Homemade Almond Milk!

So I have been reading about moving towards zero waste and making things from scratch at home to cut down on container waste.  One item I was hoping to try was to make almond mild.  It's not that I prefer almond milk over soy milk or other vegan milks but I like to use almond meal in some recipes to cut out carbs and making almond milk, leaves you with...almond meal.  So here is what I did for the milk. 

First I got bulk almonds from our local natural food store.  Set aside 1cup and soak in 3.5 cups of hot water.  I used hot water because I couldn't wait to soak the almonds overnight and I was getting really geared up to try this.  As a note, I would say soaking them overnight would give you even better results.

You will also need some sort of sweetener (I chose agave syrup).  Other recipes say you can blend in whole vanilla beans, but the only ones I've seen hold only a few beans and come in little glass jars (not great for the whole moving towards zero waste idea).  I used some vanilla extract that I had lying around also used a pinch of salt.  Below is a picture of the difference between the dried out almonds and the soaked almonds - it's much easier to blend the soaked ones.

Other tools:  clean wide mouth canning jar, strainer, spoon, and sauce pan.

I got so into the straining process that I didn't take a picture of the mixture once it was blended but here is the last little bit in the blender.

This is what the milk looks like after it's been strained.  I heated the milk up on the stove over low-medium heat to thicken, stirring often.   Transfer to a wide mouth jar and allow to cool before refrigerating.

Here is the almond meal that I got out of the cup of almonds.  I actually set this aside for a tart crust recipe that I was using later in the day.

Here is a picture of the milk in the jar and a nice iced coffee that I made for myself to taste test it.

The milk should stay for several days (3-5).  I initially only made one jar but now wish I had made two at a time so I could just bring one to work with me for milk for my granola and for my coffee!  Enjoy!