The need I feel to embrace a more simplified, cleaner lifestyle has everything to do with my vintage soul. The way everything was done "back then" intrigues me. Life, food, decor, the method just seemed so much simpler, and folks seemed happier.

I've been a label reader for years. And try my hardest to make good food choices for my family. Obviously, there are a few exceptions along the way. I spend less time reading the labels on healthier products like almond milk for example, I read the first two ingredients Almonds & Water threw it in my cart swallowed the $6.99 price tag and never looked back. 2 years later while Anthony was out grocery shopping he read me the full label.

Almond Beverage (water, almonds), flavours (umm okay, what are they?) Calcium Carbonate, Sunflower Lecithin, Sea Salt, Potassium Citrate, Carob bean gum, gellan gum. Yum!

I told Anthony to put the almond milk back and buy me some almonds and dates. ($50* 12 cups of almonds is what he bought, lol) I read a few recipes online, adjusted them a tiny bit and came out with homemade almond milk, with ingredients I could spell, and controlled by me.

I soaked two cups of almonds in water, covered on the counter overnight (12 hours). I drained the almonds and divided them so I could make two variations. They split into 1.5 cups for each batch.

I took the first 1.5 cups of almonds and dropped them into the Vitamix, then added 5 cups of Brita filtered water, 2 dates (pitted) 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract and blended for 4 or so minutes.

For the chocolate variation, I followed the above steps but added another date and 3 tbs of pure organic cocoa.

After the milks were blended I used a Milk bag and strained them into glass juice jugs, and let them sit in the fridge for 3 hours.