Skip to main content

Homemade Vanilla

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I wanted to share with you what I did for Christmas gifts this year. I made homemade vanilla! I had so much fun making it. Did you know it only takes 2 ingredients to make vanilla? Yes, it’s THAT easy. Vanilla and Vodka are the only 2 ingredients. Let me show you what I did…

I ordered a bunch of vanilla beans from Beanilla. I highly recommend ordering your beans online. I tried buying some at Whole foods and they were $6 a bean! I got them for $1.50 a bean by ordering them online and you get to choose what type a vanilla you want, I used Madagascar vanilla beans. 

I cut the beans in half so they would fit in the bottle. You will then slice the bean starting from the top and go down to the bottom until you can see the “meat” of the bean. This exposes the beans to make the vanilla.

IMAG0535

I bought these bottles from The Container Store. And found the stickers here.

IMAG0528.jpgh

I used cheap vodka because everywhere I read it said it didn’t matter about the quality. Use a funnel to fill all the bottles with vodka leaving just enough room at the top so that it will not overflow when you put your beans inside.

Place your beans inside your bottles.

IMAG0524.jpgk

IMAG0537

IMAG0526.jpgl

These jars need to mature for 6 weeks so I put a sticker on the bottom to let everyone know when they can use them.

After a week of maturing

IMAG0553

It’s best to keep them in a dark place while they are maturing. I think it was a big hit!

Check back later to see some pictures from my Christmas weekend. It was a good one as always!

Comments

  1. That's cool and creative!~ I may have to make my own, I use TONS of vanilla!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So what's your feeling on this vanilla nine months later? Still liking it?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1–Have a Headache Already

Happy New Year to everyone! Day 1 of the detox started today. It’s been pretty tough,I’m not gonna lie. I went to Whole Foods and Walmart yesterday to get all the fruits and vegetables I needed for the week. I’ve had a headache all day due to the lack of caffeine. I really don’t drink but maybe a cup and a half of coffee and a glass of tea a day. But I sure did miss it today. This morning I got up to help in the nursery at church. I made the Antioxidant smoothie. You can find the recipe here . It was really good, a little tart but not bad. When I got to the church I got a cup of unsweetened green tea (no caffeine) so I could convince myself it was a cup of coffee. The tea and smoothie held me over till about 11:30. I made a nice little salad for lunch with water with of couple apples thrown in. My salad had spinach, avocado, cucumbers, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and pumpkin seeds dressed with balsamic vinaigrette I did get pretty hungry this afternoon so I made the roasted chi

Vanilla Bean Almond Butter

I don’t know about you but I LOVE nut butters. I have never made my own because I didn’t realize out easy it was. I’m telling ya, everyone can make nut butter as long as you have a decent food processor and there's not turning back. I’ve had some left over vanilla beans from the vanilla I made a while back and wanted to use them, so I decided to use them in the almond butter. I made this about a week ago and it’s already half gone! It’s like a yummy creamy dessert. Once you try fresh pure nut butters you will never go back to store bought. Only 3 ingredients and no added oils! So here it goes: Start out by toasting your almonds until they start to smell yummy. Pour your almonds in the food processer and start to process. You will need to process for 8 to 10 minutes and stop several times to scrape down the sides, so be patient. Stage 1 Stage 2- Powder Stage 3-The natural oil starts to come out and its starts to ball up. Stage 4-Almost there, just a f

Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup

Today was a great day! I didn’t have to work and I got to spend it with Kyle!! He is leaving tonight to go to Colorado to ski with the boys. I’m excited that he is getting to finally go skiing. He hasn’t been in a few years and has been itching to go. I relaxed, cooked, ate, and got my oil changed. Good day! I made some treats for Kyle on his road trip but I’m not going to share it with you till tomorrow, so stay tuned. This morning was a pancake morning! I’ve been wanting to make some pancakes with whole grain oats so I thought I would experiment a little. I started with Bob’s Mill whole grain pancake mix. I added egg+ vanilla coconut milk+ oats+ chia seeds. Topped with Almond butter and frozen strawberries nooked in the microwave!  I love to add chia seeds to my oatmeal and anything I can add them to. I buy them in the bulk section at Whole Foods. Chia seeds provide fiber, protein, and antioxidants. It’s just a little added benefit! Lunch was spent at Genghis Grill. We wer