When I was a child growing up in Madagascar, milk was expensive and hard to come by. I still remember the milkman coming by our house on his bicycle every day to deliver the milk that he probably got himself from his cows that morning. A few times even, I spent some time at my aunt Monique’s farm and we had to milk the cow in the morning to get fresh milk. It was whole milk, and after it was boiled, the cream would float to the top and kids would fight to get that. Well, other kids, not me. I never liked the taste of milk, pasteurized or not. My mom had to practically stand right by me and wait for me to drink the milk, otherwise I would just toss it out of the window (my parents really should have had me sit away from the window). My poor parents who had to work hard to get us some healthy food and the ungrateful brat that I was would just toss it out.

As soon as I had the choice after I got out of my mom’s house, I stopped drinking milk as it is, although I would drink it in hot chocolate or add it to coffee, that was fine, but not just straight milk. My husband, on the other hand was a different story, he was one of those people that would drink milk all day long if he could. And he, too loved his hot chocolate in the morning.

A couple of years ago, we discovered that our son had severe allergies to dairy, eggs and nuts. As a result, we had to completely change our diet and get rid of all food that were unsafe for him in the house, including cow’s milk. So, as we banned cow’s milk from our fridge, we had to find alternatives to make the morning hot chocolate. I also needed a milk substitute to cook or bake with. We ended up using flax milk that we bought at the grocery store in cartons in the milk aisle. It was not too strong tasting and it was quite creamy. It tasted fine to make hot chocolate and it was okay as a substitute to make pancakes or smoothies. However, there was a big downside, and that was the price. At $5 or so the carton and as we were going through 2 cartons a week sometimes, it was getting hefty on the grocery bill.

Then, one day, my friend Nancy talked about making her own nut or seed milk on facebook. Say whaaat??? I could make my own flax milk?

Turns out, making flax milk is very easy, and was much less expensive that buying it at the store. There is no going back to buying it carton.

Flax milk
– 1/4 cup raw flax seeds (golden or brown). I buy the seeds in bulk at Whole foods or as a pound bag at my local grocery store.
– 5 cups of water
– a nut bag (I got mine at Whole Foods, by the nuts aisle)
– a blender

Optional flavoring:
– 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
– 4-5 medjool dates

Mix the raw seeds with the water in the blender for 1-2 min. Place the nut bag in a big enough container, like a pitcher, and pour the blended flax seeds in there. Twist the nut bag and squeeze gently to press the milk out. Pass the resulting milk through a fine mesh sieve to remove any particle and store in a jar in the fridge. It is good for a few days.
You can flavor it with some vanilla (1/2 teaspoon). You can also sweeten it naturally by blending 4-5 dates in with the filtered milk , pass though a sieve before storing.
The left over flax seed from the nut bag can be dehydrated to get flax meal. I also use it directly as it is in baking as an egg substitute or put in smoothies.

Recently, I have been mixing the flax milk with coconut milk to make it creamier.
You can buy coconut milk from the store, but again, you can also just make it yourself using shredded coconut. I buy whole coconuts from the store and shred it in the blender then dehydrate it overnight in the food dehydrator. A bit more effort but comes out much cheaper. You can also use store bought dry shredded unsweetened coconut.

Coconut milk
– 2 cups shredded coconut, fresh or dry unsweetened
– 4 cups hot but not boiling water
– nut bag
– blender
– optional: 1/2 teaspoon agar gum

Let the coconut flakes soak in the hot water until it cools down to warm. Blend the coconut with the water for 2-3 min. Pass through the nut bag, and twist to get all milk out.
Optional: To make the milk smoother, pour it back in the blender and add the agar gum, blend for another 30sec to dissolve the agar. Pass through a fine sieve.
Store the resulting coconut milk in a jar in the fridge and drink as it is or mix it with the flax milk as made above (1/2 coconut milk + 1 /2 flax milk).