Home Made is Best When Cutting Dairy

Cutting out dairy is, let's face it, a pretty big step in creating a more healthy lifestyle. Milk can cause all sorts of distress in the belly, as well as inflammation that gets in the way of weight loss, weight maintenance, clear skin, good sleep, and a whole host of immune responses. But no doubt, it is hard for many of us to say goodbye to dairy. One of my favorite things in the world is wine and cheese. I do indulge sometimes. But for the day to day I've slowly found my way to a happy place without dairy. Once you find that lots of things are actually much tastier without mounds of cheese (of course I'm putting it in basic terms right now), it seems simple to replace milk. There are near entire aisles in the grocery devoted to every type of milk substitute you can dream up. The problem is, you aren't necessarily in a much healthier place. Remember, those grocery aisles are still center store with everything else in packages. Buying any milk substitute in the box means you've just introduced into your diet all sorts of additives, chemicals, and excess sugar. Leaving milk behind for the boxed "milk" is not always much better for your overall health.

I'm going to suggest making your nut milk at home. Not only do you know the sourcing and pronunciation of all the ingredients, but It also tastes so much better. My husband, who prefers to call it "nut juice," and absolutely hated every box of every "nut juice" I ever brought home from the store, prefers the home made version in his coffee over milk. I might add that this was an instant love for him, not an acquired taste. You probably shouldn't even get me started on how much nicer it is in your favorite smoothie.

Don't be afraid, it's really easy! Buying nuts in bulk is less expensive and the time investment in making your own milk is small. Try it. You can do it! Bring on the cheerleaders!

First of all, your tools. I bought a set of two glass carafes with lids on Amazon for $15. Glass or ceramic will not transfer any unwanted taste to the milk. Second, you need a descent blender. You will be soaking the nuts for at least 4 hours to overnight, so the expensive thing on demo at Costco is great, but hardly necessary. Dig up a colander of any kind. Finally, a nut bag. I got mine for $9 at Whole Foods. You can probably find one for less. Cheese cloth is perfectly fine, but much more of a hassle, and more expensive after making only 5 or 6 batches.

On to the ingredients. Hazelnuts, dates, real vanilla extract, fresh water, fine sea salt. I find it doesn't matter too much which hazelnuts you buy as long as they are unsalted. Roasted, raw, steam treated, organic, whatever. Don't stress.

Now on to what you need to do. Soak 2 cups hazelnuts for 4 hours, and up to overnight in fresh water. If you can swing at least 8 hours, you will be happier with the result, as the milk will be creamier. I start my soak as I get breakfast ready and finish the process after we clean up from dinner. If you can filter the water, the taste will be more pure as well.

There you go! You just dumped some hazelnuts and left them alone for a while. No babysitting involved. Now, 4-12 hours later go back and rinse them in your colander with fresh water. Return the nuts to the blender with 4.5 cups of fresh water. Blend. Blend the heck out of them. I run my blender on high for 2 one minute cycles because my blender happens to turn off after one minute.

Pour the ground up hazelnuts and water through the nut bag over any other container or bowl. Be sure your hands are super clean because now you are going to gently squeeze the "hazelnut juice" from the nut bag. Be gentle so that you don't squish out the nut pulp. This should take a few minutes. I reserve a bit of the pulp in a sealed container to use in smoothies and muffins.

Rinse the blender and return your milk to the blender carafe. Add a tiny dash of salt, a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, and 3 pitted dates roughly chopped. Every other recipe I have seen that uses dates uses more dates than I do. I must say I don't get it, but give it a try if this is not sweet enough for you. If you are making it only to add to coffee and you want to avoid other sweeteners, extra dates would probably be great.

Now blend the milk again and you are done. If you are concerned about particles of dates, you could strain it again in the nut bag. I find my blender does a fine job, and I'm lazy. And I'm too excited to sip the slightly warm hazelnut milk I have just made. It's such a pity that not quite all of it fits into that carafe I got on Amazon. Enjoy!

The nut milk will keep about a week. Please use standard food safety precautions when storing.