Making Almond Milk at Home

This recipe doesn't fall under the cheaper category. It does fall under healthier because you know what's in it category.
Let's make home made almond milk!
It's pretty easy and doesn't involve a lot of work. Most of it is time... time to soak the almonds, time to stain the almonds, etc.

 Here's what you need:

2 cups raw and organic almonds

A bowl of water

4 cups water (not included in the soaking water)

Agave Syrup

• Place the almonds in a bowl and cover with about an inch of water. They will plump as they absorb water. The almond milk is creamier when you let them soak longer so shoot for about 18 hours if you can. We did it over night and through the next morning.
• Drain the almonds and rinse them off. They will be all puffy. Perfect! Discard the soaking water because it contains phytic acid, which affects the body's ability to absorb nutrients.
•  Place the almonds in the blender and cover with 4 cups of water. You can do two bacthes in the blender here if your belnder isn't big enough or strong enough.
• Blend at the high speed for 2 minutes. The water will turn white and the almonds will be reduced to tiny tiny tiny pieces.

• Strain the almonds through cheese cloth or any other very fine strainer that you would use for jelly.

• After it has drained for about 15 mins, then gather up the material around the remaining paste and press or squeeze as hard as you can. I choose to put a small plate on top and then put a heavy weight on top of that. I let it sit for another 15 minutes.

• Add your agave to taste. I added 5 drops at a time and taste tested it as we went along. In our house, 20 drops was the go to amount for this much almond milk.
• Seal up what ever you aren't drinking right now and store it in the fridge for 2-3 days.
• I also put some in the freezer, but we haven't tried that yet to let you know how it worked. I will update when we do.

Now here's the part where you can be super frugal. You can make the remaining almond paste into almond flour which is great for baking. Spread the left over almond paste into very thin layers onto your dehydrator tray (as though you were making fruit roll ups) and dehydrate at 120 for about 8 hours. 

Dehydrating time will totally vary based on how wet and or thin yours is. So check it at 8 hours and run it for more if you need to. You should have super dry chips when you're done. Run these through a coffee or herb grinder until it's floury dust and store in air tight container.

Let us know how yours turns out. We love it and are very happy to know the origin of our food and exactly what's in it!

Also feel free to follow us on Facebook to join our HHF Tribe! 

Dehydrating Apples for Healthy Snacking

So we just dehydrated apples because we had quite a few and I didn't want them to go to waste. Apples are very easy to dehydrate and make a great snack. Especially for the healthy New Year New You : )

I use my Excalibur Dehydrator, which I love. 

Frankly I don't do anything to prep the apples, like citric acid or lemon juice, because I find that they come out just fine without adding anything to them. (There are links below to directions should you decide that you do want to do this, but our pics show that you don't really need to do this step).

1. Slice your apples. Peel them first if you'd like. We don't do that, but you could.
I use my handy dandy apple slicer to get uniform and thin slices and plop them on the trays. 
2. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. (optional)
3. Dehydrate at 135 degrees (F) for 6-8 hours. This batch went in for 8 hours because these McIntosh and Delicious Apples were pretty juicy. 
4. Store them anyway that works best for you.

You can seal them in bags or jars and they will last 4-6 weeks. 

You can also use your Foodsaver to have them last longer.
I save all glass jars from anything, like spaghetti sauce, gravy... and use the jar sealer attachment on my food saver to seal them up. You can also, of course, use mason jars. 

You can also add another hour or two to the process and dry them all the way to apple chips. Apple chips last longer because more of the water is removed. My family just prefers the regular apple slices less dry.

This link gives some directions for ascorbic acid and lemon juice to keep your apples from browning during the process if you'd like to include that step. Again, I don't because it's never been an issue for me. 

You can check out our dehydrating dog treats page if you're in a dehydrating frame of mind. 

3 Healthy and Delicious and Fun and Colorful snack ideas.

1. Greek nachos.... really? You can imagine how good this will be right from the picture. This is so fresh and tasty and makes your tongue do a little dance.
Click here for the recipe from NotWithOutSalt.com. 

2. We will be making this this weekend. Basil Hummus Stuffed Mini Peppers. Seems perfect for movie watching when you need to keep popping things into your mouth but don't want to gain 25 pounds : )

Thanks SheKnows.com.

Beef Bone Broth

I very frequently get these bones for our dog. I always boil them first because I can't imagine giving raw meet to my dog, even though in the wild it's all he would get,  and he eats old tissues from my wastebasket so I am sure he'd be fine. But all in all, I prefer to boil them first.

Imagine my homesteading horror when I realized what I have been dumping down the drain each time after I cook them.

Perfectly good BONE BROTH!!!!! Ack!

I have been searching for effective natural replacement for collagen for our faces as an ongoing companion for our face creams.
Plus something for healthier hair.
Plus something with protein. 
Plus bone broth has glycine, which makes our livers stronger.
Plus glucosamine and chondroitin for building muscle and repairing joint tissues.
Plus better nails (remember when everyone was drinking gelatin for nails and hair?)
Bone broth has all of these. It's a cold fighter sister to chicken soup with many gelatin and protein benefits.
Plus doggie gets a bone. Win Win.
The best method to get all of the minerals and healthy bits out of the meat is to let it cook for a long time at a lower heat. So crock pot is best here.

Put the bones in your crockpot and add a few finely chopped vegetable to make it taste the way you like. You can use celery, onions, potatoes, garlic, carrots, maybe ginger for as snappy taste...
The vegetables are better left in with the broth and enjoyed in each bowl, but you can always cook them in a cheesecloth or food grade food strainer and pull them out when cooking is over if you want pure broth that is easier to sip out of a cup.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of apple cider or regular vinegar. This helps draw the minerals and proteins out of the bones.
Put everything in the crock pot and cover with water and let it cook on low heat for 8-10 hours.
Then enjoy. A cup a day would be so good for you. Store leftovers in the fridge. If you have a ton of left overs, you can freeze it until you need it.