Milk...What Do You Drink?

I get asked this a lot.  What kind of milk do you drink?  And it has changed dramatically over the past few years.  Right now if you look in my refrigerator there is organic soy milk, homemade almond milk, organic chocolate soy milk, raw milk and cream line milk.  Quite the variety, and I'm sure much different than the average household's gallon of milk from the grocery store.  There is a reason for our crazy variety though...in our house is a teenaged son who is an omnivore, me; who's mostly vegan, my hubby who is vegetarian but will eat my vegan meals too and six children who spend the day with us Monday through Friday at my home child care.  With that grouping, a variety of milk is a necessity!

The raw milk is a newer addition to our mix though.  I have been intrigued by the raw milk claims and started to seriously do research after watching Farmaggedon.  There are a host of health benefits to raw milk and since we live in Pennsylvania, raw milk is available to us.  Even though I hate the taste of milk, and have avoided it for years, I am trying to use raw milk in different things that I will eat from time to time to gauge my body's reaction to it.  So far, it is much better than my body's reaction to processed milk.  I have recently discovered my B-12 deficiency is back, so in addition to supplementation, I am trying to slowly add a bit here and there of the raw milk.  We get ours from the farmer who delivers our milk since they sell it all...pasteurized, creamline and raw.  We no longer get the homogenized milk though and have replaced it with...

Creamline milk is just what it sounds like - there is a cream line on top of the milk because this is full fat as it came from the cow milk like raw milk is, however it's been pasteurized.   I would love to serve the daycare kids raw milk but am just not sure yet how the parents would react.  This is my step toward that.  And the kids LOVE it!  It's a very rich milk and has all the natural, healthy fats that ordinarily would be skimmed off.

We also organic soy milk in the house for a few reasons...when I'm out of almond milk and don't want regular milk, I will swap it for soy.  Soy milk is thicker than my homemade almond milk and works better in recipes if I'm trying to keep it vegan.  And the chocolate soy milk is hubby's go to after run drink.  I will occasionally swipe a bit of it for my coffee but other than that, it's his.  Our soy milk tends to stay in the fridge longer than anything else because it's used so sparingly.   We are careful what brand to buy though to be sure it's organic and not supporting any company that contributed to defeating Prop 37.  Sorry, Silk.  Not in my house.

Lastly, I make my own almond milk.  It is better than anything I've had from the store and I love that I control it.  No emulsifiers, no sweeteners, nothing but raw almonds and water.  I get the almonds in bulk from the local natural food store and buy organic when it's available.  First, I soak a cup of whole almonds for about 2 days in the refrigerator, rinsing them every 12 hours or so and refilling the water.  Then, I put about 6-7 cups of water and the rinsed and drained almonds in my Vitamix, blend it for a minute or so and then use a cheesecloth to strain off the almond pulp.  What's left is my milk.  I go through this process about twice a week and usually have almonds in the fridge soaking, ready to go.  I use my almond milk on everything...in coffee or tea, on my granola, and it works great in most cooking applications where milk is called for unless you need something a bit thicker.

So, there's my milk rundown.  I know it sounds like a lot to keep track of, but it's just how we do things.  What does the milk situation look like at your house?

Sheri