I gave blood Friday morning and was pretty drained all day, so I haven't done much cooking. Last night I put some almonds to soak for almond milk and this morning I pulled out the blender. I ended up with a deliciously fragrant vanilla almond milk. Why make it when I can buy it for cheap, you ask. Well, have you looked at the back of your dairy milk substitutes? They are filled with tons of additives used to preserve and "enhance" flavor. This is the creamiest milk I have had in a very long time. I also like that I know everything that is in it. There is no corn syrup, or sugar, no preservatives. I can pronounce everything on the ingredient list. I especially like that! It is a bit higher in calories, from my what I figured its about 115 cals per cup. That's not too bad for as tasty as it is. You could even freeze some in ice cube trays and blend it up for ice cream. Of course I would add a little sweetener to that, like agave or honey and maybe even some cinnamon.
Start with plain unroasted almonds. Rinse off 2 cups almonds. Place almonds in blender. Fill blender with water. It does not matter how much at this point you will dump it and rinse it off.
Add 6 dates into the blender after the almonds have soaked for a few hours and been rinsed off. Fill back up with 4 cups of water. You will need 4 more cups when blending. 
The fun part, blend half the almonds, dates, vanilla bean and 4 cups of water. Just let it blend for a few minutes. It would take less time if you have a high power blender like a vita mixer. 
While the blending is going on place a stock pot and colander in the sink. It will splash when you pour it so the sink is the best way to avoid finding splatters of milk later everywhere in your kitchen. Add 3-4 layers of cheese cloth into the strainer. Pour blended mixture into the strainer. allow to strain while you blend the other half of almonds and another 4 cups of water. Once that is done blending pour it into the strainer as well. Stir it a few times to help the milk strain through. I let it sit in strainer for about an hour and stirred a few times. 
After it has strained for a while, squeeze the cheese cloth and try to get out as much of the milk as you can. This really takes some muscle so to get it all out! After you are left with almond pulp, don't throw it away. You can make almond meal by dehydrating it. Just pull out the cheese cloth spread on a cookie sheet and bake at your ovens lowest setting until dry. This will probably take about 3 hours if you leave the oven door open just a crack. After store and use as you would any almond flour. It may be clumpy so just stir it with a fork. Remember there is dates and vanilla in it so probably best to use in sweet stuff.
Almond Milk
2 c Almonds
6 dates
1 whole vanilla bean
8 cups water
cheese cloth
strainer
blender
Store in the refrigerator and use with in about a week. Enjoy!! Tomorrow I will share peanut butter apple granola to enjoy with your almond milk ;0
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