In this post I'm going to show you how to make your own almond (or other nut/seed) milk in just five minutes (not counting the time it takes to soak the almonds overnight). When you make your own nut milks you can be assured you're not consuming a product that could contain ingredients like carrageenan (a seaweed based thickener that can be inflammatory to the body), salt, sugar and processed oils. I have purchased store-bought almond milk for my kids to add to their cereal. It can be convenient, but when you're choosing foods to heal from a serious illness, it is not a healthy product to be using and just isn't the healthiest for anyone really.
This almond milk recipe contains just water and almonds, nothing else. You can add cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, or any other flavors you like, in combination or singly. If you aren't dealing with an illness requiring that you stay away from sugars, you may decide to add a little bit of maple syrup.
I used this batch yesterday for a soup I was making. I had some milk left over and gently warmed it for a very nice cup of chai tea in the evening. I love Blue Lotus Chai because there is no added sugar or dairy and they have a Rooibos version without caffeine, which I prefer. I just mixed a spoonful into the milk and it was delicious without any added sweetener. I love the creamy consistency and flavor of almonds so that helped. I've tried doing the same with hot water and didn't care for it.
Any nut or seed can be substituted for almonds in this recipe. My favorite is sunflower seed milk, but you could use sesame seeds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, etc. I would love to hear from you in the comments or on Instagram @cecilialeibovitz if you tried the recipe and what kind of nuts, seeds, or flavors you used. Photos would be great and help give other people ideas too! :)
Almond Milk Recipe:
1. Soak 1/2 cup of raw organic almonds (or hazelnuts, macadamia, sunflower, sesame/other nuts seeds of your choice) overnight or for 8 hours in enough filtered water to completely cover them. Place a loose cover allowing air flow, over the bowl (could be a plate or cheesecloth. I usually use a plate and haven't had any problems with fermentation, though this can happen in hot weather. If you wish, you can empty the water and replace with fresh water every couple of hours, but this is not necessary.
2. After your almonds are soaked, strain the water out over a sink, with a fine mesh strainer and rinse with fresh water 2-3 times.
3. Place the almonds with 1 3/4 cup of fresh filtered water into a blender and blend until the almonds are ground into a meal, and the water turns white/cloudy. Any blender can be used, as long as it breaks the almonds up well. I love VitaMix but a regular store bought blender is just fine. I used a simple Magic Bullet blender to make this batch.
4. Over a large bowl or better yet, into a mason jar (which you can drape the edges of the nut milk bag around to make things a little easier), pour the blended mixture into a nut milk bag (available in a health food store or online). When most of the liquid is in the bowl or jar, squeeze the almond pulp through the bag so that any remaining liquid is released.
Tips:
Blend in any extra flavors you might like (ie cinnamon, vanilla, a hint of maple syrup if you don't have issues with sugars).
If you like, you can use the leftover almond pulp to make a snack or cereal.
Make sure that you rinse your nut milk bag well and use a few drops of clean soap like Dr. Bronner's castile soap to release any oils from the bag.
April 20, 2021
April 16, 2021
Making a Comeback + Vegetable Salad with Sunflower Dressing
I closed my eyes and suddenly five and a half years went by. I'm kind of disappointed it's been so long since my last post. In that time a LOT has happened and changed.
To put things in a nutshell, my partner and father of my two youngest children got cancer and died in 2018. After about 6 months of taking great care of my health, I entered a period of about a year and a half where I gave up on healthy eating. I was still vegetarian, but allowed myself to eat lots of pizza, cheese, pasta, ice cream, cake etc.
Previously I'd been doing pretty well with the raw foods (though not so well posting here). I think a part of me felt that if Michael died of a horrific cancer at age 49, and he'd taken pretty good care of himself, then what point was there in caring anymore. To be fair, this may have been my way of dealing with the grief that such a sudden life change brought. I became so dependent on the comfort foods I was eating, that even though I tried several times, I found it impossible to stop.
Having meals with my sons and boyfriend who eat so differently from me, didn't help, as I was constantly tempted. I honestly thought I'd never be able to change my eating habits. Then I was reminded that life circumstances can sometimes be just the fuel that is needed to make a serious transition.
A little over three months ago I was given a warning that I couldn't ignore and had no choice but to snap myself out of the lull that eating indulgent foods for 18 months had put me in. A test from Great Plains Labs showed very high levels of ochratoxin a in my system. An ermi dust test showed equally high levels of aspergillus mold in the basement and bathroom of my house, along with various other molds. This problem was confirmed when I had a professional mold inspector/biologist come and do extensive testing.
Even a diagnosis of mold toxicity and chronic inflammatory response syndrome from my doctor, was not enough to get me to go back to raw food; this is in spite of knowing how well I had done on this kind of lifestyle before, all of my Lyme symptoms disappearing. I did get very serious about changing after the diagnosis, but it was a transition of about 2 1/2 months before I cut out eggs, almond flour, maple syrup, cheese etc. Pain in my gall bladder every time I ate oily things (for example sweet potatoes doused with olive oil, plaintain chips saturated in vegetable oil) was the last straw. Cold turkey, the day I figured out with the help of my doctor, that this was the issue, I went raw vegan again. It's been about three weeks now, like I said and I have so much to update you all on. I will save it for another post and leave you for now with a photo of a vegetable salad with sunflower dressing in the making (recipe coming next post).
September 19, 2015
Juicing the Fall Vermont Harvest
This year there are more apples than I've ever seen on the wild trees so abundant in Vermont. My husband loves to pick them and eat them with garlic. Doing this, he hasn't had a winter cold or flu yet!
We've been juicing the apples every day to take the edge off of green juices. They may not look perfect but they taste incredible and make the prettiest rose tinted juice. Our kids say the small ones are like sour candy. Here's what I had this morning:
Apple Green Juice
8 apples
3 cups of fresh picked greens
(red lettuce, butter lettuce, kale, plantain leaves, dandelion leaves, basil)
Juiced and mixed together
Sweet and delicious!
September 17, 2015
Cilantro Pesto - Raw Food Recipe
I've been including more cilantro in my diet because it's known for helping to chelate heavy metals from the body. If you've had amalgam fillings removed from your teeth, cilantro along with chlorella can help get the mercury out. My own dentist recommended I take chlorella every day for the rest of my life. This simple recipe I created is a great way to get your cilantro in. This article explains how both cilantro and chlorella work in ridding the body of heavy metals.
Kelp Noodles & Cilantro Pesto
Blend together:
1 bunch cilantro
splash of water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 clove garlic
2 cups rinsed sunflower seeds that have been soaked at least 6 hours
sea salt to taste
Garnish with sprig of oregano and zucchini slices.
Serve over kelp noodles or spiralized veggie noodles.
Raw Food as Art and Healing
A few short months ago (when this photo was taken, June 2015), I didn’t know that I’d soon be dealing with strange health issues. As cliche as it may sound, now that I’ve been diagnosed with systemic sclerosis and possible Lyme disease, I feel like a new person with a different outlook on life. Part of this new me wants to let go of my fixation with creating things for people to wear, look at, and love. I want to focus more on connecting with people on a level that allows me to share some of the things I’ve learned in my life, that have impacted me to the core, and which could bring light into their lives more than any material thing ever could.
I still don’t know much about where I am health wise, just that I’m experiencing new pain and fatigue that wasn’t an issue before. My intention is to treat this like a spiritual journey, rather than a huge ordeal in my life, as well as to allow myself much needed rest/remove any potential stressors I notice in my life; Part of this means unemployment for now, a tough but necessary step.
Just before I started feeling sick and was diagnosed, I had been considering going back to school so that I could become a therapist, helping people use creativity (through textile art) to heal. I’ve realized I’m not physically ready right now for a Master’s program and am putting the idea on a back burner.
In the meantime I’ve rediscovered that creating raw vegan meals is something I adore, not just because I like the way fresh and live food tastes and makes me feel, but because I love sharing it with other people. I’m starting to really understand and appreciate food creation as an art. What’s most exciting is that I’m using raw foods to heal and am just starting to envision myself getting better and going to Living Light Culinary Institute! This is not something I ever imagined, but I can see it fitting well with my idea of being a therapist. Here is an opportunity to learn not only how to better prepare and "plate" plant based dishes, but also about the nutrition side of things, and training to help others prepare and benefit from this healthful food.
What I need to remind myself more than anything else, is get better first, just get better first. It isn’t easy to focus on just this one thing, when I want to do so much more!
I feel most real when I talk about health and food, as if it’s a vehicle to getting at my core, who I really am. I love visual arts and millinery and they’ve been important elements in my life. My interests in health and the arts have always battled each other, as if there's a need for one to be more dominant than the other. Thanks to my illness and therefore a need to avoid inflammation causing foods, I’ve been eating a plant based high raw diet again, and unexpectedly opening up to the idea of an entirely different kind of art-form filling a big space in my life.
August 16, 2009
Raw Food : not a religion or an addiction
This past year I've been eating a lot of cooked food. I haven't been happy with that, but also decided that I don't need to be 100% raw to feel good about what I'm eating. In fact, back when I did 6 months of nearly all raw, my body began to miss something after awhile. What that something was, I still don't know. I do know that green smoothies for breakfast, and big salads for lunch, then various raw dinner recipes at night was great... in the beginning. When I started to become hungry after going to bed at night, I knew something wasn't right.
I've been spending a lot of time avoiding going raw again, because I wanted to be sure and get it right the next time around. Meaning that if I get to the point of wanting to eat cooked food again, I won't let the first bite of rice send me into a downward spiral of (organic) SAD living. All those enticing foods at the "health food store" are really no better than junk food. I would like to try a period of all raw food again, and then transition to mostly raw, but allowing some cooked food when the time is right (no dairy, wheat, or sugar).
Eating so much cooked food has brought my energy level down again, and I've gained back some of the weight I lost when eating raw. In short, I want back the amazing feeling, and always vibrant looking self I had back then.
Though I love the idea of raw foods, I would like to avoid treating food intake as one would a religion. I realize that I have unhealthy food addictions, and I think that raw food is a good way to fix that problem. Scratch that, I don't believe in addictions. It's a matter of changing bad habits, and I know I'm capable of doing that. But I do not think a strict raw diet is the solution to my intake of sugar, dairy, and other things my body doesn't like. If I'm going to be a purist and limit myself to raw food only, eventually I'm going to get stressed out and go back to the "bad" foods.
The best approach for me right now is simple unadulterated foods. I'm living in a house that has a (very) makeshift kitchen. We're still in the process of building the house and simultaneously living in it means some inconveniences. Preparing food is a challenge, so I'm keeping it simple. Breakfasts have been consisting of blueberries (my favorite) and other fruit. Today it was cucumber and tomato.
Being that it's finally hot summer here in Northern Vermont it's easy to eat this way. Winter may be a different story.
August 11, 2008
Living a Simple Life
Had a salad off the lawn today inspired by Shazzie's video. I washed up a nice head of red lettuce our neighbors gave us from their garden. The lettuce, a bit of avocado, and salad dressing were the only ingredients that weren't from my lawn. I found some dandelion leaves, wood sorrel, and red clover, washed, then tossed everything together. I added some maple balsamic dressing, definitely not my first choice for a healthy raw lunch, but I wasn't in the mood to make dressing, and this was left over from a salad we had bought from a local restaurant. I often like to forgo the dressing completely and just squeeze some fresh lemon or lime on top of my salad; I didn't this time because I wanted something to help mask the bitterness of the dandelion. The avocado helps in this department a little too. If I'm in the mood for making dressing I like to chop up a clove or two of garlic, put this in a little bowl, add a couple pinches of cayenne pepper, ground up milk thistle seed, and/or sunflower seeds, hemp seeds etc., and then mix it up with some olive oil, and apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice).
Today I began the day with a basket of blueberries from a local farm, shared with Liam and Jasper. Liam had his own basket of "organic" raspberries from California, and not half as good as the blueberries. He insisted though and I was just happy he was asking for fruit instead of candy.
Days like today are seriously lacking in my life. What does it take to get back on track with raw food? I can only answer based on my own experience. When I start to feel really dragged down, super cynical, negative, and crabby much of the time, I know I need a change.
Not only do I want to get back to more pure, basic foods again, I am yearning to simplify all areas of my life. A small house in the country is where I'm headed next. Above is a photo of our land in Craftsbury, a tiny town in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. As soon as we can make it happen, we plan to sell our Victorian, and build a little house up in Craftsbury. For the first time in my life it's clear to me that I could be happy in a quieter and less populated place. Having grown up in New York City, it's taken me time to adapt to Vermont. The longer I live here, the more I want less. The more I want less. What an interesting sentence. Even in New York I was a minimalist, never feeling good about waste or having too many possessions. It's just easier to find alternatives to the daily grind here. Most everyone who is in New York ultimately landed there (either by choice or circumstance) due to one motivating factor...money. Money is what makes New York tick, and you can taste the drive for more in the air. But I imagine most cities are like that, at least thriving cities. Cities house large concentrations of people who have a desire, or have set up their lives so that they "need" to be close to their jobs. What would it look like if each of these people woke up one day and decided it was okay to downsize? Whether it's cars, boats, houses, clothes, toys, electronics, cosmetics, even food, most everyone of us has at least a little too much of it. So why not have lunch on the lawn today?
June 16, 2008
March 16, 2008
October 26, 2007
Raw Reading & an Intriguing Cake
I recently finished reading three very interesting books- The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Douglas Graham, 12 Steps to Raw Foods, and Green for Life both by Victoria Boutenko. I've increased my fruit intake and have been drinking lots of green smoothies in response to my reading, and realize that I feel a lot better taking in less fats and dehydrated foods. I'm looking forward to seeing how I feel in a month, as a result of this.
The 80/10/10 Diet has spurred some thoughts that I didn't consider in the past, specifically the idea that most raw vegans eat far too many calories from fat, and the concept that we must consume enough calories in order to be successful with a raw diet. I simply thought I'd eat when I was hungry and everything would be fine. I've also been under the impression that raw foods have more nutrients and so those who eat them don't need to consume as much food as people on cooked food diets.The thought of consuming the volume of fruit recommended for the 80/10/10 diet is overwhelming. I don't know if I could do that. In spite of this, I'm intrigued by the idea that it's the consumption of fat that creates problems for individuals with candida and diabetes, and not the sugar from fruits themselves.
I read with interest in Douglas Graham's book that apple cider vinegar is made with acetic and not malic acid. This is confusing to me as I've always heard that apple cider vinegar was the only one safe to ingest, and contains malic, not acetic acid. Maybe it's started with acetic, and then converts to malic acid. Is this even possible? Graham also states that all salts are toxic to the body, even sea salts. Interesting.
I signed up for Victoria Boutenko's newsletter , and received a terrific sounding recipe for lemon popppy seed cake today. I love lemon and decided on the spot that this is going to be my lunch or dinner today! Not sure yet if I'll adjust it so there's less fat but I'm thinking about it. The recipe comes from the Boutenkos' good friend and raw gourmet chef Josephine Lee from Medford Oregon. I'm including it for you below since it seems that this newsletter isn't yet in Victoria's archives. Maybe you like lemon as much as I do?
Cake
1 1/2 C ground/grated jicama
1 Granny Smith apple peeled & ground
2 C almonds soaked/dehydrated ground fine
4 T golden flax ground fine
1/4 C agave
1 tsp vanilla
lemon juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/2 C poppy seeds
Mix all ingredients and form in any shape you want; I made a 5 1/2" round dish lined with saran wrap.
Then top the first layer with frosting.
Frosting
1 C coconut oil
Whip with beaters
Add 1/4 cup agave nectar, and juice and zest of 1/2-1 whole lemon
Whip again
Spread quickly as it starts to melt a little
Sprinkle poppy seeds on sides
Top with lemon zest curls or slices
Place in refrigerator for an hour or so. Serve at room temperature.
Recent Comments