Living Harvest Hempmilk

I have never thought that I was lactose intolerant, just that I hate milk. Ok, HATE is a very harsh work, so let me just say that I am not very fond of milk. It has always made my stomach hurt, and my throat to feel icky. The only way I have been willing to drink milk since I was very young has been as part of a chocolate milkshake. And then not very often. I even eat my cereal dry, because I don't like the taste of milk, either.

I have, however, cooked with milk, everything from French toast to puddings, gravy, and everything in between. If the recipe called for milk, I used milk in it. I had never thought about using a dairy alternative, but I was willing to try it when I received some Living Harvest Hempmilk in the mail. The package i got had three containers--one each of Original, Unsweetened Original, and Chocolate. I decided to use these dairy alternative products in place of regular cow's milk in everything I made until it was gone.

I did lots of cooking with both the Original and the Unsweetened Original flavors. I made my Eggplant Parmesean, using the hempmilk to dip the eggplant slices in before dredging in gluten free flour. I made biscuits and pancakes with my Pamela's Gluten Free Baking Mix. Cornbread with Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Cornbread Mix. Home made raspberry cobbler from scratch. And that gravy with my fried chicken livers.

All of the things I cooked using the hempmilk instead of cow's milk came out great, with no strange taste, and by the way, no strange or funny "feeling". It says right on the box that it contains "No THC--Never had it, Never will."

I was most impressed with the cobbler and the gravy. The cobbler cooked up nice and golden brown, which is often a hard thing to achieve with gluten free flours. It had a very nice texture, too. But by far, to me, the best thing I made was the gravy. As gravy is usually mostly milk, it was a very good test for this product.

I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix for the flour part. I added it to the skillet with some of the oil left over from frying my chicken livers. When I added the hempmilk, it thickened up just like it does when I use cow's milk. There was no "taste" or flavor of hemp that I could detect. And the best part of it, my stomach didn't hurt after eating that gravy like it usually does when I use cow's milk. That was nice.

Hempmilk is healthy for you, too. Here is what it says on their website:

"Living Harvest Hempmilk is a delicious and nutty non-dairy beverage that provides essential and balanced nutrition for the whole family. A fantastic alternative to soymilk or dairy, our Hempmilk provides the perfect balance of naturally occurring Omega-3 and Omega-6 Essential Fatty Acids, all 10 essential amino acids with digestible protein, 15 essential vitamins and minerals, including 40% of your daily value of calcium. Hemp seeds are also free of the common allergens associated with soy, dairy, and tree-nuts. Try all our refreshing and delicious flavors and then ask yourself - "How could something this healthy taste so good?"

I did find it to taste good, and to not cause me to have the dairy stomach ache. It acted like regular cow's milk in baking and cooking, too, so I will probably buy this next time instead of milk.

Feeling Better Now

That gluten I got in those daily vitamins knocked me on my hiney. I am finally feeling better, so maybe I can catch up with everything. And I finally had a phone call from the manufacturer of them, telling me which one of the pills in the daily pack contains the wheat, the B12 tablet. I let them know how sick it made me but they offered no compensation. I don't know yet if I am going to continue taking them without that one pill or not. It does seem like a waste of money not to, but FabGrandpa may take them if I don't, since the gluten does not bother him.

I was planning to give a recipe a day from the meals I was making this month, but for the last few days, it has been simple simply prepared basics. You know, roasted chicken thighs, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, stuff like that. So what I will do is just put up the dinner menus since Saturday. Yeah, boring, I know. But the last time I talked about cooking here was last Friday when I made that Mexican Seafood Soup. So, here is what we have been having:

Saturday:

Baked Chicken Thighs
Rice Steamed Broccoli

Sunday:

Italian Mushroom Stew
Rice
Pear Salad

Monday:

Gluten Free Fried Chicken Livers! mmmmmm:


Mashed Potatoes
Gluten Free Gravy
Sweet Peas

Tuesday:

Chicken with Salsa and Rice (Thanks to my mother-in-law for that recipe!)

Wednesday:

Corned Beef Hash
Cooked Cabbage

Thursday:

Chili with Gluten Free Cornbread

We are doing really well on the overall budget, too. I stopped doing the Cash Monday posts, and several readers have asked me about that. It was just so boring to write about after we got out here to the desert, because there is no where to go to spend money. We haven't even taken money out of the bank some weeks because there was no need to. So, my suggestion to anyone who wants to stick to a really tight budget? Move to the middle of nowhere, only go grocery shopping once a month or less, and stay out of stores. You'll do just fine.

I have to give a little more info about those yummy Gluten Free Fried Chicken Livers. Years ago, when all my children were young, they all loved fried chicken livers as much as I do. Now, I know liver is not something that everyone likes, but my family did. I used to cook more than was needed to feed us all, so I would have some to take to work with me for lunch the next day. I had to hide them in the back of the refrigerator so my children would not sneak downstairs and eat them in the middle of the night. More than a few times I didn't hide them well enough and had none to take for lunch. So I have weird kids!

After I made my chicken livers on Monday, I called Becca, my daughter, who is also a gluten free girl, and told her how good they were. She was really excited to hear about it and said she was going to make some, too.

For anyone who would like to know how to make them:

1 carton chicken livers
1/2 cup Crisco shortening
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix
salt and pepper to taste

Drain and rinse the chicken livers. Dredge in the Bob's Red Mill Baking Mix. Melt the Crisco in a skillet, and let it heat up on medium heat. Place the breaded chicken livers in the hot oil, cover and let cook for two minutes. Remove the lid, turn the livers over, replace the lid, and let cook another two minutes. Remove the lid, turn the livers over, and resume cooking without the lid for about three minutes more. Turn again, and cook on that side for another three minutes. Remove from skillet and drain on paper towels. Repeat until all the livers are cooked.

To make the gravy, drain off all but about 4 tablespoons of the Crisco from the skillet. Add about 1/4 cup of the Bob's Red Mill Baking mix, and stir well, cooking until the mix is browned, about 2-3 minutes. Add 2 cups of milk (any kind of milk will do, cow, soy, hemp, almond). Stir and cook until thickened.

I was sooooo in Georgia Girl Heaven!!