Monday, February 27, 2012

Oh nuts, we're out of milk!

 I actually made this last week Monday, but it took me this long to post about it!  
ALMOND MILK (made by me!)

Soak 8 hours and blend, 1 cup almonds to 4 cups water
Sweeten with some real honey if you like

We finally made almond milk!  We have been drinking it (me especially) like nobody's business but I started to get annoyed by the tetra pak cartons I couldn't recycle, the sugar/calorie content and the cost!!  So w/a little help from a friend, I got a big box of almonds.  I found it hard to believe that there wasn't much to it besides soaking/blending the nuts and then straining the milk.  BUT!  It's true!  It's so super easy!
YUMMMY
Please excuse the messy counter!


The kids thought the BEST part by far was straining it.  I found a linen produce bag, but you could probably use cheesecloth, I think.  We just blended the daylights out of it and then poured it over that bag, which was hanging over on or the jars.  You could walk away and let it strain on it's own, I think, but we chose to wash our hands and get squeezing!  Moses thought it was like milking a cow, and then he laughed about how this was not cow's milk - I introduced the word irony.  We'll see if he picks that up as fast as he did sarcasm =)  
I'm trying to be IN more pictures!






What's left of the almonds...
The same friends that hooked us up w/the almonds make raw cookies w/the by-product that gets left in the strainer - would you call it almond meal??  Or almond flakes??  I tried to remember their recipe and looked online too - enh.  I didn't find any that suited me so they are sending me theirs.  It seems that 4 cups of almonds/16 cups of milk gets us through the week.  More would be nice!  So now I have my work cut out for me each week!  I should actually get some soaking right now...

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Smashing stuff, just not pumpkins

Lots to write about!  Ready for some rapid fire updates?
- There is a blizzard in the Denver area and I am riding my bike!
- Leah and Ray were our foster momma and baby that lived here in 2009.  Guess what?  Ray has been living w/a different foster family (long story) who needed respite this weekend and we got the call!  So Ray is spending the weekend w/us!  He is 1 year older than when he left us and he TALKS!  =)  He is super cute and looks A LOT like his momma (no surprise there) and is doing really well.  It's been fun seeing him again!  He found pictures of his momma and himself around the house and seemed pretty happy.  He likes the chicks!
- We have baby chicks again!  (You like that, how I just slid from one to the other?)  A co-worker of Dave's asked about hatching chicks.  Her daughter was going to be a part of a science fair and was interested in doing that as her project, but they didn't want to keep the chickens =)  So they hatched the day before/the day of the science fair (how perfect!!) and after a day or so w/their family, they brought them over.  The babies are in a box and I am remembering the peeping and trills...so much fun!  Ray keeps saying, "There's shickens in there!  Babies!  You hear dat?!"  I took him out to see the big girls and he wasn't quite as impressed.
-Moses has been coming home for the 2nd half of the day to be homeschooled.  Also a long story!  But he is so eager to learn and works really well!  We are looking into some kindergarten workbooks - any suggestions welcome.  We started talking about life cycles (of the chickens!), maps and a few other things.  He has some basic addition down (algebra!  3 + x = 5!) but we are not ready for subtraction.  If you know me and want to hear more about that, you know how to find me.
-Curly Sue and Dewey are doing well.  I think I am actually figuring our some good things to do w/Curly Sue's hair!
-Colleen our Bean is doing really well in school, but we are thinking of holding her back from kindergarten (again long story!).  We will know more about that as the end of the school year approaches, but we're just trying to help her be successful.
-I am going to be in a drama for the women's ministry conference we are having in March!  I don't have a huge part, but I am still nervous about memorizing it...I get to play Tamar from the Bible.  It's a pretty cool script - I am looking forward to being used by God in that way again.
-Am I forgetting something?  I'm sure I am!  I will try to write a goals update soon.  And hopefully I can get the pics of the chicks on here too!