Home Made Rice Milk



Ace can’t have dairy, as it upsets his tummy and gives him a bad diaper rash.  Therefore, he drinks rice milk.  And since he and Nate share everything, Nate drinks rice milk, too.  Between the two of them, they drink about $16 worth of rice milk a week.  I started wondering how hard it could possibly be to make rice milk, and set out on a quest to figure it out and hopefully cut the grocery budget back a bit in the process.

Well, I did it!  I tried several online recipes, then started combining and tweaking them to make my own.  I had posted one on FaceBook last week, and that one works well, but I found after a day or two of refrigeration, it was getting gritty.  So I have a new one to share, and this one doesn’t have the gritty problem that the first one did, though it does tend to clog their sippy cups (Take N Toss) a bit, but I’ll just get some different sippy cups to remedy that.  :)

rice-milk

They were drinking plain Rice Dream, so that is what I set out to make.  Skip and I both have tried it against the Rice Dream, and it’s an almost perfect match.  The boys turned their noses up at my first few attempts, but they will drink this recipe, so it’s officially been Ace and Nate approved!  I taste each batch I make, and I must admit, I’m kind of starting to like it myself…

So here is my recipe, complete with pictures (you can click the images for a larger view):

Home Made Rice Milk

Yields approx. 96 oz.

Ingredients

  • 8 c. water
  • 1 c. rice (brown is preferred, but I use white)
  • 2 Tbsp. honey
  • 2 Tbsp. safflower oil
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • more water to thin; approx. 8 c.

Instructions

  1. Fill a large pot with 8 c. water, cover and bring to a boil over high heat.  (You may add the salt to bring to a boil faster, but I once read that is damaging to your pots, so I choose not to.)
  2. Add rice, honey, safflower oil, vanilla extract and salt to boiling water.  Reduce heat to low and cover.  Simmer for three hours.  It will look kind of like rice soup after three hours.
  3. You will blend your rice mixture 2 parts to 1 part water.  My blender has measurement marks on the front, so I do 2 c. of rice mixture and 1 c. of water at a time.  If you are blending straight off the stove, add cold water to cool off the mixture and not blow the top of your blender off with the pressure from the steam.  Here’s my $20 Wal-Mart blender in action (set to “Smoothie”):rice-milk-003
  4. After blending, strain twice through cheesecloth to catch any rice pulp left behind.  I blend for about 2 minutes each batch, so I don’t get a ton of rice pulp left over.  I place the cheesecloth in a strainer over a pitcher and pour from the blender into that.  The second photo shows my rice milk consistency once it’s been strained twice.
  5. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Here’s the batch of rice milk I made tonight.  I haven’t done the math on the actual cost of doing it this way, but I can tell you it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than buying Rice Dream by the case at Costco.

rice-milk

The only caveat here is that unlike Rice Dream, this is not fortified.  There are no added vitamins, Calcium or the like.  I’m looking for a way I might be able to properly fortify it myself, but in the meantime, I am just making sure that the boys get a multi-vitamin and other sources of Calcium.

Enjoy!

13 Replies to “Home Made Rice Milk”

  1. I met you at the baby store with my sister, we’re adopting from Ethiopia and my sister is pregnany. Life has calmed down a bit and I just got a chance to read some of your entries, theyre really wonderfull. Very well written and so expressive. Im looking forward to reading more about your IVF and success, I always love to hear how other people deal with this heart breaking issue but I never like to talk about it. Its too hard, its just easier to read about, thank you for sharing your heart.

  2. Hiya! Just wanted to let you know that you don’t need to fortify your rice milk, if you use whole grain rice you will be getting the benefits of the natural nutrients that rice has. Also, most of the nutrients that foods are fortified with don’t make it into our cells. You’re better off just adding fresh fruits and veggies to your diet!

    Thanks for this recipe! I’m excited to try it!

  3. This looks great! I am tired of paying $4- or so per half gallon of Rice Dream but haven’t been able to make a comparable milk that my boys will drink. It’s cooking right now so hopefully we’ll be good for the next couple of week! Thanks again for sharing.

  4. I just made your recipe and it is extremely easy and tastes awesome! I put my rice mixture into the food processor for three minutes per batch and I had hardly any pulp left at all, maybe only two tablespoons from the whole recipe after straining through cheesecloth lined strainer! My milk is silky smooth. I use Take-n-Toss too and don’t think this will clog it at all.

  5. Thank you! i am going to try this right now! my daughter has a dairy sensitivity and homemade rice milk would be a life saver!

  6. have you figured out how to fortify your milk yet? i am thinking about switching to rice milk for my youngest son, but i need to make sure that he is getting the nutrients that he needs. i know that flax seed (i grind my own meal) is a good way to get fatty acids and protein. i am not sure yet what to do about the calcium. have you found anything yet?

  7. Thank you for sharing, looks yummy!! Since this has to cook for so long, I was wondering if it could be made in the crock pot (or even the pressure cooker)?

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    blaine@everydayhealth.com
    345 Hudson Street, 16th Floor
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