Hot Chocolate

This winter I saw a hot chocolate recipe that sounded good, and then couldn't find it again when I went looking, so while searching, I stumbled upon another one that sounded easy enough & healthy enough to at least try. And I LOVE it!! This is a very strong chocolate, which I love, it makes me realize that it's the strong, dark chocolate flavor of starbucks mocha that is what I love about it, because even though there's no coffee in this, it reminds me of starbucks mocha, and generally satisfies my craving for starbucks :) It's also really quite healthy, so I don't mind having it as a frequent "treat" for the kids when they come in out of the cold.

For one serving (multiply as needed):

1 c milk
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp sugar (I use sucanet)

Heat milk in a saucepan, while it's heating stir in the cocoa & sugar until no lumps. Continue stirring constantly until hot chocolate is desired temperature. Pour into mugs & serve.

For the girls I fill their mugs 1/2 full (or a little more) w/ the hot chocolate and then add additional milk. Which makes it less strong AND not so hot. For me, I drink it "straight" :)

It occurred to me today that maple syrup or honey might work well as the sweetner in this as well, so I may play with that in the future :)

Honey Lemonade

I saw Jocelyn's post about honey lemonade months ago! I don't know WHY it took me so long to actually TRY this!!! I love lemonade, I've always loved lemonade. But I make it very rarely since it is, essentially sugar water w/ some lemon juice added. A step up from kool aid, but that's about all that can be said for it. BUT . . . honey, while still sugar, is a much healthier sugar than refined white sugar. And added bonus as we go into cold & flu season, honey is good for the immune system and is a great option to fight colds, etc. but my dd L, doesn't "like" honey. And while A used to eat peanut butter & honey sandwiches, she balked at eating honey anyway I offered it to her last time she had a cough. But, I suspect they'll drink this lemonade w/ NO PROBLEM!!!

Now, here's the recipe, with my modifications:

Combine equal parts lemon juice & honey (adjust honey as needed to taste if you want sweeter or tarter lemonade), add 6 times as much water, or slightly less if you'll be adding ice. Stir and stir and stir and stir . . . until honey dissolves. Seriously, KEEP STIRRING! I was "this close" to putting it in the microwave to dissolve the honey when it FINALLY started dissolving. I combined the honey, lemon juice & water, then poured it over ice rather than adding the ice to the pitcher.

Healthy Strawberry Milkshake

I found this recipe (& accidentally modified it) on heavenlyhomemakers my kids think they're getting dessert, but it's really healthy enough to count as breakfast. And easy too!

1 cup milk
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp maple syrup

(the original recipe also called for 1 cup cream, but I missed adding that & it was still good, though that would explain why we ate it w/ a spoon, not a straw LOL).

Put it all in a blender & blend it up, pour into a cup & enjoy!

Hot Chocolate Mix

Not especially note worthy, more for my own information . . . here's the hot chocolate mix that I made today (since we were out & the girls think we must have hot chocolate when we come in from playing in the snow, and we're essentially out of (real) milk since today was also the day I was going to go get milk, but didn't because of the snow). If I use this recipe again I will reduce the salt. . . It has the advantage of using all ingredients that I had on hand & the most "processed" thing in it is the powdered milk (or perhaps the powdered sugar, both are pretty far from their natural form, but still not as totally processed as the coffee creamer that was called for in most of the recipes I saw):

From food network:

Hot Cocoa - courtesy of Alton Brown
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
Hot water

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and incorporate evenly. In a small pot, heat 4 to 6 cups of water.

Fill your mug half full with the mixture and pour in hot water. Stir to combine. Seal the rest in an airtight container, keeps indefinitely in the pantry. This also works great with warm milk.

I made 1/4 a recipe & left out the cayenne pepper.

Hot Spiced Cider

I looked online yesterday afternoon for a cider recipe (why yes, I do tend to procrastinate). Found one, realized this morning that it called for allspice, which I don't have . . . Anyway, here's what I ended up doing:

1/2 gallon apple juice (or cider)
1 cinnamon stick, broken
20 whole cloves (give or take)
approx 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (this wasn't in the original recipe)
(original recipe called for 8 whole allspice, which I didn't have)
1 lemon, sliced
1 orange sliced

Put cloves & nutmeg in a muslin bag, put everything in the crockpot, turn it on high for a little while to make sure it gets hot, then leave it on low until ready to serve.

It was yummy, and apparently everyone liked it, since it's essentially gone LOL.