Eco-Logical Eating, almond milk recipe

So I have a little catching up to do. But first I want to share the recipe for almond milk. I talked about this milk in my first eco-eating post. If you are interested in more recipes from what we eat in class, message me and I'll get them to you.

Almond milk is a healthier option than cow's milk and it is super delicious. It contains more calcium and other nutrients than cow's milk and it is easier for your body to digest. It is also more sustainable compared to cow's milk obtained by contemporary industrial dairy farm practices. You can use almond milk almost any time you would use cow's milk.

Almond Milk, serves 4 {Nina says that one cup of almonds will make 4 cups of almond milk, therefore, 4 cups of almonds will give you a gallon of almond milk}

1 cup raw almonds
1 T agave nectar (or sweetener of your choice)
3 cups water
1 cup ice

Soak almonds in water 8 hours or overnight. Strain and rinse.
Dip the soaked almonds in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes, then peel off the skins. (This is an optional step. Skinned almonds make a whiter, less grainy milk, but the flavor is the same.)
Place the almonds in a blender with one cup of the milk. Blend on high
for about one minute until creamy. Add the remaining water, ice and
sweetener.
Pour mixture, half at a time, through a nut-milk bag that has been
placed over the mouth of jug, cup or bowl. (Bags are available for
purchase online, google : “nut milk bag”. I purchased mine from Omar’s
Living Cuisine on Highland for $3.50, but I am not sure if he still stocks
them.) {That note is from Nina. I am thinking a cheese cloth would also work or coffee strainer, but I haven't tried it so I'm not sure}
Squeeze and press the bag gently to release the liquid into the cup
or bowl.
When the liquid is out, turn the bag inside out and place the pulp in a sealable
container for another recipe. (Freeze it if you will not be using it immediately.) Rinse out the bag and repeat or dry and store the bag for the next use.
Serve almond milk immediately or chill until ready to use.

You can buy 25 lb bulk bags of almonds for around $6/lb, so total $150. Buying in bulk like that is probably the best way to get raw, organic almonds as well. That's pretty much the only way to make it cost around the same as buying cow's milk. Unfortunately, that is a bit expensive, but I suggest making some with just a few lbs of almonds from a supermarket to try it if you don't have the money to make that investment in almonds. That way you can try it first to see if you like it anyways.


I was very interested in the cost comparision so I did a little research. Some online sources say that approximately 3 1/2 cups of shelled almonds are in a pound. So, if you bought a 25 lb bag of almonds, you would have approximately 87 1/2 cups of almonds. This amount of almonds will yeild 350 cups of milk. There are 16 cups in a gallon so you'd have almost 23 gallons (22.88 to be sort of exact) of milk. So that means each gallon of almond milk (using the cost of just the almonds to calculate) costs approximately $6.86. So, obviously quite a bit more expensive than cow's milk.


It is unfortunate that eating healthy for the environment and ourselves is so expensive at times but that's where personal choice comes in. And I feel like I should add that whatever choices we make are valid. I don't want anyone to think that I look down on them for drinking cow's milk instead of almond milk or anything else I talk about in relation to this class. I still drink cows milk and won't make all the changes in my diet that I talk about here. I just want to share what I am learning with you, so we can grow and continue on our dietary journeys. lol, so cheesy but just had to say that. We are all in different places in life and that will influence our dietary decisions. Your and my decisions are equally valid, even if they are completely different.

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The Philosophy of Dreaming

I have also talked to people interested in my dreaming class. Although it will be slightly more difficult to talk about what we learn in this class (it is based in philosophy and dreams which are both sometimes difficult to decipher), I thought I would share some basics.

The readings we have for this class are Dream Reader and Lucid Dreams in 30 Days and Dream Reader. The first book is very helpful for helping you remember your dreams and becomming lucid in your dreams. I normally never remember my dreams but since doing the excercises and keeping a dream journal, I have been remembering at least one every night.

Some basics I would recommend if you don't want to buy the book are keeping a journal and telling yourself you will remember your dreams in the morning. It is also very helpful if you can wake up without the use of an alarm. The author suggests setting a stereo to wake you up gently with classical music if you need to get up at a certain time. When you wake up, give yourself a moment to relax and let the dream come to you. Immediately write in your journal the setting, characters, props/objects, feelings, etc. that were in your dream. Then leave some space to record anything else you might remember later or for musings on your dream's relation to daily life.

Throughout your day, think things like Everyone has dreams and think about it for a second then let the thought go. Also ask yourself periodically if you are dreaming, especially when you encounter dream like circumstances. Consider the question seriously. Most of the time you will come to the conclusion that you are in the waking state but one time, you might just find yourself in a dreaming state, and then you will be lucid.

The first day, we talked about stages of sleep and their relation to dreams (ie. NREM and REM). The next day, we discussed purely physiological theories about dreaming. These are the reductive theories of dreaming. We just spent one day on these theories because the class is geared to looking for meaning in dreams although we must keep in mind that the reductionists may be right.

The first constructive theory of dreaming we talked about was Freud. Then we discussed Fiss, Jung, and Alder. I'll fill you in on these theories in later posts with some examples of possible dream interpretations.

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The Nutritionist

In my last post I talked about a nutritionist from Park City. I forgot her name, which is why I didn't mention it before. (I feel bad lol). Her name is Rebecca. She owns Park City Hollistic Health. She is fascinating, smart, and beautiful. Check out her website parkcityholistichealth.com where she has monthly tips, recipes, information about her company and upcoming workshops or her blog playfulnoshings.blogspot.com where she also shares recipes and healthy living tips.

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Eco-Logical Eating

Many people I have talked to about my May Term classes seemed interested. I thought what better way to share what I'm learning than to blog it? So this post will focus on my class called "Eco-Logical Eating."

The class is taught by two theatre teachers, Michael and Nina Vought. They are interested in being "green" and conscious of how our lives affect the earth. They built their house to be sustainable and it is gorgeous. Big but gorgeous. Their backyard is amazing too. They are modern upper class hippies and passionate about the politics of eating. Both are naturally beautiful and quirky. I am enchanted. But enough of my adoration, let's get to the substance of the class.



The book we are reading over the course of the month is The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollon. If you want to know the details of what I'll be summarizing, I suggest getting a copy. Or borrowing mine when the class is over.

The class starts at the Vought's house where Nina cooks us something that is both healthy for us the planet. Not to mention fabulously delicious (Nina says, "A diet isn't sustatainable unless it's fabulously delicious"). The first day of class we had smooties and sandwhiches. The next day we met we were given a taste of almond milk (which I helped make - it was so much fun), which we later had in the form of strawberry bannana smoothies, and cashew french toast with a garden burger sausage. The Vought's are essentially vegans though Michael says he likes to avoid the label. So that's where the cashew comes in. Instead of using milk and eggs to make the batter for the toast, Nina makes a batter from blended cashews.

For the information part of the class, we learned about nutrition. Well, sort of. A nutritionist who owns a hollistic health business in Park City talked to us about how eating to keep the environment healthy is more nutritious and healthy for ourselves and society as well. She used another of Michael Pollon's books to structure our discussion, In Defense of Food.

The first thing we talked about is how the Western diet has lead to Western diseases. Osteoporosis (sp?), diabetes, some heart diseases, and more are unique to Western society. Crazy. We think our health is so great here but compared to other developed countries, we are actually near the bottom.

We need to eat diets that come mainly from our landscape. Local whole foods are the most healthy and suited for us. The nutritionist gave us some pointers from Michael Pollan.
She talked about eating food (not food products) and gave us some tips to help:

• Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. We expanded this into also asking whether or not she could make it.
• Don't eat things with unfamiliar ingredients, unpronounceable ingredients, more than 5 ingredients (I think this one's a little strict), or high fructose corn syrup (very bad for you despite what the commercial say)
• Avoid products that make health claims (ie. high in omega 3s or contains fish oil)
• Shop on the edges of the supermarket. (think produce department, deli, etc. where the whole foods are)
• Pay more and eat less. If you eat nutrient dense meals, you won't feel as hungry and will eat less but still get what you need. So while you may pay more for your food, you get better quality.
• Don't eat things that won't rot. (Think Twinkies)
• Try to shop outside of supermarkets. Go to the farmer's market, join a community supported agriculture group, or buy at local farms. They are usually more healthy and organic and have more diversity as far as whole food choices go.
• Eat mostly plants. It actually lowers your risk for cancer.
• You are what you eat eats. Think about what is in the meat that you eat. If you are looking for more healthy chicken or eggs, go with the "pasturized" label. For beef, look for "grass finished" or "grass fed." Fish is a tricky issue. Michael says some species are farmed sustainably. Others aren't, Salmon for example. He said to look into it on our own if that is an issue for us.

Next we talked about some guidlines about how to eat.

• Eat less (we talked about this above. Also, it prevents obesity)
• Eat meals. I have heard that snacking throughout the day is good but the nutritionist said that meals are better because they require you to sit down and make time for eating. A related point was to eat at a table. Not your desk or in your car.
• Don't eat alone. Eating is a good time to commune and connect with your loved ones.
• Eat slowly. (Take that Blake! Always making fun of me for eating slow!) And take time to relax and slow down before you begin eating.

The way we eat can affect ourselves (obviously), but it also affects our society and the environment. When we know who and where our food comes from, we value those who grow it. We gain a connection with them. We also can expand our relationships with our family and friends when we cook and eat with them. As for the environment, I have learned so much in Pollan's book about corn that I don't want to cram it into this already gigantic post, but it really does affect the environment in drastic ways. Maybe I'll talk about that in a later post.

I will mention a couple other books. Michael and Nina started their raw diet after reading Diet for a New America by John Robbins (he is actually tied to Baskin Robbins ice cream, he was going to inherit the company but chose not to). Nina's favorite cookbook, which is where she learned to make almond milk and inspired her to create her cashew french toast, is the American Vegetarian Cookbook by Maralyn Diamond (sp?).

I hope you will keep following my class and I would love to talk about it with you anytime. If you have questions, objections, or comments, I'd love to hear them.

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Catch Up

This weekend, I house sat for my aunt and uncle while they went camping. I really want to live in SLC. It was so nice not having to get up at six to go to work. It was kind of annoying though, because I drove up to Davis County most days to hang out with Blake.

Friday I went to see Wolverine with Haley and Co. Haley is the best at planning get togethers. The movie was ok. The special effects were kind of low quality and it wasn't as good as the other X-Men movies but still enjoyable.

Saturday was busy. I went to help out at Westminster 101. Just socialized during the breakfast with students considering the school. I answered questions and told them how cool Westminster is. The free breakfast was awesome. Then I wen to the Walk for Lupus Now. I worked with the Lupus Foundation to promote the walk in my PR class. One girl that was in my group has lupus so I went to support her. It would have been awesome if it wasn't raining and windy and therefore very cold. But I got free chick-fil-a for lunch :). Then I went up to Layton to play in a MTG tourney with Blake. It was fun. I made a pretty good deck but I played stupid. We stayed after the tourney for a draft which was too long. Blake had a bad time of it. But I felt pretty good. My games were pretty close. Rachel, the girl who owns the store and I played. I almost beat her but she had some ridiculous card she pulled out. Same with another kid I played. But I beat this one kid who had an awesome artifact that dominated the prerelease. He got it out two of the three games, both of which I defeated him. The only game I lost against him I got mana screwed. I'm sure you all care lol. MTG is just ftw.

Sunday I tried making muffins. Key word tried. There was no baking soda. I should know better. I tried to get around this by using three times as much baking powder and leaving out the salt. It might work for cookies but it doesn't cut it for muffins. They didn't rise at all and were a little burnt on the edges but were still edible. See for yourself:

I also took a bubble bath in the amazing claw foot tub. I love claw footed tubs. Then I went to Blake's and we edited our Magic decks for over 4 hours.

Monday I ran a ton of errands before my May term classes. I am excited for May Term. I am taking Eco Eating. It is all about how our diet choices affect the environment and our health. They are really tied together. We are having lunch every day we have the class. Monday we had "green smoothies" (they were green b/c they put in leafy vegetables in with the banannas and mangoes) and delish veggie sandwhiches. Nina and Michael, the profs teaching the class who are also a couple, are going to serve us at their super eco-friendly house each day then we will walk to school to talk about the readings and have presentations about eating or not eating organic, meat/fish/dairy, and local v. industrial food. My other class is the Philosophy of Dreaming. I am so excited for this class. I like the prof even though he is hard. We will learn to have lucid dreams and talk about the significance, if any of dreams as we talk about our own dream experiences. Tonight I start the lucid dreaming program. Can't wait. After classes, I went to a 3D showing of Monsters V. Aliens. (I got a movie gift card from a friend's parents for helping their son w/ his math. It was fun). I think the 3D glasses really fit Blake. What do you think?

Ha ha. After the movie, we stopped at PetSmart so I could buy some fish food. I had a little accident with the food they had the first time I tried to feed the fish. I knocked the bag over, it fell backwards and landed opening down in the back opening of the tank. So all the food spilled into the tank. I fished out tons of it with a tea bag strainer/spoon thing because they're only supposed to get a pinch twice a day lol.

P.S. Here is a pic of their cute cat, Horton. He was super cuddly and he always came running when I called his name. So cute but way to much fur getting everywhere.

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Check this out

You know those people they show on American Idol tryouts? The really bad ones who think they're good? Well check this out and prepare to have your expectations destroyed. It's Susan Boyle singing on Britian's Got Talent.

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The Maiden Voyage

It's official! My truck is registered! Hallelujah. 

I would like to thank my cousin Jonny for all his hard work on rebuilding the carburetor, getting me a special discount at the parts store for that ridiculously expensive part that was the problem behind all this mess, and doing it all for free. It's a good thing he likes cars. Also, I extend gratitude to my father for supporting me with his work on the truck and buying some services and parts it needed as well. This would not be possible without you. :) 

I look forward to driving my truck around this summer and sleeping in the back on starry nights like on the night of it's unofficial maiden voyage. May the Utah plates bless it and protect me from future disasters (long story if you haven't heard it).

P.S. Thanks, Dad, for putting on the plates <3

O ya! I forgot to tell about the Maiden Voyage. It wasn't too exciting. I drove to the DMV then the UMFA for my internship then school and stopped @ Blake's on my way home. (But I actually didn't have the plates on that day cause I didn't have a screwdriver so the actually official official voyage will probably take place tonight on my way to play volleyball)

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