Frugal Food: Make Your Own Hot Chocolate Mix

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

15 Dec 2006 01:58 PM

Last week the weather hit an unexpected cold spell and we all had the chills. it was just one of those cold dreary days. The kids were whiny and the adults were grumpy. I thought that hot chocolate might just cheer everyone up, but we were down to only one packet of instant hot chocolate, and I didn't have a stockpile at hand. Since I try not to buy anything that isn't on sale with a coupon, I decided to make my own mix.

I'm not sure why I never attempted this before. When I do a quick calculation in my head, it is clear that the homemade mix does save money over the store bought mixes.

And the homemade hot chocolate mix turned out wonderfully. It isn't as sweet as the store-bought instant mixes, which is just fine with me and my husband. If you prefer a sweeter taste, you could add more sugar, or try using confectioners (powdered) sugar instead.

Right now, I am storing the homemade hot chocolate mix in a pretty glass airtight container with a red ribbon around it. It looks very festive sitting on my counter. In fact, I may just use this recipe to make teacher gifts for the holidays. I could fill large mason jars with the mix, and add a rafia or fabric bow. A candy cane in the bow would finish it off.

This mix probably makes about 30 servings. We haven't gotten to the end, yet, so I can't be sure about the exact number of cups we will get from it.

I used:

• 3/4 cup of Hershey's unsweetened cocoa
• 1 cup of dry milk
• 1 cup of powdered non dairy creamer
• 1-1/2 cups of white sugar
• A couple of handfuls of mini-marshmallows.

Then I put everything into my food processor and pulsed it a couple of times to mix it thoroughly. At first, I was afraid to use the food processor because I was concerned the marshmallows might get gummed up, but the cocoa powder coated the marshmallows right away and prevented that from happening.

I placed about three tablespoons of mix in each adult mug and two tablespoons of mix in each child mug. I added hot water and stirred. For the kids, I also added some whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

Yum!

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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