Chocolate Almond Milk

I am not lactose intolerant but I am trying to make healthier choices in my life. One of these is to reduce my dairy intake. I love chocolate and I love dairy so this is going to be really difficult. I have tried store bought soy, oat and almond milks but they can get expensive and often have hidden ingredients or added sugar. So I researched and found you could make almond milk at home! Better yet I can combine my love of milk and chocolate into chocolate almond milk! Here is how you can make Chocolate Almond Milk at home.

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 5 cups water
• 1/2 cup cacao nibs
• pinch of pink Himalayan salt

Instructions

• Place the almonds and Himalayan salt in a bowl then cover with water and soak over night.  If you are in a hurry you can soak for an hour in boiled water.

• Drain the water from the almonds and place in a blender.  I used my nutri bullet.
• Add cacao nibs to the almonds
• pour in water to the maximum level of the nutri bullet. If your blender is large enough you can place the whole 5 cups of water into the blender
• Blend ingredients until smooth
• Place your cheese cloth over your bowl.  I used a baby muslin cloth as it was the easiest to find

• Pour the blended mix into the muslin cloth
• Wrap the  muslin around the mixture and wring out the milk from the mixture.
• If you're using a nutri bullet place the leftover almond mix back into the nutri bullet and fill with water to the maximum line.  Then mix until smooth again and repeat step 8.
• We added a dash of cinnamon and honey to sweeten the milk but this is optional.  You could also use 2-3 dates in the blending process to make it a little sweeter.
• Transfer the milk to a jar or airtight container and keep refrigerated

If you are like me and are not comfortable with just throwing perfectly good food away, you can check out this blog for more ideas on how you can use the left over almond pulp.