Happy Birthday, Trae

This morning we made mylk shakes as a little treat since we had company. They were delicious, and the children really loved them. It is so nice to have a non-dairy treat like that. They are so light and satisfying. The ones I usually make start with an almond mylk base:

I always soak the almonds I make into mylk. I store them in pint jars, so I just empty a pint jar into a quart mason jar and fill it with water and stick it back in the fridge. I always have 2 quarts soaking as I use the soaked almonds for a lot of different things. As soon as I use one, I empty another pint and make a new quart. I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, I empty one of the quarts of soaked almonds into a colander and rinse them really well. Today the skins were wanting to come off, so I "blanched" many of them. I put 1 quart of water in my blender and add the rinsed, drained almonds.

After thoroughly blending, I the mixture through a nut mylk bag into a large bowl, and rinse blender with another 4 cups water. I added the contents of the bag back into the blender to make sure we got all the almondy goodness we could. This is blended again and poured through the bag again. Of course, the pulp is stripped of as much liquid as possible. The pulp is put on a dehydrator sheet and dried to be used later.

The original pint of almonds results in a 1/2 gallon of almond mylk plus some pulp to use for burgers or a pie crust.

To make the mylk shakes, we freeze really ripe bananas on a cookie sheet just before they are too ripe. These are placed in quart jars in the freezer. I use one quart jar of frozen banana chunks with 2 cups of almond mylk, 2 tablespoons coconut oil, 1/2 agave nectar, and whatever flavoring we want. Today we used 1/4 cup each carob powder and raw cacao along with a dash of cinnamon. I also really like lemon flavored ones where I add a 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Very yummy.

For lunch we had the cheddar cheeze made into soup again, this time with some dehydrated spinach flakes. I fermented a triple batch of cheeze yesterday, so I mixed it all together today for use during the week including the soup. It just has to be thinned a little bit for use as a soup. Rejuvelac makes a good thinner, but since I was out today, I had to use water. We also had some tomato "sandwiches" on sprouted wheat crackers with some mayo again.


For dinner, I was giving a party for one of my seminary students who turned 18. I decided to go Mexican and made the corn chips Wyatt likes so much. I also made some "refried" no-beans, ensalada, salsa, and guacamole. I pulled out some of the sour cream from last week's cheeze frenzy, and added a little bowl of the cheddar made today. It was truly a feast meant for a king. I loved it.

Ensalada is something from my old way of eating that the Mexican sisters at church taught me to make. I had forgotten about it when I abandoned my cooked Mexican dishes, but I was thinking today that it would be a very tasty addition to our Mexican dinners. It is simply shredded cabbage mixed with a little sea salt, cilantro, and lime or lemon juice. I love it!

Everyone makes their own version of salsa and guac. Mine aren't anything special beyond the deliciousness of the wonderful ingredients going into them. We are so blessed to have so many beautiful and delicious fruits and vegetables.

Guacamole

Avocado
onion
garlic
tomatoes
salt
squirt of lemon

Salsa

chopped tomatoes
Jalopeno pepper
onion
garlic
salt

I never measure for these items. They are very intuitive foods.