Almond Meal

Update: I broke my Kitchenaide. It took 4 years, but it finally happened. So the method works, just be very careful.

Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free flours and Arrowhead Mills are higher quality companies. The problem is the cost. Not that I believe they are being unreasonable. I have been involved with health food for 30 years. I'm aware that foods with higher nutritional value and specialty foods always carry a higher price.

It's my present low income and allergy difficulties that necessitates cooking from scratch. Despite the tax break given in the U.S. to those diagnosed with Celiac disease I find the high cost of these food items a hard expenditure to meet. With flours as the main ingredient in baking it's important to know how to use the various different kinds, and where to get the better prices.

Naturally low fat grains like rice, millet, quinoa, and teff are easily milled through my Kitchenaid grain mill. I grind 5 lbs. of millet and 10 lbs. of brown rice about every other week.

However, almonds are a trickier business. Because the grain mill is not made for nuts, I use my Kitchenaid food grinder instead.But,simply dumping the nuts into the hopper will cause the machine to bind-up. While the process is tedious, it is well worth the cost savings. The difference of $14 a pound for almond meal over buying Now brand almonds at $5.58 for 1 lbs. at my local health food store I'm willing to patiently make my own almond meal.

One big difference between home-ground almonds and the meal you receive from Bob's Red Mill is his almonds are blanched; the skins are removed. This makes a prettier flour for use in dishes which need a clean looking presentation, such as a yellow cake. Removing the skins is more work than I am willing to do for everyday use in such as bread or pancakes.

Here are my

Step-by-step instructions for grinding almonds

1. Attach food grinder with the course grind disk and turn Kitchenaid to speed level 4.
2. Drop one or two almonds at a time into the hopper. See video below. Out comes out will be *chunky.
3. To make a finer almond meal switch to the finer grind disk, and then pour meal, in small amounts, back through the grinder.
4. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator until ready for use.

*Chunky almond meal is good in bread, pancakes, cookies, and muffins.

It a boring video, but you see how slowly I push the almonds through the hopper.

A Few Things To Share

My daughter Lisa and I have entered a Scarecrow contest. The winner receives a $20 gift certificate. The scarecrow will be sold in a silent auction. The proceeds go to our county library.

Lisa is doing well with her homeschool. We are in transition as Dad takes over more of the teaching, so hopefully, I can develop a business. It's in very early stages so nobody hold your breath, I don't know how far I'm going to get.


I used shaving cream to clean my couch. Microfiber is good stuff, very washable. It looks a lot better, but as soon as there is warm weather this spring I'm going to clean it again.


I'm still as busy as ever.

I've been to a couple of prenatal office visits with my daughter-in-law. I was acting as navigator, for the forty mile trip to Grand Rapids.

My mock corn bread didn't taste like corn bread. The recipe needs a little tweaking and it'll make a good millet bread.

If I don't post about grinding my own almond meal this week I will do so on Monday the 26th. I have video to accompany it.

Check out my Fall Nature Pictures, click here.

I have a sore throat, but no resting now. It's time for me to go shopping.

Take Care and May God bless You.

Fall Nature Shots

I took a walk down the road to Little Bear Creek.

I'm Finally Cleaning My Couch Today

My home is so small I have a love seat instead of a couch.

This love seat is only 3 years old, but well used. As you can see by this picture it is over due for a real cleaning.

Cinnamon Raisin Muffin Cake

I've been brewing a mock cornbread recipe in my brain for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately I haven't been able to coordinate time, energy, and supplies to actually make some. I set out to make the recipe this morning only to find I didn't have what I needed. There I stood with a greased cake pan waiting for mock cornbread. Okay, what I need now is to employ my free styling tendencies. I'll make muffin cake instead, because I have muffin supplies and I have to put something in that pan before I wash it.

Starting with my Anything You Need Muffins recipe I put together the following.


1 ¼ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup millet flour
¼ cup garbanzo bean flour
¼ cup almond meal
1 tsp. guar gum
3 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup raisins
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup soy milk

To make muffins, combine dry ingredients, then mix in wet ingredients until moist. Grease and flour a muffin tin and fill the cups full or pour into a greased 9x9 inch cake pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 400° for 20 minutes for muffins, 30 minutes for cake.

A Good Website to Check Often

I have mentioned Cain Credicott's website The Celiac Maniac before and I just have to mention it again. His recipes are very good. I just made myself some of his Sweet Potato Breakfast and it was heavenly.

Yes, it was meant for breakfast, but I love to eat breakfast at any meal. I'm quite fond of breakfast type foods.

Some thing's Got to Give

Last week was Labor Day, so I posted on Tuesday instead of my usual Monday. This week I thought I was going to clean my couch and maybe post again on Tuesday, but I am going to the lab for blood work. Next Monday I'm going with my Daughter-in-law to her prenatal in Grand Rapids. This all makes me think I should switch my blogging day to Tuesday or Wednesday. At this point my guess is I will be posting a copy of my mock cornbread this week and how I make my own almond meal next week. I just decided I will post on Wednesdays.

I would like to take this moment to mention that the Honey Cake recipe I posted on Saturday turned out tough. If you substitute ¼ cup of almond meal for a ¼ of rice flour you should a better cake. If you can't have almond meal try a ½ cup of tapioca flour for a ½ cup of rice flour. Let me know how it works for you.

Take care and May God bless you.
Colleen