Woohoo! First recipe-thing! Here is what I use, but you can change up the ratio. This makes something like a whole milk consistency.
about 32oz of water
about 1/2 cup of rolled oats
about 1/4 cup of hemp seeds
All you have to do is: -It’s optional but you can soak and rinse the oats. It seems like it reduces that slimy texture, but I don’t know if it makes enough difference for everybody. -Add all the ingredients in the blender until smooth (I do high power for 1min on my blender.) -Then you strain them out. I used to use the Nutmilk Bag when I made almond milk for my husband when he went on a temporary dairy free diet, but now I have to use this few times a week and hate squeezing that slimy bag, I use this gadget.
I got these bottles, as I need to be able to keep some at home and take some to Muffin’s daycare.
Oh! That leftover goop “pulp” is still good, freeze it, use it in smoothies or cookies to boost ’em up. No waste woohoo!
I pre boil water for this so that it lasts longer. It’s best if you sterilize the bottles and utensils for it lasting longer. These are usually good for like 4 days or so, according to many sites. But…1) Muffin goes through this pretty fast and 2) I just don’t have time to sterilize everything every time. So I boil water, put it in the milk bottle while its very hot, let it cool in it, and use that water to make the milk. HOWEVER don’t make the mistake I made a few times at first. If the water is warm or hot, IT WILL BECOME OATMEAL WATER. Goopy slimy yuck. So make sure the water is cold or at least cool!
Backstory:
One of the many allergies that Muffin (currently 15m) has is cow milk. When a baby hits 12 months, doctors recommend to switch over to cow’s milk. Good source of fat and calcium and all. Muffin had a few allergy tests prior to this so we were already aware of her milk allergy, so here came my first real experiment with food and Muffin.
First. Almond milk. A pretty common alternative people go for. She didn’t like it. It’s pretty normal for kids to refuse milk at first, so I didn’t think of it much but it’s good I tried something else, because it turns out, she has a mild almond allergy too. The other thing that made me look for other options was because Muffin was on the smaller side at that point. Shortly after we settled on the milk she went through (well, GOING through) a massive growth spurt or something and turned into a food monster and put on some weight and height, but the almost fat free aspect of almond milk was not ideal for us. We needed to chunk up this baby.
Second. Oat milk. Easily make-able at home. Cheap. Pretty readily available in stores. She didn’t like it.
Third, Soy milk. Back when we first had her allergy scare, soy was at +1, which means she was a taaaaaad allergic. I feed her soy products (especially due to my Japanese background) all the time and she’s fine, but I kind of didn’t want it to be soy soy soy soy soy. Also my husband wasn’t a huge fan of soy milk, so I don’t know, just wasn’t feeling it. She drank it ok, but I was still for more options. Muffin is a girl, but some people argue that it is not the best to feed boys all the time. It’s only what I heard, I’m not a doctor, so I’m not going to go further on this, but if you’re concerned you may want to ask the pediatrician.
Forth, Pea milk. I didn’t even go for it. People love it but it’s too much $ for me for something she needs to drink regularly.
Fifth, Hemp milk. When discussing milk alternatives with our allergist, hemp milk was on her shortlist. Huh, hemp. You drink that? What? Apparently people do! We went out and tried it, and she took to it. Nice source of fat too. BUUUUUT….$3.99~5.99 for a small carton.
Great.
So, where does my DIY-everything mind go? MAKE IT! I found out you can easily make hemp milk. Just as easy as oat milk. So I went out to find a bag of hemp seeds. Got it. Calculated. With the original recipe, the price difference didn’t come too different. It still kind of got to the similar price as cartoned hemp milk. Hmmm. How can I stretch this budget without compromising nutrition?
OAT! OAT IS CHEAP! Let’s try mixing it!
aaand IT WORKED. Oh boy the happy dance I did when Muffin happily drank it. The allergist had nothing against it, pediatrician had nothing bad to say about it and happy to see her weight going up, so unless I find a different solution of any other problem comes up, OR MAY BE SHE’LL OUTGROW THIS ALLERGY, I’ll be making this milk for a while.
Note : I am not a doctor, not a dietician, I’m an artist. Recipes here are just what I made or what worked for me, not ‘clinically proven’ in any way or anything like that. When in doubt with anything, please consult your dr or allergist or whoever you need to turn to. I will not take any responsibility.
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