Homemade Almond Milk

What you'll need:
1 1/2 cup of raw almonds
4 cups of water
1 tablespoon of *sweetener (add more according to taste)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
Nut-milk bag**

Start by soaking the almonds in water for 8 hours, or overnight, so they are soft enough to blend. Once they are done soaking strain the almonds and place the almonds in the blender. Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water and blend until it's somewhat like a paste. Eventually blend in the rest of the water unless you want the milk to be thicker and more creamy, then don't add all 4 cups. Put in the sweetener, vanilla, and salt and blend. Make sure to taste it and see if you want more sweetener and/or salt.

Once the flavor is how you want it, open the nut bag over a bowl and pour the mixture into the nut bag, allowing the milk to run through. Squeeze and massage the remainder of the liquid out. (If you want to save the contents of the nut bag and freeze them you can make your own almond flour.) Then pour the milk into the container of your choosing and refrigerate.

You will have to shake the milk before using it.

Enjoy!

*I'm currently living in Tokyo so the sweetener options are a bit different than those in America. I used a sweetener called trehalos, but lakanto or xylitol would work as well. Stevia is another option but if you add too much it will be bitter. It really depends on you're preference.
**Click here for the nut bag I used. It's reusable so it's worth it. Some say you can double or triple a cheese cloth, but it seems simpler to just use the nut-milk bag.