Homemade Coconut and Almond Milk

Since the girls don't drink cow's milk, I've given them almond or coconut milk on occasion. They don't often drink it though and I hate wasting it. Store-bought milks include additives, including synthetic vitamins and minerals.

My first attempt at coconut and almond milk was actually a success (meaning T&Q happily drank it)! It was surprisingly easy to make as well.

Homemade Coconut Milk

1.5 cups of unsweetened, raw, shredded coconut
3 cups filtered water
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)
1 tsp raw honey (optional)

1. Soak shredded coconut in water for 3 hours (2 hours would probably be fine)

2. Put coconut and water (and honey and/or vanilla, if you'd like) into blender and mix on high speed for 2 minutes. It should start to look creamy. I ended up blending it for another minute or two, but my blender wasn't super powerful.

3. The BEST way to strain the coconut milk is through a nut milk bag. Whole Foods had run out of them when I was there. I ended up using a very fine strainer, although you can also use cheese cloth. I rested the strainer on a large bowl and left it there for about 15 minutes to thoroughly strain all the milk out.

4. Pour milk into a glass jar and drink within one week.

This is what it looked like the next morning.
It doesn't even compare to store-bought stuff.
It was amazing!

The tiny taste testers devoured it and promptly asked for "mo"

Homemade Almond Milk

1 cup raw almonds
3.5 cups water
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
Sweetener (2-4 dates, honey etc. - optional)

1. Soak almonds in 2-3 cups of water for about 8 hours

2. Rinse and drain the almonds and place in blender with filtered water, vanilla and sweetener (and anything else you want to add for flavouring!)

3. Blend on high speed for 2 minutes

4. Just like the coconut milk, the best straining method is through a nut milk bag. The fine strainer that I used worked decently well, but I would still recommend investing the $7-8 in a (reusable) nut milk bag ;) I let the milk strain for at least 15 minutes.

5. Pour into a glass jar and consume within about 5 days.

Almonds soaking overnight

Final product: Vanilla almond milk and the almond pulp

Note: Don't throw the almond pulp away! There are so many delicious uses for it - hummus, cookies, muffins, granola, smoothies... I'll blog in a few days about what I end up making with it!