What I like to do with nuts....

For the last couple of months I've been making my own nut milk most mornings. It's ridiculously easy and it's become a really enjoyable little ritual for me. I soak my nuts overnight then first thing in the morning, while the kids are eating their toast, I rinse my nuts, whizz them up in the blender with some water, then strain and squeeze. I usually add a drop of maple syrup or agave nectar into the blender to sweeten and sometimes add some raw cacao powder to make extra yummy chocolate milk. Raw cacao is a total superfood, it contains more antioxidants than blueberries or green tea and is one of the best sources of magnesium found in nature. It also has a subtle amount of caffeine, just what I need to get me buzzing in the morning!

I've tried a few different recipes for my nut milk and have modified these to find the one that I like best. 

1/2 cup of nuts, soaked overnight....I usually use almonds but anything goes. 

2 Tbspns of maple syrup or agave nectar.

5 cups of water.

Blend, blend, blend!

Some recipes leave the pulp in the milk for added fibre but I'm more partial to a smooth, milk-like texture so I strain the pulp out.  Just pour through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth then squeeze the pulp bag to get the last drops of nutty milk out. I use these old juice bottles and love that they look like glass milk bottles from the good old days! My milk keeps for up to four days in the fridge (but usually gets drunk within a day or two in this house.) Remember to give it a good shake before pouring. We've used nut milk in in everything you would usually use dairy milk......with cereal, in smoothies, for baking....Neil even used it for Yorkshire Puds! 

Now, onto the pulp.....

Because I strain my nut milk I'm left with a pot of nut pulp every morning. I quite like munching on a spoonful straight out the blender but I've also sprinkled it on yogourt  or used it to make thicker smoothies. A couple of morning ago I was feeling experimental and decided to try making crackers.  I mixed the pulp with a little coconut oil and spread the mixture across a silicone cookie sheet to about the thickness of typical "ryvita" style cracker. (I told you this was experimental :) I baked the sheet at 250f for about half an hour checking constantly. Half way through I cracked the sheet into smaller "crackers" so that I could turn them.....

.....and voila!

They were a bit more crumbly than I was hoping for but really tasty! Much more so than a boring Ryvita! I topped them with my version of chocolate spread - mashed banana and raw cacao and a slice of fresh banana "for colour" as my Mummy would say :)
Yum!

The crackers and choc spread were snaffled in a flash but I had lots of toasty nut flavoured crumbs left over and they were so good sprinkled over our salad for lunch. Waste not want not and all that!

Hope I have inspired you all to be creative with your nuts!
;)