Cashew Cacao Milk

     My little boy is beyond obsessed with chocolate milk. He asks for it at least 5 times a day. Yet, we don’t usually keep dairy milk, or chocolate syrup in our house. His grandparents spoil him beyond belief with the sweets, though! Ha! What are grandparents for, if not for spoiling, right? We live in the same yard as my parents and my dad will occasionally send over a bottle of chocolate syrup and milk for Gabe to have over here, because “he needs it”. 
     I recently had a girls day with my friend and we went eat at a really hip organic place that sold bottled cacao milk. Since I saw that, I have been craving some yummy chocolate milk. Then, this morning Gabriel asked for chocolate milk. So, I made a healthier and even yummier glass of chocolate milk for us to indulge in!! Except, Gabe drank mine, too...

     I started with making some cashew milk. I soaked 8oz of unsalted cashews in a 32 oz mason jar over night. I added the jar of cashews to my ninja blender and then filled the rest of the blender (8 fluid oz) with cold filtered water. I added pure vanilla extract and pink salt and blended for a couple of minutes. I then folded a cheese cloth in two to be a double gauzed filter for the nut milk, and placed it over a large Pyrex bowl. I poured the nut milk over the cloth and then pulled together the edges of the cloth to form a bag. Then I squeezed the cloth to strain out the milk. This made two 32 oz jars of delicious creamy cashew milk!

(This is what is left in the cloth after all of the milk is squeezed out.)

     Then, I made us some chocolate milk with the fresh nut milk. I filled up one 16oz nutri ninja cup with cashew milk, added a tablespoon of cacao powder and a tablespoon of pure maple syrup. I quickly blended it together on the ninja blender and it made the BEST frothy chocolate milk. It was perfect amount of sweet and chocolaty goodness. It was a huge hit with Gabe!