First of all, for you subscribers, are you enjoying the old posts? I think I have about 4 more of those scheduled. I hope the info is interesting to you. I felt like this blog started in the middle of the story of our move to the homestead (and then our subsequent move here to Portland). So I wanted to be sure the whole story was here on the blog. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program:

I think I mentioned before that I have a guilty love of mochas. Starbucks mochas, half sweet, to be specific. Well, today as I was making yogurt (following the super easy instructions from Jill, over at theprairiehomestead.com) I got a hankering for one of those mochas.

Might have something to do with the fact that I had just had to resist the temptation to run into Starbucks on my way home with milk. That little logo sure can get my mouth watering! (Pavlov anyone?) But I resisted because my wallet is near empty and their chocolate syrup is full of questionable ingredients such as highly processed sugars and preservatives.

What’s a girl to do? As I set the milk for the yogurt to heat on the stove, my tastebuds were still craving that creamy bittersweet chocolatey goodness. So, of course, I whipped up my own cafe mocha. Right in my kitchen. Whithout an espresso machine. And full of only nutritious real food. No way!

Yes way!
-I started with about 3oz of really strong coffee. It could maybe even be called espresso, it was that strong.
-To that I added about 6oz hot milk (I used the microwave to heat the milk, but you could easily use the stove as well, or steam it if you have an espresso machine).
-About a tablespoon of cocoa makes a rich chocolatey mocha.
-To balance out the choloclate and add depth of flavor, I added about a quarter teaspoon real vanilla.
-For sweetness I added a splash of pure maple syrup. I really don’t know how much. If I had to guess, I’d say probably 2 teaspoons. But I don’t like my mocha very sweet. I just dropped some in, stirred it all up, tasted it, added a bit more, and tasted it again.

Perfection.

Well, it was missing the real whipped cream on top, so I dropped in a dollop of heavy cream. That kicked up the delish factor to as high as it could go without having actual whipped cream on hand (and no patience to make make some).

Who needs to shell out $4 for a drink when you can make an even better version for a fraction of the price right in your own kitchen?

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.” Ps 121:1-2