You can Milk an Almond?

Easy!

Easier than I like to admit honestly, because people are usually so impressed when I tell them I make my own almond milk! I recently have really backed off from cow dairy as, even though it doesn’t give me too much trouble, it just puts a little strain on my digestive system that I think it can do without. For a quick lesson in evolution, think about most mammals, they drink their mother’s milk until mature enough to handle other foods. All mammals except humans, that is. For some mysterious reason we decided that we just loved milk so much why not steal it from other mammals, namely cows & goats. We are all born with the enzyme lactase in our bellies, to digest the sugar in milk called lactose. This enzyme is only supposed to stick around about a year or two but somehow many of us have "outsmarted" nature and tricked our bodies into producing lactase even longer so we continue to have the ability to digest milk. So, those who are lactose intolerant are actually the normal ones, as their bodies stopped producing the enzyme at the correct time. Personally, I have had a love hate relationship with dairy my whole life, never a fan as a kid, I even convinced my mom to start buying me Lactaid Milk. However, my body can handle it to some extent as long as I don’t over do it.  Since trying to back off from the dairy, I sometimes feel an empty space in my heart when I want a bowl of cereal or a creamy smoothie, so I have been happily exploring alternatives to fill that little hole.

Soy Last Year

You don't want dairy? Drink Soy milk! No. Not the biggest fan of soy anything, really. Since going vegetarian I have felt that people expect me to love tofu (a high protein soy product), but I don’t. Not only am I turned off by the texture and flavor but with a little investigation it’s easy to find that soy is an ingredient present in so many processed foods (think corn and HFCS). Soy Lecithin is an ingredient you’ll see used as a binding agent in foods like ice cream and veggie burgers, just to name two. However, there are many other kinds of emulsifying  agents out there but since soy is so cheap, thanks to government subsidies, it is the obvious choice for most food producing companies. The high levels of estrogen in soy have been linked to possibly causing breast cancer and have also been found to worsen PMS in some women. So, all in all, I am SOy over soy and would encourage others who are trying to avoid cow dairy as well to give some other “milks” a try.

She’s Nuts

Nuts are the best, particularly almonds, cashews, and walnuts. Aside from boasting incredible nutrition from omega 3's, high protein, potassium and zinc, they are a healthy, high energy, snack that are easy to keep in your backpack or purse for snacking. However, nuts are smarter than you think, and they have developed a disguise that is stopping you from absorbing their nutrition! The skins that many nuts dress themselves in contain enzyme inhibitors that are responsible for keeping the nut from sprouting in your cabinet. These inhibitors are much harder for your body to digest and actually prevent your body from getting the most nutrition out of these little packages of energy. For almonds, you can leave them in a bowl of filtered water overnight and by morning the skins will be lose and easy to remove. I used to spend about an hour peeling the skins off with a finger nail until I discovered that you can pop em' right out with one good squeeze, a feeling similar to eating edemame. Beware; you may have some flying almonds though (found one in my toaster, yet another late night smoke alarm incident). Buy organic, raw nuts that haven’t been toasted or salted to be sure you get the max amount of lively nutrients. Cashews and walnuts only need to be soaked for about 5 hours, but make sure you rinse the nuts before eating, as the soak water is loaded with those very enzymes you’re trying to get rid of.

It’s like having a cow in the Kitchen

Almond milk is so freaking simple to make its silly. Combine a handful, about 8, of your soaked and peeled almonds (I like to use 2 or 3 unsoaked almonds too, just for the flavor) and 500 mL of filtered water in the blender. I use a combo of chop, liquefy, and puree to milk my almonds, but be sure to stop the blender for a minute to let the pieces of almond settle to the bottom then liquefy again. You can add a dab of honey as well, if you like, but I find the almonds to be sweet enough on their own. The result will be a bubbly, white milk in the blender, which you can run through a sieve or cheesecloth to remove the ground up almond. Sometimes I won't strain it, as the almond pieces in the milk can be a delicious addition to morning oatmeal or cereal. But you can also safe the almond puree to save and stir into oat or rice dishes later, without the milk.


Nuts over Almonds

Now the nutrition part, I promise ill make it quick! Almonds are incredibly rich in protein, fat, zinc, potassium, iron, B vitamins, and magnesium and are good for respiratory and digestive health. It also has a wonderful amount of calcium, even greater than cow dairy and usually is less than 60 cals per serving! So start milking your almonds, go nuts!