DIY Almond Milk

I know I could buy a carton of almond milk for about $3 easily. Easily. But can I tell you? I'm sick and tired of seeing weird ingredients in something that should be so simple. Why does almond milk need starches added to it? Sugar? Salt? Vitamins? "Natural flavoring?" What in the world IS "natural flavoring?"

Once I discovered how to make my own almond milk - free of starches and sugars and flavorings and other additives - I began making it. There's a saying, "You make time for the things that are most important to you." For me, I make time to do this, because it's important that I eat as cleanly as possible right now. I'll admit, there are times when I don't feel like making it. I have a box of organic almond milk handy just in case I don't get a chance to make my own. But it's pretty simple to do, and truth be told, I like the way it tastes better.

Here's what you need to do this: 1 cup of almonds, 7-8 cups of water, a blender, cheesecloth or a nut milk bag, a large bowl to strain the liquid into, and a jar to store your almond milk.

Soak one cup of almonds in two or three cups of (filtered) water overnight. The soaking softens the almonds and removes the enzyme-inhibiting substance in the brown skin.

I like to peel my almonds once they've soaked, but you can skip this step if you want. Some people find the taste of the skin makes the milk taste bitter even after soaking. If you want to give peeling the almonds a try, all you need to do is give an almond a gentle squeeze and the nut will shoot right out of the skin. And when I say "gentle," I mean "gennnnntle." There's an almond MIA in my dining room right now because I squeezed a bit too hard. I find it kind of therapeutic, so I turn on the TV and watch an old movie while I peel almonds. It usually takes me about 10 minutes to do it.

Discard the soaking water and give the almonds a good rinse. Drop the almonds along with the remaining 5 cups of water in a blender. If you would like to make a sweet milk, now's a good time to add your sweetener of choice. Blend the almonds and water (and optional sweetener) for two minutes.

Side Note: because of my blender's limitations, I have to make my almond milk in two batches.

Double Side Note: I do not recommend this version of the Ninja Blender. The capacity is small and it works like part food processor and part blender, but not enough like either when I need it. I'm doing the best that I can with it, but a VitaMix is in my future.

Triple Side Note: If you want something like cream for your coffee or tea, try blending the almonds with just two or three cups of water. DELICIOUS!

Quadruple Side Note: I just wanted to write the word "quadruple." That is all. Carry on.

Pretty cool to see how it's transformed into the milk, isn't it? Once you have milk, pour the liquid through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth. I prefer the nut milk bag because I like a pulp free milk. I picked mine up at my local health food store for about $8 or so. Squeeze the pulp in the bag to get every last bit of milk out of it.

Transfer the milk to your storage container. I picked mine jar up at WalMart for around $5. The almond milk keeps up to three days in the fridge.

That's it. That's how homemade almond milk is done. Pretty simple, huh? No salt, no starches, no natural flavoring. Just what almond milk is supposed to be: almonds and water.

Make Your Strawberries Last Longer

Last week, I picked up some gorgeous, plump strawberries from the farmer's market. I left them sitting on the counter and by the next day almost the entire container had shriveled and turned moldy.

Boo. That was $5 down the drain.

Then I remembered, all too late, a trick that I had read in a magazine (can't recall which one) that would keep the strawberries from getting icky. I picked up another basket of strawberries to test the trick and it worked.

Take your fresh strawberries and put them in a large bowl. Run some cold water over top of them.

For every 2 cups of water, stir in 1/4 cup vinegar. You can use distilled white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. The anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties of the vinegar will kill all the mold spores and bacteria on the strawberries. I promise you will not taste the vinegar on the strawberries!

Swish the strawberries around in the vinegar/water solution and let them soak for 5 minutes or so. Drain, give the strawberries a little rinse, and then place them on a towel-lined cookie sheet to dry. Once the strawberries are dry, store them in an open container in the fridge. Mine have lasted a week and could possibly go longer, but I eat mine before the week is up. You could also cap the strawberries, leave them on the cookie sheet, pop in the freezer overnight, and then transfer the individually frozen strawberries to a freezer bag. Use the frozen strawberries in a fruit ice cream or smoothie.

Enjoy!

Easy Peasy Granola Bars

Today I began the "Great Magazine Purge."

Please tell me that I'm not the only one who has stacks of magazines. Like, stackkkkkks.

This is one stack. Ignore that Women's Health Magazine. Apparently reading the article on how to get sexy abs and butt is not the same as doing the work.

Whatever.

I hate to part with them though. You never know when you're going to need a recipe and it's waiting for you, expectantly, in one of the magazines. And when you go to get that magazine, you discover that you've given that magazine away and now you are stuck. Sure, the recipe is somewhere online, but there's something about having the printed, original in front of you.

One of the magazines that I have stacks of is Eating Well. It's one of my favorite cooking magazines. God bless my aunt who gives me a subscription every Christmas. I {HEART} it. As I was slowly going the January/February 2010 Eating Well magazine, these granola bars stood out to me. I had just picked up a bag of gluten free rolled oats so that I could make my brother some granola bars. This recipe just happens to use old fashioned oats. I looked at the clock to see if I had enough time to make them, I looked at the mess I had made, and I suddenly decided it would be more fun to make these granola bars. And so I trotted downstairs to the kitchen to make a batch.

They were easy to make. Ridiculously easy. Like, so easy that it's crazy to buy pre-made granola bars any more. Plus, these taste so much better, I know exactly what's in them, and they can easily be adapted to gluten free diets. I lightly adjusted the recipe in the magazine. Change up the liquid sugar, the nuts, the dried fruit, and the extract if you want. I bet maple and pecans would be great. Or macadamia, agave, and coconut would be delicious too.

For the record, my coworker ate one of the bars that I had made and then ate the one he packed for a snack, and he said (with a very full mouth), "Yourth are tho muh bettuh." Translation: these granola bars are awesomelicious.






Easy Peasy Granola Bars
recipe adapted from Eating Well

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (or gluten free oats)
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup unsweetened puffed cereal (rice, wheat, millet, kamut, etc.)
1 cup dried fruit (I did 1/3 currants, golden raisins, and cranberries)
1/4 cup creamy almond butter
1/4 cup organic raw cane sugar (or brown sugar, white sugar, etc)
1/4 cup agave (or honey, brown rice syrup, maple, etc.)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8-inch-square pan with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Spread oats, almonds, and sunflower seeds on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Bake until the oats are lightly toasted and the nuts are fragrant, shaking the pan halfway through, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. Add cereal, currants, cranberries, and raisins; toss to combine.

Combine almond butter, sugar, agave, vanilla and salt in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low, stirring frequently, until the mixture bubbles lightly, 2 to 5 minutes.

Immediately pour the almond butter mixture over the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon or spatula until no dry spots remain. Transfer to the prepared pan. Lightly coat a small square of foil with cooking spray and use it to press the mixture down firmly to make an even layer. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes; cut into 12 bars.


Cut into 12 bars: 4 Weight Watchers Points Plus
Cut into 16 bars: 3 Weight Watchers Points Plus

DIY Lunch: Chicken Marsala

I love my slow cooker. I just want to get that out of the way. It's made my life so easy when it comes to making lunch/dinners ahead of time. And really good lunch/dinners I might ahead.

I've never made chicken marsala before, but it had minimal ingredients, so I figured it was worth a shot. And it was.

Easy, fast, and really tasty. I packaged the chicken marsala with some brown rice and frozen broccoli, and I now have four tasty meals for this week that came out to less than $2 per meal (and 10 Points Plus for those on Weight Watchers).

Not bad, eh? Not bad.


Slow Cooker Chicken Marsala
Recipe lightly adapted from Betty Crocker

Non-stick cooking spray
1 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 6oz jars of sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup sweet Marsala (or 1/2 cup chicken broth)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp dried parsley (optional)

1/4 cup water
2 Tbls cornstarch

2 cups cooked and cooled brown rice
1lb bag frozen broccoli


Spray the insert of a 3 or 4qt with non-stick cooking spray. Drizzle oil in the bottom of the insert and drop in garlic. Place chicken breasts over top of garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Dump in mushrooms, sprinkle on parsley, and pour Marsala over it all. Pop the lid on and cook on low for 5-6 hours.

Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and place on a plate. In small bowl, mix water and cornstarch until smooth; stir into liquid in cooker. Increase heat setting to High; cover and cook about 10 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened.

In a microwave safe container with compartments, layer the rice first, then chicken (tear/slice chicken into pieces), and ladle sauce over top. Package broccoli in a compartment separate from chicken. Don't put the lid on until all ingredients are cool. Freeze. When ready to serve, take the lid off and microwave on high for 5-6 minutes or until heated through.

Homemade Cinnamon Almond Butter

Seriously? I don't know why I've waited so long to do this.

Maybe because it means hauling out the food processor. Maybe it means that it could somehow turn out potentially disastrous, and I don't want to waste an expensive ingredient.

Whatever my fears, I was proven wrong.

And now I'm fearless.

Homemade almond butter is beyond easy and it tastes better than what you can buy in a jar. For reals.

Easiest Pumpkin Spice Latte Ever

You are about to be introduced to one of the greatest things ever. A friend told me about this, and SHE got it from the lady who works at Trader Joe's, who probably was told about this by her cousin Louisa, thrice removed, on her mother's side of the family.

Or probably not.

Moving on.

We're talking about the world's easiest way to make a pumpkin spice latte: coffee plus pumpkin ice cream. I've tried countless versions of homemade pumpkin spice lattes and they either tasted goopy from the pumpkin or chalky from the spices. This is the winner to me. And it's a no brainer to make.

But let's be real for a moment.

Nothing can compare to a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. It's awesome. How do they do it? Starbucks puts magic in their lattes. Plain and simple. And then they stir it with the horn of a unicorn that's been dipped in sugar while we're busy checking our iPhones. That's how. And that's why one grande pumpkin spice latte costs almost $5. Never mind the fact that a half gallon of ice cream is somewhere around $3.50, and we could get two 1/2 gallons of ice cream for the cost of two Starbucks grande lattes.

So my disclaimer: nothing will taste as awesome as a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte. But here's how to make the world's easiest pumpkin spice latte that's pretty stinking enjoyable.

The DIY Tote Bag Experience

We faced opposition.

We were laughed at to our faces.

We were mocked.

But we persevered.

We showed our mothers and the rest of our families that we could sew without injuring ourselves or others, and have the end result look halfway decent!

Ladies and gentlemen...the finished product! TA-DA!!

Homemade Vanilla Extract & Vanilla Sugar

"It smells like a distillery in here," my dad says with his nose scrunched up.

"THAT'S BECAUSE I'M MAKING VANILLA EXTRACT!!!" I shouted with glee.

Guys. I made vanilla extract.

Like, VANILLA EXTRACT.

This is probably, like, one of the coolest things I've ever done.

The hardest part of making it is rounding up the ingredients.

Vanilla Beans
I ordered mine from Beanilla.com. With a name like "Beanilla," I figure they must have great vanilla beans. I ordered 25 Tahitian vanilla beans, but they also have Madagascar, Bourbon, Tonga, Mexican, Indonesian, and more varieties. Before I ordered the beans, I did a quick check on the internet to see if there were any coupons available. I found one that saved me 10%! Try the coupon code 'SAVE10' if you order some.

I Made Fruit Roll Ups In My Car

This morning, I got up and checked to see how hot it was going to be today.

No, it wasn't to see if it might be slightly cooler than the triple digit heat Baltimore has been experiencing the past few days.

I was checking to make sure it was going to be hot...hot enough for me to bake something in my car.

I've done the dashboard cookies and decided it's time to try something new and exciting.