Homemade Almond Milk, Berry Protein Smoothie, and Kale Chips

I always seem to get sucked into Vitamix infomercials even though I already own one- it makes me excited I can already make all of those wonderful recipes =) This particular infomercial was showing how you could make almond milk using the Vitamix and I got online instantly in order to find the recipe and make my own! I soaked the almonds in water overnight as suggested by some blogs I looked at,

then drained them the next time and combined with the water and blended for ~2 minutes on High. This made the milk steam a bit due to the high power of the blender, but I put it in a pitcher and into the fridge. Some people suggest straining the milk (and I would highly suggest this if you are not open to new textures, or in fact are using this to drink as milk), however I tend to only use almond milk in baking, cereal, and smoothies so the texture did not bother me a bit!

 Almond Milk

1 cup raw almonds soaked overnight

6 cups water

Since the vitamix had residual almond milk in the container, I went ahead and made a berry protein smoothie that was delicious!! Just put all the ingredients in and blended on high for about 15 seconds!

Berry Protein Smoothie

1 cup fresh almond milk

3/4 cup frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)

1 scoop raw hemp protein powder

5 large ice cubes

(I had to add a little water to get it to where I could easily drink, ~1/4 cup)

I have been wanting to make kale chips for FOREVER and I finally did it, and I must say I am glad I did...they are SO EASY and really are quite yummy! I used one of the large bags of prechopped Kale (possibly why this process was so easy!) and tore the larger pieces into smaller ones so that they were more or less uniform, and removed any large stems. Next, I drizzled on the olive oil, sprinkled with salt and nutritional yeast, and proceeded to knead the kale with both hands until the mixture was evenly coated. (For those of you not familiar with nutritional yeast, you can get it in powder form from Whole Foods surprisingly inexpensively for how much you get, and it is perfect to sprinkle on fresh popped popcorn- some say it has a slight cheese flavor although I personally think that description is a little bit of a stretch. It is a complete protein and is so easy to sneak into sauces!) I placed the kale onto two separate cookie sheets and placed in a 350 F oven for 18 minutes until it was crispy and some of the leaves were browning. After a taste test, I sprinkled a little garlic salt on top for just a little extra kick- these really are going to be a snacking favorite!! 

Kale Chips

1 large bag prechopped Kale

2-3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

2 pinches of garlic salt to sprinkle on top