Last day (12/24) to enter RenMama’s $25 Amazon Christmas Giveaway!

We’re visiting family for Christmas, and my mom greeted me this morning with the MOST INCREDIBLE Hot Chocolate drink I’ve ever had.  I savored every drop, and couldn’t wait to share it with you!  This is a drop-everything and dash to the grocery store kind of recipe, even on Christmas Eve!  :)   (Please note that nowhere do I say this is healthy.  But it’s Christmas.  )

Without further ado, may I present:

The Most Incredible Hot Chocolate Drink Ever Made Recipe
original recipe made in the crockpot
Serves 7-8

Ingredients
2 cups heavy whipping cream
14 oz sweetened condensed milk (link to make-your-own healthy version)
pinch salt
2 c semi-seet chocolate chips
1/2 c cocoa
6 c milk
2 tsp vanilla

Instructions
Add heavy whipping cream, condensed milk, chocolate chips, salt, and cocoa in a pot on the stove on low.  Carefully melt (you don’t want to scorch it!).
When well-incorporated, add 6 c milk and bring to drinking temperature, being careful not to boil the milk.
Add vanilla.
Serve and enjoy!

Need stocking stuffer ideas?  Non-candy Stocking Stuffers!  

Hot chocolate is one of my favorite wintry treats.  Not that it’s very wintry here in Texas – we’ve had t-shirt weather days lately!  Nonetheless, I love hot chocolate and Christmas provides the perfect opportunity for indulgence.

We’re staying with a family who has a Keurig, and I was excited about the possibilities.  Insert a cup, push a button, and a hot drink appears, ready to go!   My sweet hubby made a Walmart run for hot chocolate K-cups for his pregnant wife, (because the baby needed hot chocolate, you know <G>)  I cooked up a cup, and it tasted good overall, but I kept tasting this strange aftertaste.

“Surely not.  Surely there wouldn’t be artificial sweeteners in the hot chocolate.”

Sure enough.  A quick read of the ingredient label revealed that it was sweetened with sucralose.  So sad.  It’s not limited to the K-cups version, either.  Even the regular Swiss Miss hot chocoate- the old standby at my house – is sweetened with sucralose.

Thankfully all is not lost.  It’s super easy to mix up your own hot chocolate mix (not to mention cheaper!)  If you want to pick up a ready-made mix, the Ghiradelli store-bought version, as well as the Trader Joe’s version, is also sucralose-free.

Why Avoid Sucralose?

While toted as a ‘natural’ sweetener, there is nothing natural about sucralose (Splenda).  Cane sugar is used in the initial manufacturing process, but it’s long gone by the time sucralose is finished.  Instead, you’re left with chlorine atoms bound together with dextrose and maltodextrin.  Our bodies don’t know what to do with this chemical, and while some of it is excreted, the rest (40%, according to the Japanese Food Sanitation Council) accumulates in our kidneys, liver, and intestines.

Researchers at Duke University studying rats determined that Splenda actually contributes to obesity, destroys “good” intestinal bacteria, and can prevent prescription drugs from being absorbed.

So, let’s skip the sucralose and just enjoy a little real sugar in moderate amounts.

Favorite Hot Cocoa Recipe (slightly modified from Hershey’s)
(Six servings)

1/2 c organic cane sugar (or your choice of sweetener)
1/4c Hershey’s Cocoa
dash salt
1/3 c hot water
4 c raw milk
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in saucepan; stir in water.
2. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils; boil and stir 2 minutes.
3. Stir in milk and heat.  Do not boil.
4. Remove from heat; add vanilla.

A kombucha craze is sweeping the nation. These bottles are popping up even in grocery stores like Kroger, and more and more people are jumping on the band wagon. I am not a fan, but my husband and kids both really like it. Have you tried it?

What is kombucha, anyway?   According to Wikipedia, kombucha’s recorded history began in the late 1800′s in Russia.  It aids in detoxification, increases energy levels, and has indications of being instrumental in curing cancer.  If you’d like to read more about the history of kombucha, take a look at the article on Food Renegade.

Kombucha is made from sweetened tea that is fermented with a mushroom culture, called a SCOBY.   SCOBY stands for symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast.

Store-bought kombucha can be rather pricey (upwards of $3.99 a bottle).  Thankfully, you can make your own without too much trouble.   To start, you’ll need a SCOBY.  You can get one from a friend, from Cultures for Health, or you can grow your own.

How to Grow your own SCOBY

To grow your own SCOBY, simply leave about 1/8 of a bottle that you bought from the store.  It’s preferable to use an unflavored version.  Cover it with a rag to keep any bugs out, and stick it in a cool, dark place for a while.  Like several weeks.  I used the top of my refrigerator.  (That way, I didn’t forget about it forever).

After several weeks, you should have a nice mass called a SCOBY.  The SCOBY will reproduce itself with every batch of kombucha that you make, so you will soon have plenty of SCOBYs.  Enough to share with your friends to save them the growing process.

So, start growing your SCOBY’s, and check back here in a month or so for instructions on what to do next!

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* These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

I made meatloaf for dinner last night, we had meatloaf sandwiches for lunch, and we liked it so much we’re having it again for dinner tonight!  I’m also making dinner for a friend-of-a-friend who just had a new baby, so she’s getting meatloaf too!  Hope she likes it as much as we do.
With an easy recipe that good, I thought I’d share and give you a fresh dinner idea.

Meatloaf Recipe
1 lb organic ground beef
2 eggs (preferably organic free-range)
1/2 t Italian seasoning
bread crumbs (preferably fresh – just make some crumbs from a few pieces of bread.  Otherwise, Whole Foods is the only place I’ve found bread crumbs so far without yucky ingredients in them.)
(Measurements are approximate – I just added seasoning and bread crumbs till it looked good to me)

Mix together.  Cover a baking sheet with foil and put meatloaf on sheet.  Bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.  Spread ketchup on top and then bake for another 15 min or till it smells fantastic and you’re happy with how well it’s cooked through.   (Don’t you love how specific this recipe is? )
Enjoy!

lol – I googled “meatloaf picture” to get a picture to begin this post, and I got all these pictures of an old white guy!  I seem to be missing something…

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