Day 8 - Spices of life

I woke up feeling a lot better and although wishing i could teleport to Denmark i had a lovely day with mum :) I started the day with a nice walk taking the puppies to the oval around the corner and had a trip to JB Hi-Fi and bought myself the Lady Gaga CD so i am all ready for the concert in less than a month!! I also had another go with the same blueberry muffins i made yesterday but added banana :)

Banana-Blueberry muffins take 2

Please note: mum is the sneaky one
with the camera!

After lunch mum and i had a lovely trip into town. We did a few jobs and had a look at music shops for piano songs, i'm trying to find the Taylor Swift piano songs but may have to order them online :) Then we had a good look in 3 health food shops! I love looking at all the different foods, mum has gotten right into them all and inspires me to try new foods. I bought some cacao nibbles, organic coconut and pistachios and was looking at all the different flours wondering what i could cook with them all! Mum and i had fun smelling the different spices, i'm going to buy the different types to make my own chai one day :)

Spices in Rusticana 

Our health food goodies :) 

I have wanted to take mum to muffin break for a while and treat mum to a muffin and hot drink but being amateurs we soon found out that to go to muffin break you need to go in the morning when there are actually muffins left!! I was a little disheartened seeing as though mum was ready for a muffin but we decided to go to the new Natural Temptation cafe which i hadn't been to before. It had moved onto a corner where you can sit and watch the traffic and people go by. I loved it! The food there was amazing and so fresh, mum and i had the BEST chai tea i have had, the leaves were in a little pot with milk and it was so tasty, the cups were really pretty too. We found some yummy date slice and a cacao-nut protein ball which reminded me of Kyle so we shared one :) Both delicious! It was lovely sitting there with a ray of sunshine coming through onto our table and i may have gone a little too happy with the happy snaps being there with mum!

Mum contemplating out the window :)

Lovely pot of Chai!

Sipping Chai out of a lovely cup!

           

















I took mums bike for a little bike ride as i am still having trouble running. Mum was laughing at me complain how heavy her bike baskets were both on the front and back and had to take a picture of me as i went off :P

And tonight mum showed me how to make almond milk! Sarah makes it all the time and substitutes it for milk, has it with porridge and is always experimenting with ways to use it. Mum uses her smoothie maker, it is surprisingly really easy to make! And the result.... Oh my gosh!!! It us amazing! I warmed some up and added some cinnamon, a touch of maple syrup and some of the almond puree left over... it has beaten any chai latte i have had and is now my favourite hot drink, I would love to use it to make a chai next time :) I will be definitely making it again! The puree is so smooth and can be used as a spread or on top of muesli or fruit, i will be having it for breakfast tomorrow. Here is the recipe...

Almond Milk Ingredients and Equipment

• 1/3 C. Raw Organic Almonds
• 2 C. Water
• A pot
• A blender
• A mesh strainer

And that’s it!

Step 1 – Blanching The Almonds
You can make almond milk without this step if you’re really in a rush, but the skins of the nuts will give a slightly bitter, strong taste to the finished almond milk that isn’t totally pleasing. Blanching only takes a couple of minutes, and the end result will be a very white milk with a pure, sweet taste.

Bring about 1 cup of water to a boil in your pot. Drop in your almonds. Let them boil for about 3 minutes and then pour everything through your metal mesh strainer so that the water pours out and you’re left with just the almonds. Pour the almonds out onto a plate and let them rest for a few minutes until they are cool enough to touch with your hands.

Once the almonds have cooled a bit, simply rub off their papery skins and discard the skins. That’s all there is to blanching and the end result is the lovely, creamy nut meats, ready to be turned into almond milk.

Step 2 – Making Almond Milk
Put the blanched nuts and 2 cups of fresh water into your electric blender. *Make sure you put the lid on. Blend them until you’ve crushed as many of the nuts as you can and the milk is creamy white and thick. You may have to stop and start the blender, picking it up off the base and shaking it from time to time, as the nuts can get stuck under the blades. I want to note here that if you use more water/less water or more nuts/less nuts, you can control the exact creaminess of the milk. 

Step 3 – Straining The Almond Milk
Holding your metal mesh strainer over a receptacle – a jar, a bowl or wide-mouthed container of some kind, simply pour the milk through the strainer. Set the pulverized nuts aside. You can strain the milk twice if you want to be sure you’ve gotten out all of the little particles of nuts, but I only strain once. There are fancy bags and other devices for straining nut milks, but we don’t have these around our house and any fine-gauge mesh strainer seems to do the job just fine. And that’s it. You now have homemade almond milk! It could hardly be easier to make.

And now after a nice week of recuperation at home it is back to Perth again tomorrow, but before the next rotation starts i have a 21st tomorrow night and a dinner date with Lexi Sunday night which i am looking forward to then i should be ready for rotation number 3! And don't worry i know these posts have been getting longer and longer and the photos sneakier and sneakier but soon they will be getting rather brief again... until the next holiday :P