Scrumptious Homemade Hot Chocolate

As you all know there was a bit of an ice storm here in the south this week! I know, I know, 2 inches of snow in some areas and ice, what's so scary about that? You northerners and midwest folk were probably sitting there thinking how silly we all were for panicking at the first sight of this wet white snow stuff on the ground and the below freezing temperatures. I did live in Colorado after all for three years and got my fair taste of snow and ice, so I get where you're coming from. This type of weather however causes major panic around these parts since we aren't equipped to handle the roads and most people have no clue how to drive on ice (does anyone really though?). It was really scary for a lot of folks and I'm glad the "snowpocalypse" is now over!

Anyways, while the hubs and I were cooped up for two days...that's right he got two whole days off of work in the middle of the week, yipee... I decided we should make some hot chocolate. Well, truth me told I hadn't bought any mix at the store in an attempt to keep as much sugary goodness out of the house as possible while I pack on some extra weight with little munchkin growing away. That did not deter me however and my ploy to trick myself into staying away from sweets was all for nought. Once again Pinterest came to my rescue and I found this simply delectable recipe over at Tastes Better From Scratch. Moral of the story, if you want to whip up some yummy hot cocoa mix but don't have that handy Swiss Miss box in your pantry all you need are these few simple ingredients, which I'm willing to bet most of you have on hand 99% of the time anyways ;) Seriously though, this stuff is the cats meow! I would also like to note that Little C also enjoyed the hot chocolate on her end and decided that she thought it would be fun to kick me at hard as she could during her "sugar high" for about an hour straight...the joys of pregnancy!

Creamy Hot Chocolate

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

⅓ cup white sugar

⅓ cup boiling water 

Dash of salt

3 ½ cups of milk

½ cup of half & half

¾ tsp vanilla extract

(makes roughly 3-4 servings)

Directions:

*Combine sugar and cocoa in saucepan over low/medium heat

*Add salt and boiling water, then stir continuously

*Once boiling reduce heat and allow to simmer, stirring for 2 minutes

*Stir in milk and heat until hot, but NOT boiling

*Remove from heat and add vanilla

*Pour into your favorite mug and add half & half to reduce temperature 

And that's all folks!