Saturday 18 April 2015

An Almond A Day...

I  just realized that  I have been eating a lot of almonds these past few weeks.  I always thought of almonds as these nubbins that´s  supposed to be a healthier snack option to chips.   Rich in Protein! Food for the Brain!  Well, you know the drill...

On days when I get into one of my get-fit-or-die  mindset, I  do turn to almonds to carry me through my snack cravings. Although to be honest, I do get bored eating almonds after sometime, because let´s admit it, absolutely nothing is as satisfying and guilt-inducing as munching through a bag of  lipsmacking Ruffle´s Cheddar & Sour Cream potato chips!

CHOCS
And then there´s Almonds with Chocolates, or is it the other way around? Let´s just say that whoever discovered this delicious combination is a food hero.  Because let´s admit it,  life, hard as it is already,  would just be a bit harsher if there were no chocolate-covered almonds  in the world to perk us up!
 Meiji Almond from Japan



ALMOND MILK
When I came to the Netherlands, I  discovered that almonds can come in the form of...Milk.  Yes, milk, the kind you drink from a cup.   And so, intrepid food discoverer that I am, I  took the bait and bought myself some.

 The idea of nut milks is  a bit weird, I reckon.  See Almond Milk, and other nut milks for that matter, is entirely devoid of dairy.  At first I thought, perhaps these Almond milks are diluted in a soya-based milk, but turns out that no.  These milks really get their creamy taste from the nut itself.

  If you have a gut that´s utterly sensitive to lactose, and if you also have some intolerance to soya-based products, then hello there!  We´re kindred spirits!  These nut milks may just be our kind of milk!

The first Almond Milk I tried was the Dark Choco variant.
    
The Almond Dark Choco Milk was pretty good!  It is barely sweet and has a rich chocolate taste.  The first time I tried it,  I thought, this tastes like Ferrero Rocher in drink form, although Ferrero is really made from hazelnuts not almonds :-)  


The past week though,  I´ve been trying to cut down on calories, so I shifted to the unsweetened pure Almond milk.    See,  the Almond Dark Choco has  a little over 100 kcal for a 250  ml glass, whereas the Almond milk has only 50 kcal for the same serving.
The Original Almond Milk has a very mild nutty taste but it´s creamy enough to  make a good alternative to milk.  I think this milk would be good for milkshakes ( Chocolate Almond Banana milkshakes, anyone?)  or even as milk substitute for pancakes and maybe for cake batters.  One of these days, I  promise I will experiment using Almond Milk for baking.


COOKIES
I now live in the land of Cookie Butters otherwise known as Speculaas.  Sadly I have lost my taste for them.   Maybe its because they are so readily available here, like you can even find these Speculoos biscuits and spreads in convenience stores.  But even though my cookie butter phase has gone kaput,  I still buy packs of these cookies for my mother  who loves them with her tea.  Me, I´d rather have something else.

 I found my current cookie favorite just a week ago, and guess what, it is Almond flavored!

    Bastogne Duo is an almond and vanilla flavored cookie that goes perfectly well with hot drinks ---
    coffee, hot choco or tea.


    I prefer my Bastogne cookie with tea.




 These  cookies have two distinct flavors.  The brown parts are almond flavored while the center cookie section is vanilla flavored. It has a nice sort of candy almond flavor which I like,and the crumbly buttery texture is similar to that of Speculoos cookies. Not too sweet too, just a sharp almond flavor and a vanilla undertone,  perfect for tea time and  coffee moments.

So between my almond milk in the morning and these almond cookies during coffee breaks at the office, I say, I get more than my daily dose of almonds in a day.   Now if only a handful of almonds a day can keep some nega people away. * wistful thinking!*

Happy Weekend!

1 comment:

  1. Ahhh, I love almond milk. I was lucky to score chocolate almond milk in E Mart for 50% off (damaged box), and it is so delicious I keep looking for more broken boxes or sales (because the full prize is way out of my student budget). I also thought it tastes like liquid pralines. :) Out of all the milk substitutes, I like almond milk the most.

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