MAKE
YOUR OWNOUR TOOL KIT
We share resources organised under eight different ‘toolkit’ categories to guide your Sustainable Living journey.
Our eight toolkit categories are:
PLAY
STRETCH
READ
SHARE
MAKE
BREATHE
GROW
STYLE
Learn more about our Style tool here.
NUT MILK
Make your own and reduce waste.
YOU WILL NEED
Nuts (Almonds, Cashew, Macadamia)
A blender
Fabric for straining (around A4 sized, calico or muslin works well)
A clean container to store your milk
Sweetner (if desired)
STEPS
Soak nuts overnight in water (around one cup of nuts to 3-4 cups of water depending on desired consistency).
Blend nuts and water in the blender.
Put the cloth over a bowl or container and strain blended mix through the fabric.
Pull all four corners of fabric together to create a ‘parcel’ that encapsulates the nut mix. Squeeze this parcel to get the last bits of ‘milk’ out of blended nuts (do not throw nuts away, they can be used for other recipes).
Add sweetener to milk if desired (water that dates have been soaking in is a nice sweetener option for homemade nut milk).
Pour into a clean jar or bottle and store in the fridge for up to three days.
THE BACKSTORY
This recipe was first published in 2015 when Sustainability in Style communications ran predominately ‘blog’ narrative. While we continue to update our content to suit changes in the way in which people interact with online material, we choose to preserve this ‘blog-style’ narrative for those who still explore our content in this manner. It also preserves the context of comments that our lovely readers have contributed over the years.
THE 2015 POST
2015 Narrative from our founder Katie: Ok… I am a little behind the eight ball with the Plastic Free July challenge information. One week and one day to be precise. However we can look at it from the point of view that any day is a good day to start reducing plastic.
Some of you may remember that month I spent collecting, photographing and weighing my household waste. It has been seven months since the Waste Weigh Up challenge ended but I can safely say it has changed my consumption patterns for life. While my household is yet to hit a zero waste status, each day we inch a little closer to this goal. At present my estimate is that it would take us around a year even get close to filling our 140 litre landfill waste bin. Our recycling goes out full around once every six weeks, and we compost all our green waste.
As part of an ongoing effort to reduce waste I have started to make my own nut milk to reduce the packaging that we contribute to recycling and those annoying little plastic lids that aren’t recyclable here on the Sunshine Coast. Nut milk is surprisingly easy to make. All you need is some nuts that have been soaked overnight I am using cashews, a blender, and a nut bag or cloth strainer. Then you simply blend the nuts with some water (around one cup of nuts with three to four cups of water deepening on desired consistency), strain them through the fabric or nut bag, and pour into a container. Cashew milk lasts around 2-3 days in the fridge and you can add a sweetener if desired. Don’t throw out the left over nut pulp as it can be used for a variety of recipes (just google) including a cashew cheese one I will share tomorrow.
Plastic Free July has loads of tips and tricks on how you can reduce your consumption of single use plastic items and if you register for the Plastic Free July challenge you can have these tips sent directly to your inbox.
Do you have any tips you would like to share on how you have reduced your plastic?
Perhaps you have some delicious nut milk recipes?
Sharing is caring.
MOTIVATED FOR CHANGE
We know (and celebrate) that everyone’s approach to living life in Sustainable Style is a little bit different. While some of us are busy creating a homemade meatless meatloaf others are busy juggling kids, work and trying to online order the groceries for delivery without plastic bags. Our (TOTALLY FREE) Values Motivators Quiz helps you identify what motivates you to live life in Sustainable Style and the following are some suggestions on how you can stay motivated to make your own plant-based milk alternatives.
Finding your ‘Why’ gives you a great chance of making this a regular practice!
Great challenge! And I’m amazed that you manage to fill your recycling every six weeks only! That’s amazing. Next to buying my groceries on the market (so without the packaging) I also take my lunch in jars to work everyday. Next to being plastic-free it also looks quite cool:)
greentoblack.co.uk
How exciting is it when you lunch looks cool in addition to being environmentally friendly! Mason jars are so on trend at the moment! Have you seen the book by Sarah Wilson called I quit Sugar for life? She has a whole section on ‘totable lunches’ that has very cute lunch ideas.
Thanks for your positive feedback on the recycling. It really has been a fun journey to cut back on the waste. I’ve taken to bringing my own containers and utensils when I eat out for takeaway lunch or dinner. My hubby and I are starting to become known to the staff at some of our favourite haunts because we bring our own containers. The guy at the Japanese place I visit every few weeks for a quick Friday dinner immediately started making veggie sushi for me when he saw me coming with my BYO container the other day. It really made me smile that he knew what I was after before I even order just because I was the ‘weird girl with her container’. Ha ha ha.
Happy eco adventures and thanks for sharing.