Who Knew Almond Milk went with Kraft Dinner!!

I left work today and you could tell there was a storm coming.  The sky was becoming dark and cloudy and the wind was picking up.  It was the kind of night that you curl up on the couch and eat some comfort food.  I was craving some Kraft Dinner and I was only cooking for one tonight as Dean had a soccer game that I couldn't make it to because of work.  I got the pasta cooked and just as I was about the mix in the cheese powder I realised that we didn't have any milk in the fridge.  I tried just adding tons and tons of butter, but the cheese powder clumped up into powdery balls.  I weighed my options, eat the powdery cheese ball pasta or dump in some vanilla almond milk that I had bought for a smoothie recipe.  I went with the almond milk because if that tasted gross it couldn't be any worse than dry cheese balls.  The vanilla almond milk added a nutty sweetness to the Kraft Dinner which to some people may sound absolutely disgusting, but I really liked it, though I'm sure I have a few screws loose in my head.  I ended up eating the entire box of KD which I don't do very often.

I have found that I actually prefer almond milk over regular milk.  I'm not lactose intolerant, but I've heard that almond milk is actually healthier for you so I did some research online and here's what I came up with:

- It's a good substitute for people looking to lose or maintain their weight.  Almond milk has about 60 calories in a glass where as cow's milk ranges from 86-146 depending on what kind of milk you buy (ex. 2%, skim etc)

- There's no cholesterol or saturated fats in almond milk.  It is also low in sodium, but high in omega fatty acids which are the same fatty acids you get when you eat fish (Fish grosses me out so almond milk is really the way to go for me)

- It offers 30% of the daily recommended dose of calcium (less than cow's milk) and 25% of recommended vitamin D.  Make sure you are taking a multivitamin that offers calcium if you are switching or have switched to almond milk to make up for the loss.

- Is low in carbs and is low on the glycemic index so your body won't store the fat, but will actually use the carbs as energy (bonus!)

My goal is to switch over to almond milk for all these benefits.  I won't be able to get Dean to switch over though.  He is lactose intolerant, but suffers and eats cheese and drinks milk.  He doesn't like the taste of almond milk either.  He says it tastes like powered milk. 

There's also recipes online for how to make your own almond milk.  I don't think I'm that committed so I will just stick with buying it from the store, but if anyone has actually made their own I'm curious to know if it tastes better home made or store bought.