Stovetop Hot Chocolate

Sometimes I get frustrated with my "from scratch" pantry.  That winter morning, for instance, I come inside from shoveling snow watching my son shoveling snow and want something to warm my  insides.  Or that January evening when I'm curled up in a chair actually reading a book from the hundreds I've pinned on my "to read someday" Pinterest board.  Those days, I wish I could rip open a packet of hot chocolate, heat up some water, and have instant sweet and hot swirling around my mouth and warming my insides.

Really, though, making your own hot chocolate doesn't take much extra time.  It's healthier than store-bought convenience packets, and if your pantry is stocked with the basics--cocoa, sugar, salt, milk, and vanilla--you're all set!  You can easily make a whole pot to share--you may as well, seeing that it doesn't take any extra time to measure out the extra amounts.  Leftovers, if you have any--can be stored in a Mason jar in the fridge; just reheat on the stove or in the microwave.

If you're a hot chocolate fanatic and want to make this frequently (or a super organized plan-ahead person like I am), make up the dry ingredients and store in baggies or other containers, whether single serve or however you like.  If you store it in one large container, you'll need about 1/4 cup of mix for a single serving.  Otherwise, just mix the dry ingredients, divide into fourths (a weight scale is the most accurate way), and store in small plastic food storage bags.  By doing this ahead of time, it becomes just as fast--and a whole lot healthier--than the store-bought version!

Stovetop Hot Chocolate
Serves four.

1/2 cup cocoa (I use high quality Dutch process)
1/2 cup (or less, if you want to cut back) sugar or cane juice crystals
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Measure the cocoa, sugar, and salt into a 2- or 3-quart saucepan.  Pour about half a cup of the milk into the saucepan and stir with a whisk until the dry ingredients have been incorporated.  Whisk in the rest of the milk while heating up to a nice, hot simmer.  Whisk occasionally so the milk doesn't scald, and once it's heated nice and hot (doesn't need to come to a boil--just taste it carefully!), ladle it into cups and enjoy!

Hot chocolate in my Lake Bonaparte mug.

Back to life,
Christine

Visit my photography blog
Visit my photography website

Tea Talk -- As I Do Today

Welcome to my home for Ruth's Tea Talk!
Click on Ruth's button above to participate with me.

Sit and share a cup of tea with me as we encourage each other in the Lord.

I'm having...it's time for a cup of Trader Joe's sipping chocolate!  So rich and creamy and chocolatey.  Mmm...

I'm feeling...fine and dandy.   I resist the urge to share all my aches and pains with you.  It's a simple fact of aging, and I won't dwell on it.  My heart is happy, and that's all that matters for Tea Time.  :)

On my mind...is helping my parents get ready to move!  They've listed their house on the market and there's still lots to do helping them pack things up.  I love logistics, and I love helping my parents!

I leave you with...a passage of Scripture I literally just came across as I was reading.

It is the living who give thanks to You,

as I do today;

A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.

The LORD will surely save me;

So we will play my songs  on stringed instruments

All the days of our life at the house of the LORD.

Isaiah 38:29-20 NASB

Spring flowers in the woods

Back to life,
Christine

Visit my photography blog
Visit my photography website

Tea talk -- He Who Trusts in the Lord

Welcome to my home for Ruth's Tea Talk!

Sit and share a cup of tea with me as we encourage each other in the Lord.

I'm having...a cup of Trader Joe's sipping chocolate in my Gibson china.  What a treat!

I'm feeling...just fine, thank you!

On my mind...is my visit with my dear sister in Christ this afternoon.  She hasn't been feeling well (back issues, I can so easily relate!), and I pray that I will be a blessing to her.  This morning, I'm finalizing plans for my portion of our state convention--that has to be done by today!  I'm in the last stages of getting information together and emailed to the appropriate people.  Whew!

I leave you with...a Proverb that I read today:

The fear of man brings a snare,

But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.

Proverbs 29:25 NASB

• fear of man:  Getting (or desiring) man's approval, swayed by man's opinion.  Doing this constitutes idolatry.
• snare:  I am taken prisoner by this snare; the more I struggle, the tighter I am caught.  (Proverbs 5:22 says, "His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held with the cords of his sin.")
• trusts:  This is in the present tense.  I am to leave my care with the Lord, in the present, over and over again.  Trust = dependence on and confidence in.  (Psalm 118:6, Proverbs 18:10, Luke 12:4-5).

If I live as if I were approved unto God, I will live in the absence of the fear of man.

Aren't winter trees starkly beautiful?

Back to life,
Christine

Visit my photography blog
Visit my photography website