Anita:
Well, hello, Sunshine. I am so glad you're joining me today. This is a solo episode, and we're gonna talk all about cooking. I've got something really important to share with you. You know, Jared and I are all about sharing the simple steps to make plant-based living really easy and delicious so that it's doable for life.

That way you can heal and you can feel your best to accomplish your purpose in life, your big dreams and your goals and your plans. And today, what I'm gonna talk to you about is something so simple, but when you don't know it, it just seems hard. So we're gonna bust it down, make it easy to understand. And I want you to think about when you're making a recipe and it calls for nut milk.

What do you do? Do you wait till you have the time to make another trip to the store? Well, not anymore, because after today you will not have to buy nut milk, if you don't want to, ever again. I'm gonna share the plant milk formula with you.

And once you know these game changing strategies, you're gonna save so much time and so much money and have plant milk that actually taste good. That is what we want. So where do you even, start? You need a liquid, right? Milk's liquid, obviously, no brainer. So you need water. Water is the first ingredient. 

We prefer to use filtered water for health benefits, and it just gives the milk a much cleaner taste. 

Then it's time to start thinking about ingredients that will make the milk creamy. This former dairy queen is all about that. And next, you think about how you want the milk to taste. You want it to taste like what you were previously accustomed to. So you'd wanna add a date for some natural sweetness because animal milk is slightly sweet.

And And, you know what else? It's a little salty too. So if you just started this journey and you really want it to taste as close as possible to what you were used to before add a very small pinch of salt for flavor, however, this is totally optional. How do you get the creaminess into your milk? You already know to add the water for the liquid.

The creaminess depends on what kind of milk you want to make. Do you want oat milk? Then you're going to blend water with raw oats. I generally like to use rolled oats, or you could even use quick cook oats. They blend up really well and it works so nicely. You're just gonna blend it until it's smooth.

Rice milk, how do you make that? You add a bit of cooked brown rice to the water.

Nut milk? It's just water and a few nuts. Now you're gonna vary the number of nuts, depending on the amount of creaminess you want. So if you want something like a heavy cream, obviously you add more nuts.

 Just start out with a few and I'm gonna give you a recipe at the end. So hang on for that, because I'm gonna show you a great way to do that. Right now, I just want you to know the formula. So for a formula for the creaminess, you just wanna add more of these ingredients that make it creamy to make it even thicker and heavier like a heavy cream.

Now creamier may seem better, but it's not always the case. I So you don't wanna add too much, or you'll just end up with a thick mess.

I'm gonna tell you exactly how much, but just for a basic nut milk recipe you might wanna add, like for two cups of water, maybe five, six, whole nuts, and it could be any kind. So remember, we aren't going to strain this. Why? We wanna keep in all that great fiber and all the nutrients in the milk. The stuff that's not there when you buy your plant milk straight off the shelf.

And you know what else usually isn't in it? A whole lot of nuts. I mean, look up sometime how many nuts are in there. It's not much at all. So you wanna get that fiber, the nutrients, and also the flavor that you're gonna get when you actually have some nuts in the water or some oats or some rice. If you don't go overboard on the solids and you have a high speed blender, there's just no need to strain your plant milk. Ditch the plant milk bag, do not waste your money. Do not waste your time. Do not waste your sanity. I'm telling you if you haven't heard my story about that, go back and listen to some previous episodes.

We've been having another one that we did in general on plant milk, where we talked with our youngest daughter. It's so cute. If you haven't gotten to listen to that episode, go back and listen to that. It's episode number five. You want to check that out because it's so cute and so sweet. And listen, if she can do it, you can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. It's not hard. It's quick. It's not messy. You don't need a nut milk bag. You do not need to strain it. It's just that simple. So when you are making nut milk, what nut are you gonna use? Are you gonna use almonds? Why because it's what's available at the store?

Listen, Sunshine, you have so many taste options here. Why in the world would you just make almond milk? How would you like to try pistachio milk? How about pecan milk? It's delicious. Why use just one nut make a nut milk blend. We love Brazil nut and pumpkin seed nut milk. It's a blend of Brazil nuts and pumpkin seeds, right? There are tons of options here. And if you're using the milk for baking whenever possible, I want you to make it right in your dish. So If you're making something and it calls for nut milk or oat milk, make it right there in the dish.

For example, if a recipe called for nut milk, I would often just add that same amount of water that the recipe called for nut milk. So if it called for a cup of nut milk, I would add a cup of water. And then I'd add a few nuts or a little bit of oats, if it was oat milk. This works out so nicely. Of course, this is if you're blending the batter or other ingredients in the recipe you're making. So you wouldn't just toss the water and the nuts into your batter without blending them together. That won't result in the milk you're after. But if you're making something like my blender pancakes or waffles that are in the Power On Plants Cookbook, there's just no need to

pre-make your milk. Isn't that awesome? You'll see that I simply add the nuts and water right into the blender, along with the other recipe ingredients and blend. And in that way, the nut milk is created directly in the batter. 

Well, let's say I just want a cold glass of plant milk. Well, you're gonna add a little bit less water than what a recipe would call for. And at this very end, toss in a few ice cubes to chill it. It really is just that simple. Jarrod, and I always say that things often seem hard because you don't know what to do, but once you know the simple steps to take, all of a sudden what you thought was hard, it's now quite simple, enjoyable, 

and doable with your busy schedule too. So there you have it. That is just the simple formula. I didn't even give you a recipe. I want you to just wrap your mind around the fact that you can make plant milk. It is not hard.

You can make it with water and then whatever's gonna make it creamy, like your oats, your cooked rice, your nuts. And then you'll have a very simple and easy plant milk. Use a high speed blender, then you're not even gonna have to drain it.

What's interesting is it's not expensive either. Let's say you don't have a high speed blender. A NutriBullet Pro is under a hundred dollars. Many times, I've seen 'em even for $69, $79. That's a great, great thing to have in your kitchen for making nut milk without having to strain it. And do you have to soak the nuts?

No. No, you don't. You can, if you'd like to, it might blend up a little faster, but it's still going to blend in a high speed blender.

So there you have it, your quick and simple formula for making plant-based milk in your own kitchen with ingredients that you most likely have. And let me give you this one more tip too. What if you don't have nuts? How are you gonna make nut milk? Do you have any nut butter, any almond butter, any peanut butter?

All you have to do is put a small spoon of that in with your water. That will also make the fastest nut milk you can imagine once you blend them together. Now if you haven't gotten your copy of our perfect plant milk recipe yet go right now and grab it at PowerOnPlants.com/PlantMilkRecipe.

And when you make your own plant milk, be sure to tag us on Instagram at PowerOnPlantsOfficial and let us know all about it. I hope you have a great week, Sunshine. Go and implement these strategies I've been teaching you. I promise it's not hard. I look forward to hearing from you on Instagram and I hope you have a fantastic week.