Nicola Galloway's Same Old Crap

Nicola Galloway’s Same Old Crap
19 February 2014

This is pretty exciting! It is my first Same Old Crap from a new friend, someone who emailed me after reading the first Same Old Crap. Awesome! Keep em coming people! Meet Nicola, she has an awesome blog, Homegrown Kitchen, please go and check it out, it is very pretty and has delicious and simple recipes. Thanks so much Nicola for getting in touch and sending in your Same Old Crap.

Coco-Oat Milk #dairyfree

My son is diary intolerant. This was a bit of a shock when we first found out as we have no dairy allergies in the family. An even bigger shock because we love going to our local farm to fill our containers with raw milk. { several local farms in our area [Nelson, NZ} even have vending machines to buy pasteurised and raw milk}

When we first found out about Teo’s allergy he was 3 months old and I was exclusively breastfeeding him. So I had to take all dairy out of my diet, which for this *homemade* yogurt and *hand-churned* butter loving girl was a bit of a challenge. I tried several plant-based milks on the market, particularly enjoying almond milk, but at $7 a carton it wasn’t really in our single-income family budget. So I had a play around with making my own plant-based milks. Homemade these are a lot cheaper than the store-bought stuff and you skip all the packaging. The down side is that they separate after a few hours and for nut milks you need to plan ahead with soaking overnight.

Our fallback plant-based milk when time is tight has become Coconut & Oat Milk or ‘Coco-Oat Milk’. It requires little or no soaking (bonus), and is super quick to prepare. This has become our ‘Same Ol’ Crap’ #dairyfree milk. As my children are still pre-school age a glass often accompanies our lunches at home.

Makes about 3 cups

What you need:

• 1/2 cup steel-cut rolled oats
• 1 cup organic desiccated coconut
• 4 cups cold water
• pinch of sea salt

Optional flavour additions:

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp cacao / cocoa / carob powder
• 1-2 Tbsp maple syrup or local honey

What to do:

• First rinse the oats in a sieve to remove excess starch which will make the milk heavy and separate faster.
• Combine the rinsed oats and coconut in a blender and add 1 cup of water. If you can leave to soak for 15 minutes or so at this time which will result in a slightly creamier milk but not essential. Blend for 1 minute until smooth. Add the remaining 3 cups of water and salt and blend for a further 30 seconds. Pour through a fine sieve using a ladle to press out as much milk as possible. Whisk in additional flavours as desired and drink. Pour milk into a glass bottle and store in the fridge for up to 4 days. Shake the bottle before serving as the milk will separate – most homemade plant-based milks do this unless they have emulsifiers added. Many store bought dairy-free milks also separate but you can’t see this in a tetrapak!

*The milk photographed has cacao, vanilla and maple syrup added.