I’ve had several people ask about making homemade almond milk, so here it is! This is really easy and it tastes so yummy. Buying organic almond milk at the store can be insanely expensive, especially if you drink it a lot. With this recipe, you get raw, organic almond milk for a lot cheaper. {Insert saving money dance!}

Organic Raw Almond Milk

1 cup of organic raw almonds {you’ll need to soak them overnight or 8-12 hours}

4 cups water

1 tbsp organic vanilla extract

1/2 cup organic agave

Throw everything in your blender and let it go to town for about 45 seconds to a minute. Then you’ll pour the whole thing through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth as you’re pouring it into your pitcher. For the photos below, I was actually making a double recipe, so it looks like a lot. The awesome thing about this recipe is it is really easily adaptable for your family’s own likes/dislikes. We love the vanilla, but you could try adding cinnamon or not adding anything besides water and almonds if you’re a purist. Experiment to your heart’s content!

Depending on how fine your strainer is, it might take a little bit. You might have to pour half into the strainer, wait a few minutes, then pour the rest.

This is what it should look like when you’re done.

WARNING: Always double-check the lid of your blender. You know, to make sure it is ON. Or else something like this will happen.

Yikes. This will turn your 5-minute almond milk recipe into a 45-minute scrubbing-of-everything-in-the-kitchen recipe. Double check your lid, peeps. :)

Did you know lemons are incredibly good for you? Now before you go buy a large Chick-Fil-A lemonade a day, I’m talking about lemonade in the raw. Although I do thoroughly enjoy every sour sip of my Chick-Fil-A lemonade when I go to a town that actually has one. (MAJOR downside of living in a small town = no Chick-Fil-A. But we do have 3 Dairy Queens. I mean, really?)

Okay, so raw lemonade…lemons are incredibly alkalizing to your body and are a great way to offset the effects of your Friday night Mexican food binge. Or was that just me? Anyway, lemons are great for you but I don’t know very many people who can eat ‘em like an orange. Ooo, that makes me pucker just thinking about it. And this raw lemonade recipe is really easy and takes about 15 minutes to make. It will keep for a while in the fridge, too, so you can make a lot. It is totally cost-effective. I buy a bag of organic lemons for $4.97 from HEB, so with the added cost of the agave, you’re looking at about $5.50 for a gallon of fresh, raw lemonade.

I usually make a batch of raw lemonade on Sunday or Monday to last us through the week. I use a juicer but you can totally do this without one. In fact, the first time I made it was in a regular old blender. This is also a great recipe to make with your kids!

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Lemonade in the Raw recipe:

9-10 organic lemons

1/3 cup agave or raw honey {I prefer agave for this because it dissolves much easier. Just don’t use sugar because it negates some of the alkalizing effect.}

1 gallon of water

If you don’t have a juicer, quarter all your lemons and remove the seeds. Squeeze 6 lemons into the blender. Peel the remaining 3-4 and put the entire thing into the blender. If you do have a juicer, quarter all the lemons and run them all through the juicer.

Dump this “concentrated” juice into a pitcher and add your water and agave. Stir very thoroughly. You can adjust your sweetener according to taste. I usually just stir in a little more agave to Little Bit’s when I pour it for her, but Hubby and I like it as is.

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That’s it! Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. Enjoy chilled, over ice, definitely with a pink straw. :)

Alright, we’re talking smoothies and sprouting today. Woot, woot! I know I told some of you I’d be doing a video of using our Vitamix to make our morning smoothies, but that might have been a little overambitious. We had a midwife appointment this morning and I decided that might not be the best morning to tackle videoing myself. Anywho, I did take step by step photos this morning. Which totally confused my hubby. He came downstairs this morning after getting dressed saying, “Were you taking pictures? WHAT were you taking pictures of this morning?” I guess he assumed I wasn’t taking pictures of myself…I don’t know why, considering I looked a-mazing in my 3 day-old hair, no makeup, and mismatched pajamas. Come to think of it, that might have been another reason I did not video myself this morning. :) 


Okay, on to the smoothies. Every morning, I make enough for two big plastic cup-size servings {see above}, one little toddler-sized serving, and a plastic thermos size for hubby to take to work. This pretty much equals a full blender worth of nutritious goodness.

You can totally adjust the ratio to make smaller portions. Cuz y’all are smart like that. :) To make it easy not to forget anything, I group the ingredients into 3 major groups – nuts/seeds, veggies, and fruit. Also, since I’m making a full blender worth, the order of how I do this makes it all fit. 

Here is the first group…sprouted chia seed powder, raw hemp protein powder, sprouted almonds, flax seeds, and steel cut oats (all organic). This is where you’re getting all the protein, omega-3s, stick-to-your-ribs part of the smoothie. Now for the breakdown…
1. sprouted chia powder – 3 heaping tablespoons. This is found at HEB on our bulk foods aisle. 
2. raw hemp protein powder - 2 heaping tablespoons. Also from HEB. I only do 2 tbsp because it has a terrible distinct taste and it can overpower your smoothie.
3. sprouted almonds – handful. I’ll explain the sprouted thing below.
4. flax seeds – 1/2 cup. Bulk section at HEB.
5. steel cut oats – 1/2 cup. Bulk section.

Put these ingredients in the blender. 

Second group…whatever greens we have {usually 2 different kinds}, carrots, possibly asparagus.
1. greens – 2 big handfuls of spinach and one stalk of kale (or something equivalent; I was adding broccoli sprouts or alfalfa sprouts before HEB recalled them – yikes. But I’ll be adding those back in as soon as they hit the shelves again!)
2. carrots – at least 2 big carrots, snapped in half. If hubby is watching me, I cut off the little brown stem part. If he’s not, I throw it in the blender. :)
3. asparagus – 2 stalks, snapped in half. 


Throw all this in the blender. You will have to kind of smash down the greens as you put them in.

Third group…fruit and honey.
1. fruit – 1 cup each of at least 2 different kinds, one with a strong taste. For instance, pair blueberries {mild taste} with pineapple {strong taste}. Other good combos are strawberries and mangos, peaches and berries, bananas and strawberries, yadayadayada. This part will determine the overall taste of your smoothie, so experiment with what you like. When things are in season, go fresh by all means. When they are not, go frozen. 
2. honey – 2 heaping tablespoons. This can also be to taste. I never feel bad about using more honey, since it is so stinkin’ good for you. {Sidenote: We used to use just local “drip” honey, but we just switched to raw honey that you actually scoop from a jar because it is less processed.}

Fill with just enough water to barely cover whatcha got in the blender. If you have a Vitamix pat yourself on the back and flip that sucker on high for about 45 seconds. For a regular blender, you’ll probably want to let it go for about a minute and a half.


Pour and enjoy! You can always save any leftover smoothie in the fridge for about 2 days if needed. After that, it starts to get kinda thick and gooey. Blegh.

Okay, sprouting…for a long time, I did not do this because I thought it would be too hard. It is so not! {Disclaimer: I am not an expert on this. This is just the method I adopted after looking at a number of sources online on how to do this.}
Almonds: soak overnight in filtered water; I use a large mason jar filled 1/3 of the way with raw almonds and the rest of the way with water. Rinse them well in the morning, then keep them in the fridge. They should be good for 4 to 5 days.
Sunflower seeds: soak overnight in mason jar with a rubber banded cheesecloth over the top. Rinse well, fill with water, soak for the day. Rinse well before bedtime, making sure you strain out all the skins – these can make the whole thing rancid if left in there. Let sit in jar overnight without water.  Repeat rinsing well, then letting sit for 8-12 hours until you see at least a 1/4″ sprout on each seed. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. After you see that they are all sprouting, let them dry for 3-4 hours on a tray or cookie sheet, then refrigerate.
Quinoa: soak overnight in jar with cheesecloth over top. Rinse well in morning, let sit for 8-12 hours. Repeat until you see that they are sprouting. Lay them out on a tray to dry for a few hours, then refrigerate. 
Those are all the sprouts I’ve tried. Not very adventurous, am I? When I make these, I add them in our smoothies during the first nuts/seeds group.


We’ll discuss da money for all this goodness tomorrow. 

Let me just say, we’re kind of becoming hippies. Actually, it is too late for that. We already are. :) Home births, organic food, gardening, and now raw food. I’ve had several friends ask about how we incorporate raw food/recipes/why we do it/is that all we eat/etc. So I decided to compile all our information on this into one place, rather than sending out a bunch of different e-mails. I hope this is helpful. Please, please let me know if you want more information or you still have questions. 


So, how we went from eating a really standard, “healthy” diet to eating at least 50% raw on most days…


We started with organic food. After watching a couple of documentaries about a year and a half ago (namely Food, Inc.), we saw the horrors behind what was in most food. Blegh. We started buying more and more organic food and enlarged our garden to grow more of our own. Then hubby a.k.a. “The Researcher” started looking into raw food. And what we read made sense. 


You really are what you eat. 


I’m going to get a little scientific on you. Websites like rawfoodlife.com and thebestofrawfood.com provide excellent explanations on the science behind living foods. In a nutshell, cooking food destroys a lot (to most) of its enzymes, which we need to digest it. Any food that is heated up past 118 degrees (pasteurized, cooked, baked, etc.) will have the majority of its enzymes destroyed. Our bodies have to work really hard to make their own enzymes to digest it. This weakens our bodies and makes them more susceptible to infection, disease, etc. Also, when we eat cooked food, it changes the pH of our bodies by making them more acidic. Raw, whole foods, on the other hand, create an alkaline environment in our bodies. Alkaline foods raise the amount of oxygen in your blood. Our blood pH should be slightly alkaline, ideally. If our blood is too acidic, and therefore cannot get enough oxygen, we get sick. Most people in the US/Europe are too acidic – and we have epidemic rates of cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, obesity, etc.

Still with me? We’ve seen real life results. Anyone who has known me very long will know that I don’t have the best skin. It is on the oily side and prone to breakouts. Boo. Since starting to incorporate about 50% raw/whole foods in our diet, my face has cleared and smoothed {is that a word?}. And, I should be breaking out even more right now since I’m pregnant, but I’m not. Y’all, I’ve gone my whole life fighting with my skin. This is a huge deal for me. Hubby, who is quite fair-skinned and prone to sunburn very easily, hasn’t had a peeling sunburn in over a year. No sunscreen, still spends hours outside in the summer, and doesn’t burn. Little Bit rarely gets sick, and when she does, it is short-lived. She’s never had to take antibiotics. Now, I realize this is not a cure-all, by any means. We’re going to get sick, and medicine has a purpose and a place. However, we have GREATLY reduced the amount of medicine we have to take. All by eating differently.


How do we do this? My goal is for all of us to eat at least 50% raw/living foods every day, or as much as possible. This means more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds in our diet. {Just so you know, we still love and eat Mexican food regurlarly.} 

We eat raw smoothies every day, with nuts, seeds, greens, and fruit. They kind of deserve their own post. But here is what we typically include (everything is organic):
- sprouted almonds
- flax seeds
- chia seeds
- homemade sprouts (sunflower, quinoa, etc.)
- kale
- spinach
- carrots
- 2 kinds of fruit, sometimes frozen (blueberries, strawberries, mangos, pineapple, bananas, apples, goji berries…)
- honey
- water


Tomorrow, I’ll post about a typical day and what we’re eating. I’ll also include how to sprout things (it is really not bad, I promise!) and budgeting for this. This post is getting wordy and I’m tired of hearing myself talk so I’m sure you are, too. :)