Homemade Rice Milk

Taking a break from bedbug posts :) We are almost done just getting our room back in order and a few more spaces to be re-organized...but life must still go on around that and it has been nice to have Bible study back here and we have a staff meeting tonight! Just no one open our bedroom door- it's scary! On to the rice milk...

Since Gabe was taken off formula and put on rice milk or anything non- dairy (except soy), it has been a budget challenge with the cost of rice milk being $2.50 a quart!!! That's $10 a gallon!!! And this guy drinks over a gallon a week, so you do the math :) Thinking of what can be done, I remembered my sister-in-law saying something about making your own rice milk, so I looked online for a few recipes and tried it out! It's easy but a little time consuming, but the price different makes it way worth the trouble. And both my kids like it. So now I am saving on regular milk as well as Weston drinks the rice milk most of the time too.

The cost of a gallon of homemade rice milk is literally pennies! Whatever the cost of 1 cup of rice is, I think it is 2 cents or something. I like this price.

Homemade rice milk

1 cup brown rice

8 cups water

1 tsp sea salt

pure maple syrup or agave syrup to taste

vegetable oil ( optional, a tsp per blender batch is what I use to give a creamy texture and some extra calories for my skinny boys)

Bring the rice and water to boil then cover and simmer on low heat for 3 hours with a lid.

Stir in salt

Fill up blender half way with rice mixture and half with water adding as much sweetener as you like and oil if you are using it. Blend till smooth.

Strain the milk 2-3 times through a fine mesh strainer discarding the pulp.

Repeat with remaining rice.

I like to use the agave syrup which is much cheaper than real maple syrup but has the same health benefits and a similar taste. This rice milk is a different flavor to get used to, but yummy!

I did like that the store bought milk is vitamin fortified, so I am now giving the boys some baby vitamins to make up for that. Let me know if you try it!