“OMG”, as the kids’ say, “this is effin good”, says the girl from Miami. Homemade almond milk is absolutely delicious!
I had always been hesitant to make my own almond milk. It sounded expensive, messy and most likely, not worth my time. It wasn’t until I was at my friend Jen’s house and she shared her homemade cardamom infused almond milk with me, that I decided I had to make this stuff ASAP.
I played around with a few recipes and quickly developed a couple of my own worth sharing. I kid you not, upon the first sip, I said “mmm” out loud. Every sip after that, I closed my eyes and was still saying “mmm.” Mind you, no one else was around, so I was essentially talking to myself. Anything that makes you talk to yourself in a joyous manner is certainly worth reproducing.
Once you make this at home you will realize there is absolutely no comparison to the store-bought stuff you see on the shelves and in the “dairy” section. Let’s put it this way, never in my life have I drunk milk by itself, or almond milk for that matter. Unless there was a piece of chocolate cake or a cookie, milk or its substitute, was reserved solely to drench my cereal or lighten my coffee. My father who is famous for his one liners, which make people laugh while simultaneously scratch their head, states, “Jews don’t drink milk.” Ummm, o.k. pops, I guess I was just one more Jew who didn’t drink milk. Until now… Yum!
I had known for a while to be aware of products containing carrageenan thanks to my friend Rachel and the Foodbabe. I was pretty good about avoiding it, with the exception of almond milk. When my son got the flu this year, we removed all dairy and sugar from his diet to help fast track his recovery. To our delight, our picky little eater was more than happy to down his breakfast with almond milk. I knew then, I would have to make the stuff homemade if I wanted it carcinogenic free. The success of introducing a new beverage to Mr. Picky Palate, was just the motivation I needed to get started.
*You can read more about the downfalls of ingesting carrageenan and which products contain it, after the recipe.
What’s the problem with carageenan? Carageenan, according to many medical experts and food nutritionists, causes inflammation when ingested and is also carcinogenic. Chronic inflammation is linked to heart disease, cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Carageenan was approved as a safe food additive by the FDA in the 1970’s. The FDA is currently being petitioned by various watch-dog agencies to ban this additive from all food products.
Carageenan is a non-nutrional substance derived from red seaweed. It is used as a stabilizer, thickening agent and an emulsifier. Currently, carageenan is allowed in organic products, almond milk being one of those products. Other products that may contain carrageenan are displayed below.
Chocolate milk
Ice cream
Sour cream
Cottage cheese
“Squeezable” yogurt
Soymilk
Almond milk
Hemp milk
Coconut milk
Soy desserts
Soy pudding
Sliced turkey
Prepared chicken
Nutritional drinks
Canned soup
Broth
Microwaveable dinners
Frozen pizza
— Source: Cornucopia Institute
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