any sweetener (I'd probably add dates to it) or any flavorings because I'm going to use it for smoothies and didn't think I'd need it.


I'm also left with this beautiful snowy white almond pulp. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do with it? I don't have my dehydrator with me but would love to hear what kinds of things you make with almond pulp.

That's all for now. It's back to work tomorrow and I'm sure all I'll be thinking about is TJ and his sad face. I'll try to check in later on in the week with more of my raw eats.


9 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry to hear about TJ. :( Hopefully the vet can figure out what's going on. I know how stressful it is when they're not themselves. I'll be thinking of him, you, and your family until things are better!

    I'm no help with the almond pulp.. but your almond milk looks perfect! I'm glad it turned out so well. Maybe there will be some ideas on Pinterest for the pulp?

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    1. It has been a very stressful few days but after two vets it appears that his problem is most likely trauma from the surgery. Poor thing.

      Thank you! I will definitely check out Pinterest, great idea!

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  2. Yum! I haven't made my own almond milk in a long time. It's so good though! I was never patient enough to peel the almonds. Ha! I used to always just throw the pulp away, but it seems a waste. I bet it'd be good in cookies. Maybe you could make almond flour?

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    1. Haha, I didn't think I would be patient enough to do it either but I saw how easily the peels came off and decided to go for it! The milk came out great and I agree, I feel like it would be a waste to throw out perfectly good pulp! Oooh cookies do sound good, I'll see if I can find a good recipe.

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  3. I searched the net on neutering recovery. It mentions painful urimationas a sign of infection after surgery. Did they sent him home with antibiotics? This is very stressful!

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    1. You're telling me! It is definitely very stressful. We have had him checked by two vets and they both believe it is behavioral and that the surgery was traumatizing for him. He is on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds but his "accidents" in the house are getting more frequent... it's like a complete regression to before he was house trained.

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    2. Thank you for being so kind to the little fella. I am sure he feels awful.

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  4. Oh TJ!! :( My heart breaks for him, and for you. It's hard when you see a creature suffering, and they can't speak or show why they feel the way they do. I hope there is some resolution soon. So sad.

    On a brighter note, what success with the almond milk! I've never attempted it, but this post is inspiring! I have no idea about the pulp, but surely it can be used for something fantastic!

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    1. You are exactly right, it breaks my heart to see him suffer and it is so hard and frustrating not to understand what the problem is! He is on the mend thankfully so hopefully he'll be back to 100% soon!

      Thanks! It was great! I still have the pulp in the fridge, I need to dry it out and I'll probably make cookies with it! ;)

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