Almond milk.

So I made some almond milk for the first time today.  This past week that I have been a weekday vegan was terrific, but I really miss my black tea with honey and some sort of milk or other fluid that passes for milk. I don't want to drink anything that comes in a tetrapak due to the difficulties with recycling them, which mostly eliminates commercially available milk replacement products, so I thought that I would try making my own almond milk.

I bought some raw natural almonds in bulk yesterday morning from Drive Organics, which is where I pretty much buy all of my bulk foods.  I put one and a half cups of almonds in my Cuisinart with enough water for them to soak.  I was planning to later process them in the Cuisinart, but that didn't work out.

You have to let the almonds soak for eight to twelve hours, then drain off the water.  Add four cups of water and blend them until the liquid looks like milk with almond skins in it.  Then, strain it through a few layers of cheesecloth and capture the liquid.  It looks exactly like milk!  You can add sweetener and flavourings to taste, but I left mine plain. I haven't tried it yet, but I will certainly keep you posted.

As for what is left over of the actual almonds, there is a considerable amount of pulp or meal or whatever  you would call it left over after blending.  I pressed as much of the fluids out as possible, then spread it out on my fruit leather sheets in my food dehydrator and I'm going to use it to make granola with instead of using chopped nuts.  As the solid matter that is leftover is very nutritious, it is a great way to add some nutrients to your food, instead of just throwing it away.

Granolas.

The day that I went to the screening of The Clean Bin Project, I had the opportunity to speak with Jen before the screening began.  We talked about the blog, the movie and some of the things that we both did, and some that one or the other of us hadn't been doing, or had never even thought of.  As I was explaining the possibility that I might start making my own deodorant, Jen looked at me and said, "You ARE a granola!  But you don't look like one."  This was a tremendous compliment, but to understand why, I should give you some background information on what it means (to me) to be a granola.

When I was in high school, I went through the first of my granola phases when I stopped doing anything with my hair, became vegetarian, stopped shaving and was frequently caught washing my hair with a bar of soap.  Oh, I also spent much of my time acquiring second hand clothes, and not nice-fitting, remotely flattering ones.  One day I was hanging around with a friend from California, who had another friend from his hometown visiting, and my friend asked his friend, "Doesn't she remind you of one of the dirty hippies from home?"  I asked for clarification and he said, "Our hometown is full of granola-crunching hippies."  So the expression was borne.  I am not 100% sure that most people would refer to another person as a granola, but I do find that if I refer to someone as one, people tend to get what I mean.

Granola.

This post is dedicated to Q, the first person I've ever met that made their own granola (although the granola he makes sounds much more complicated - and delicious- than mine!).

Tonight Tim was watching basketball and I was bored, so I thought I would make some granola.  I had some organic quick oats (I know, I know, quick oats aren't as nutritious as regular oats) that I bought a long time ago and figured I might as well use up.  Here were the ingredients I used:

• 2 tbsp butter (melted)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 3 cups quick oats
• 2 tbsp chia (aka Salba) seeds crushed
• 1/2 cup crushed cashews
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

First I melted the butter and added the maple syrup.  In a large separate bowl, I combined the remaining ingredients.  I had to blend the cashews in a food processor because all I had was whole cashews (I pretty much just used all the things I needed to use up: granola, cashews, chia seeds).  Then I poured the butter/syrup mixture on the dry ingredients and mixed everything really well.  I spread the granola evenly      on a baking pan that I had buttered.  By the way, I don't know how the rest of you butter things, but I used to use paper towels to smear it on, but I've started just using my hands and find that actually works a lot better.

I heated the oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit and baked for about 40 minutes, taking the pan out of the oven every ten minutes to stir it around and make sure none of it burned or got too toasty.  It looks like it turned out great!  I snacked on a little of it while it was warm and it is very tasty indeed!