make almond milk

It’s easy when you buy raw almonds in bulk and don’t have to crack your own nuts, like I did with the coconut milk.

Just put a cup of almonds with about 4 cups of water in the Blendtec or a blender. For my Blendtec, you can’t do more than 4 cups of water otherwise it overflows, even though there is still plenty of room in the blender.

Pour it out into a paint strainer bag (or cheesecloth or fine strainer) and squeeze out all the milk.

Poured the almond milk into a half gallon container and made milk from the same almonds twice. It tasted soooo good.

So, 1 cup of raw almonds I’m able to get 8 cups or 1/2 gallon of almond milk. Way cool.

Then, I dried the almond pulp in the oven on low (dehydrate) for 2 hrs and then once that’s done, I’ll make almond meal from it to be used for baking.

Almonds are among the least expensive nuts right now to get, other than sunflower seeds, which those are seeds, not nuts. Ohhhh. I read that sunflower seeds are high in Omega 6’s, so you don’t want too much of that in your diet.

I thought it might be good to try to do pecan milk, flour, or maybe pecan butter. Walnuts would be good to try similarly. Macadamia would be an extra special treat, but that’s like maybe 3-4x the price of almonds per pound.

Once walnuts were less expensive than almonds, I thought, but they are not right now.

It will be nice to try other nuts to make these specialty products that I know most likely can only be found in a place like Whole Foods or AJ’s or some specialty gourmet grocery store. Whenever you see gourmet or specialty, it means CHA CHING – $$$$$$!

I went to Lowe’s after dropping the kids off at school. We were supposed to do it BEFORE school, but we didn’t leave early enough.

Anyway, Lowe’s had 1-gallon paint strainer bags for 2/$1.99, so, it really ends up being about $1/bag. I looked on Amazon for a nut bag and they range from about $8-10/bag, and some are only 2 quart. Honestly, one of them looks like a paint strainer bag, just with a logo on it, but they were charging $7.95.

That’s really outrageous, but if people are willing to buy it, OKAY! This momma won’t pay that much. I’m sure I could’ve gotten a Lowe’s 10-25% off coupon or something like that and it would’ve saved me the tax and then some, but that was the regular price.

I’ve bought cheese cloth before and it’s more expensive than $1/bag, so I feel this was a good buy. They look to be reusable, which I hope they are.

After I make the almond milk, I’ll spread the almond pulp on a baking sheet and bake on low for a long time to dehydrate them. Or, maybe I’ll ask my dad if he has a dehydrator and if he does, if I can borrow that.

Ok, I’m going to Lowe’s (right down the street from me) to get a paint strainer bag. I saw this can be used as a substitute for a nut bag, which is a lot more.

I have almonds and I have nuts. I sometimes feel I have more nuts, like lately, than I have water . . . I’m nutty.