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A few months ago I tried making my own almond milk. I was hoping to find it to be a cheaper alternative to buying my milk, but it really wasn’t. I also was looking to reduce the amount of excess sugar I was feeding David. Non dairy milks are fortified with all kinds of important vitamins that we really need like calcium, vitamin D and vitamin E, but it also comes with a lot of sugar. So I decided to buy unsweetened milk. And then Christmas came and David and I were hooked on Silk Nog for a month and all reasoning about excess sugars went out the window.
Now it’s January and we’re back on track—most of the time—and we’re back to unsweetened almond milk—and coconut, hemp, and flax. The problem is that David is pretty used to the taste of the sweet stuff, so he just sort of gave up drinking—he would only drink a couple of ounces a day, and get the rest of his liquids from fruit. He didn’t seem to be dehydrated, but I still wanted him to take advantage of all of the vitamins the milks provide. So I decided to make my own chocolate milk syrup to add to the unsweetened milk. It only adds a few calories—about 20, and 4 grams of sugar compared to 15 grams of sugar in sweetened almond milk and 12 in cow’s milk—and you are in control of the quality of ingredients.
I was mixing this one cup at a time, but that got tedious, so I went ahead and mixed up a large batch and am keeping it in the fridge, ready for quick serving! David loves it (ok, so do I), and I feel good to be giving him such a healthy treat!
Mexican Chocolate Milk
1 64 ounce carton of unsweetened non-dairy milk (I often use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
8 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
8 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
Place cocoa powder, maple syrup, and cinnamon into a large pitcher. Using a fork or whisk, stir together. Be patient, this takes a minute or so to “gel.” Once it becomes a thick syrup, add about a cup of milk. Mix together well. Add the rest of the milk and stir again.
Store in a pourable container in the fridge, shaking well before each serving. Enjoy!
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