Hey You!
I had to get up this morning to check through last night’s post. Boy was I wiped last night. Found soooo many typos first thing today! AND I’d checked, re-checked it, done the grammar/spell check before beddy-byes’n’all (Not that this helps me much, because I break most of the rules anyway. 😉
So then I skipped down the stairs to make a kefir smoothie with some almond kefir milk I made the other day.
I left it out for 3 days, but it was fine. Didn’t seem to be doing much till then, to be honest. I reckon 2-3 days will be about right, temperature depending.
I made it like I make coconut kefir. I don’t use canned milk myself, but I’ll write a post about how to make coconut milk from scratch very soon.
I didn’t make this milk from scratch. Or buy it in a can. (Not heard of almond milk in a can, but who knows what’s sold in other parts of this big and wonderful world?!) I bought mine in a carton from a health shop.
Kefir Smoothie with Almond Milk
Gather Your Goodies
For Your Milk
Carton of Almond Milk
Starter Culture Powder
For Your Smoothie
1 Cup Almond Kefir Milk
Flesh from half an orange
Juice from same half of orange!
1/4 teaspoon Orange Extract (bought or home-made – I’ll add this recipe soon)
1/4 Teaspoon of Fermented Orange Zest (Ya seeee! Yesterday I advised to make a batch of it and have it to hand? Ta da! You can also add it to the chocolate orange sweets – link for those is on the next line.)
1 Fresh Date (Use the rest of the pack to make raw orange chocolate sweets!)
It’s Action Time
Almond Milk Kefir
You’re going to make the milk 2-3 days ahead of your smoothie!
Check the culture starter you’ve bought for instructions, but I use 1 pint of milk to half a packet with mine.
When the milk has thickened and tastes tart (do check it) you’re ready to go!
Orange Almond Milk Smoothie
Cut your orange in half, cover the un-used half and pop it back from whence it came. Never waste good food! 😉
Here’s the easiest way to segment an orange. Just like you would a grapefruit. (It’s not the way I did it. Haha. You can see from the photo!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Es8SIGe00
Take the stone out of your date! (PLEASE don’t forget to do this or the smoothie will be become an Almond Milk Stone Kefir Smoothie. 😉
Okay, now pour your milk into a blender.
Add the rest of your ingredients.
Blend.
Pour.
Drink.
Smile.
Ooh, Really?!
Someone asked me the other day what I mean by 1 Cup. I have read about food on so many U.S. sites over the years that I started measuring in cups and find it MUCH easier than weighing food/drink. High speed blenders tend to have both cup and ml measurement lines all the way up too.
If you have a set of cups (you can buy them in the UK in most kitchen departments/shops now) you will find life becomes a whole lot easier than working out fluid ounces, which are less forgiving and don’t allow for adding small volumes as accurately.
My advice today? Find LOVE for CUPS! (They literally cost less than a fiver for a set. Plastic is best for ferments.)
So it just remains for me to share an embarrassing video with you.
I woke this morning, bumbled about in the kitchen, wanting to make something with my almond kefir, but hadn’t planned anything. I don’t buy much fruit at the moment and am juicing this week (mostly veg) so I dug out some oranges and literally made something out of what I could find as I rooted about. Always the best way really, because it means less waste.
I also seem to be going through an ‘orange’ phase! I doooo love the flavour of orange in food and I know I’ll never grow out of that, but I do promise to bring you other flavours ever so soon.
So … the video.
I taught myself how to use iMovie at the start of this year. Chuffed? For a non-techy, oh yes! Then I didn’t use it for a few months (after a long play around with it and a good few movies) .. and on returning ..?.. Guess what?
You got it! Apple had changed the iMovie interface and my little brain couldn’t work it out. Dang!
So I grumped about it for ages to anyone who would listen, then today, having heard about a nifty little iMovie App and a tutorial App, I lazed on the sofa in my office (in pj’s actually. Yup. That’s how I work sometimes. Well, no-one can see me, so hey jolly ho!) and I pushed this little honey onto YouTube a couple of hours later.
It’s a start. Anyway. 😉
Don’t get excited. There’s actually NO point to this video. It’s just me, messing about. And singing. Badly. But I just wanted to share this, because if you need to make movies too? It’s really quick to learn.
Catch you tomorrow! (I know, it’s relentless. I’ll give you a day off sometime, but The Arrow’s are whipping my butt at the moment and there’s no peace when you’re learning with those guys!
http://www.sarkemedia.com/category/blog/
(They don’t pay me to tell you about them. I just think they deserve a bit of free PR. They really know their ‘stuff.’)
(Watch out for Kev though. I talked about him yesterday. 😉
Happy Evening.
What are you going to ferment first? (Don’t tell me it’s your partner. Haha)
