My Alkaline Zone Diet: Almond Milk

I found a recipe for Brazil nut milk, so I thought I would adapt it to almond milk since I have almonds and no Brazil nuts (which, by the way, are good for the alkaline diet, too). So far this is definitely my favorite. I made a lot (total of 6 cups, fills up my pitcher, but I tried to add ingredients so that the amount is divisible by 4, you'll have to adjust a bit if you make less). I call it Coco Almond milk, but the coconut flavor is barely there.

Coco Almond Milk

4 cups of soaked almonds (probably about 3 to 3 1/2 cups dry)
4 cups of water
2 T amber agave nectar
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
about 3 dashes of sea salt
3 capsules of soy lecithin (520 mg each)*
2 t coconut oil

1. Soak the almonds overnight in water in the frig.
2. Rinse well in running tap water over a colander
3. Process the almonds (do 1 cup of almonds at a time)

Place almonds in blender
Add 1 cup of water
Blend on high for 1-2 minutes until well blended
Strain the almond mixture**
Pour the almond milk into your pitcher, put the strained almond pulp in a bowl for use in other recipes. See here for what to do with it.
Repeat with remaining almonds
I rinse out the remaining bit of almonds in the blender with the almond milk I've already strained and strain it again.

4. Add 2 cups of water to your pitcher, mix.
5. Pour 2 cups of almond milk back into blender (rinse blender well first to remove almond bits).

The following is not the order I did it because of a minor disaster I had (see * below), but is what I intend to do next time:

6. Add agave nectar, vanilla extract, sea salt and soy lecithin. Mix well on high.
7. Add coconut oil, 1/2 t. at a time. Mix well on high (I think!)
8. Pour mix in blender into pitcher and stir. Hopefully, it's all blended, still working out the kinks of mixing in the coconut milk.

* The original recipe calls for adding lecithin powder, which I didn't have, so I tried without it....BIG MISTAKE! After mixing everything together, the coconut oil was a big glob on the top of my almond milk, yuck! As my background in chem teaches me (duh!) oil and aqueous solutions, don't mix! Lecithin is an emulsifier, meaning it enables water and oil to create a homogeneous mixture. We don't have the powder, but my dear hubby did have capsules in the cupboard for cooking purposes. So I added those one at a time until the coconut oil was mostly mixed in. Next time, I will add the lecithin to the aqueous solution first to make sure it's well mixed and then add the coconut oil a bit at a time so ensure I don't overwhelm the mixture. Hopefully, that will be more successful.

This recipe makes a good base for smoothies, to put in cereal, etc. For just a plain ole yummy glass of "milk", you might want to jazz it up a bit. Carlos made a yummy concoction. He added 1/4 t vanilla and 1 t agave nectar to about 8 oz, yum, yum, yummy!

**I actually took pictures this time so you can see what I do! When I strain the almond mix the separate the milk from the pulp, I put 4 layers of cheese cloth over a strainer which is sitting on a 4 cup measuring cup (LOVE that measuring cup, very handy!)