You can make anything at home these days. Kombucha, yogurt... and nut milk.

I wrote a post a year ago on how to make your own nut milk using these jumbo nut milk bags (complete with a probably-not-funny winky face), in which I was absolutely mind blown at how easy making your own nut milk is.

Fast forward to now — I've made my own nut milk off and on, but since my nice blender broke, I've stopped. I still believe that nothing tastes as good as creamy, homemade nut milk, but alas — I've settled for Whole Foods brand to save some $$ or my friends over at Nutty Life if I want to treat myself (their cashew milk tastes just as good as, if not better than, homemade because it basically is homemade!).

Recently, Almond Cow sent me their Almond Cow Milk Machine to try, and it was like having my mind blown all over again.

I'm always skeptical at how easy it is to make things myself (probably why I've never tried making kombucha or yogurt), but this is literally a press of a button. You don't need any blenders, any bags, any strainers.

Keep reading for how to use it or scroll down for a collagen matcha recipe!

How to Use the Machine

PSA: I am very bad at following directions without visuals. Maybe I'm just a kid at heart who needs pictures in her books. (Probably also why I don't buy cookbooks that don't have pictures, now that I think of it...)

So thank you, Almond Cow, for the very clear step-by-step instructions.

Step 1: Soak your nuts (or seeds, or coconut flakes!)

I used Vitacost's organic raw almonds and soaked them in a stainless steel bowl for ~8 hours. The longer you soak, the creamier the nut milk!

You can also use seeds (sunflower seeds, hemp seeds) or coconut flakes for different types of milks.

Steps 2-7: Preparation

After your nuts have been soaking for 4+ hours, discard the water and pour the nuts into the basket inside the machine. It can only fit 1 cup at a time, so if you have more nuts than that, you'll have to do them in batches.

Close the basket, fill the canister with water (it's almost like a hot water boiler/electric kettle), attach the power cord to the machine and plug the other end into an outlet.

Then my favorite part: just push the cow button under the green light.

The machine does all the work. You don't need to hold the button down or anything; once it's finished, you'll know.

Step 8: Pour milk and enjoy!

I actually made 3 batches since I used up all the nuts in the bag, which made ~ 2L of nut milk for the week.

Clean up is super simple — you just pour the pulp into a compost (or reuse it in recipes — see below) and rinse out the separate parts.

I used to make a collagen matcha every morning as part of my morning routine; now that it's summer, l've fallen off that a little bit.

It's still great to power me through the afternoon when I don't want to drink coffee any more, or in the early mornings when I know I'll be drinking coffee later on in the day (I try to stick to 1 cup a day).

Plus, it's an easy way to get my daily dose of collagen in. I started using collagen ~2 years ago, and I've found it helps support a healthy gut, promote muscle recovery, strengthen my hair and nails, and give me glowing skin.

I could go on and on about the wonders of collagen, but basically I try and do 2 scoops a day, whether that's in matcha/coffee, chia seed pudding, pancakes, cauli oats, smoothies... etc. OK, let's get into the recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 scoops Vital Proteins collagen peptides
• 4 oz homemade almond milk (or any other type of dairy free milk; you can also just use water)
• 8 oz hot water
• 1 packet Art of Tea matcha / 1 tbsp Meta Matcha ceremonial grade matcha (super important to use quality matcha!)
• 1 tsp MCT oil (I just like a tiny bit to make it creamy! I've also used 1 tsp of cashew or coconut butter and that makes it creamy as well)
• 1 tsp ashwagandha
• 1 tsp maca powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender.*
2. Blend for 10 seconds, then pour into a mug and enjoy!
   *Alternatively, you can also pour into a cup and hand whisk it.

Want More Recipes?

Almond Cow's got you covered with both milk recipes and pulp recipes, which is awesome to play around with.

Plus, that means zero waste — you don't want to throw away the nut guts that you spent so much money on! (OK, sorry. I won't use "nut guts" any more...)

If you're looking for more pulp recipes, you can check out this Almond Milk Nut Pulp Crackers recipe I made. Other recipes I love:

• chocolate peanut butter almond pulp protein balls from blonde gone clean
• paleo vegan nut milk pulp hummus from addicted to lovely
• baked almond pulp brownies from bojon gourmet
• almond pulp macaroons from elena's pantry
• DIY vanilla brazil nut milk from eat spin run repeat

You can buy this machine from their website or from Amazon.