DIY Nut Milk Bag

I keep seeing posts about almond milk from stores being dirty water with preservatives. You can buy it from health food stores so it has to be good for you, right? Wrong. I disappointingly read the ingredients. Well, time for an alternative. I'll just make my own. The recipe that I found called for four cups of water and one cup of almonds. After blending this together it says to use three layers of cheesecloth or a nut milk bag to strain the pulp. Okay, cool. So I search the kitchen area in Target for a while until I find cheesecloth. It is around three dollars for a bag of it which i found out only works for around three uses. Not too bad but it bothered me that I had to dispose of the cheesecloth(after I tried to wash it so I could reuse it.) I looked up the alternative nut milk bags. Of course the stores that have them online didn't have them in stores near me. The prices varied from 2.99 to 13.99. I checked into the lowest priced because we are really tight on money right now and found out that shipping was 5 dollars. I couldn't find any coupons and gave up. My wife then said, "why don't you make one?" Why didn't I think of that? I can do that! 

We went to the Jo-Ann next to our office the next day and looked for some unbleached muslin that I heard was good for making them. As we are looking we constantly joked about making nut sacks, mature aren't we? When I found the muslin it looked too thick to strain milk so I continued searching for the right fabric. This is the fabric that I chose. I got a half a yard and I also got a yard of some simple flat braided ribbon. 

Step by Step Nut Milk Bag Tutorial

Supplies:

• 1/4 yard of muslin or unbleached cotton fabric of choice
• 1 yard of braided ribbon 
• thread
• sewing machine
• scissors
• safety pin
• wooden beads(optional) 

1. Measure and cut two 12x10 pieces of fabric or one 12x20(what I chose to do)
2. Sew along the two sides with an over lock or zigzag stitch like this.

      3. Turn the bag inside out and pin the top down 1/2 inch all the way around. Single stitch around.

  4. Fold and pin the hemmed part down 3/4 inch. Sew around leaving a one inch opening at one side to put the braided ribbon through. 

   5. Use a safety pin to thread the ribbon through. If you choose to you can put wooden beads at the end of the ribbon and tie a knot. 

ACTION SHOTS!!

Don't forget to save the pulp! Add some Italian seasoning and it makes an awesome breading for flounder!