When I first cut Coffee Mate out of my life, I used full fat coconut milk or the occasional half and half in my coffee. It’s pretty good…but the minute I realized how easy homemade almond milk is to make (and then tried it), I can’t go back. I’ll splurge on half and half when I go to Starbucks, but at home…this is the stuff. It blends beautifully with my morning french press!

Before I show you how easy it is…I want to show you why I cut Coffee Mate (as delicious as it might be) out of my life:

Water, Corn Syrup Solids, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, and/or Cottonseed Oil, (Adds a Trivial Amount of Fat), and Less Than 2% of Sugar, Modified Cornstarch, Dipotassium Phosphate, Sodium Caseinate, (Milk Derivative), Not a Source of Lactose Color Added, Artificial Flavor, Mono And Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate,Carrageenan, Salt, Betacarotene. Color.

Y’all, your body is too precious to put all of that junk in it. And the fact that it doesn’t have to be refrigerated freaks me out.

This recipe is technically for Macadamia-Almond Milk, but I often use just almonds! If you can get your hands on reasonably priced macadamia nuts (Costco), the result is creamier and better for you!

Easy Homemade Almond Milk

10-12 Servings

What You Need

1 cup almonds (or 1/2 cup macadamia nuts and 1/2 cup almonds)

filtered water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

sweetener (optional)

large jar

cheese cloth/flour sack/nut bag (I prefer a flour bag, it’s easier to use and easier to wash and reuse. You can find them almost anywhere you can get groceries.) — Whatever you use, make sure it’s fine mesh!

blender/food processor

strainer

bowl/pitcher

What To Do

1. Place 1 cup nuts into your jar.

2. Pour the filtered water in until it reaches about an inch above the nuts.

3. Place the lid on the jar and set aside for 12-24 hours.

4. Remove the lid and stick the jar in the fridge and let the nuts soak for another 12-24 hours. So the minimum soaking time is 24 hours and the max is 48. The longer you let the nuts soak, the creamier your almond milk will be.

5. Strain and rinse the nuts and throw them in your food processor or blender. Add your cinnamon and vanilla. Pour 2 cups of filtered water into the blender. Pulse to break up the almonds. Then blend on high for 2 minutes. If you are using a food processor, process for 4 minutes.

6. This is the trickiest step of the whole process (and it isn’t so bad)! Put your strainer over your bowl/pitcher and your flour sack or cheese cloth over the strainer. I cut mine, but you want enough so that it covers the whole strainer and leaves you enough room to pull up the edges and squeeze out the milk without getting almond meal all over you.

*Another trick to making this step work well is to find something that is the size of your strainer so that it fits nicely. You can transfer the milk after you make it. This does not have to be your storage container.

7. Pour your almond mixture out of the blender and into the strainer (over the cloth/sack). Gather the flour/nut bag or cheese cloth around the almond meal and twist close. Squeeze and press with clean hands to extract as much almond milk as possible. You should get about 2 cups.

8. Sweeten to taste. I love mine with just the cinnamon and vanilla!

9. Refrigerate the almond milk. Store in a glass jar and use in 4-5 days for best results!

**The leftover almond meal should be refrigerated as well and is delicious in this chocolate chip cookie recipe. Enjoy the almond milk in your coffee, on its own or with the Paleo Granola that I’ll be posting later this week!