Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

 

I absolutely love this mix and I begged for this recipe a few years ago and finally got it from my Hubby's Aunt. I have been making SO many batches of Hot Cocoa for the kiddos and also adding it to other recipes to enhance them too. Check them out too and enjoy a hot cup while you are at it! 

Warning: This recipe makes ALOT of Hot Cocoa Mix, so be ready to mix some up and share with all your neighbors and friends!

Hot Chocolate Bars

Cinnamon Sticks with Hot Cocoa

Hot Chocolate Cookies

Hot Cocoa Mix

1 box of Powered Milk 8Qt size (I use Morning Moo from Walmart)

1 lbs Jar Coffee Mate Powder (any flavor that you like)

1 lbs Powder Sugar

1 1/2 lbs. (6 cups) Chocolate Drink Powder (ie. Nestle Quick, Ovaltine)

8 oz (1 container) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

opt. Miniature Marshmallows

Mix well! Store in an air tight container.

 (If you have a flour sifter that would be primo to use to mix it together and avoid any clumps)

1/4 cup = 1 packet of instant hot chocolate

Hot Chocolate Cookies

Once a week I get in the cookie making mode and crave the aroma that fills my home when I bake fresh cookies. I have my go-to recipes that are always great, but I also love to experiment.  For Christmas I made a whole bunch of Homemade Hot Chocolate (recipe on the way in a later post). I still have a whole bunch left, so I decided to add it to some cookies along with chocolate chunks, and mini marshmallows, which you are now able to find in some grocery stores. If you can't find them locally, you can get them on Amazon. I provided a link below for connivence.

These turned out very soft and chewy, a new recipe to add to my go-to list! 

Hot Chocolate Cookies

1 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil

1 cup White Sugar

2/3 cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

3 cups Flour

1 cup Homemade Hot Chocolate or

(4 packages instant cocoa (don’t use sugar free))

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips 

1 cup Mini Marshmallow Bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Whip in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, hot cocoa mix, baking soda and baking powder. Add in flour mixture to butter mixture until well combined. Fold in mallow bits and chocolate chips.

Spoon 1 tablespoon of the dough and shape into a ball. Place on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 9 – 11 minutes until edges are lightly browned.

Homemade Peppermint Oreos

Who doesn't love a good cookie? Yesterday my daughter and I decided to make some cookies.  She is three years old and loves to make cookies for her 5 older brothers.  Everyday I ask her what she wants to do and she always says, "Make cookies for the boys!"  Funny girl!

So we decided to use the bag of peppermint baking chips that I had in my freezer.  This is what we came up with...

They are so yummy and not too "pepperminty".  My husband isn't a fan of peppermint, but I am!  So this was just the right balance.  I didn't use any peppermint extract, just the baking chips.

If you remember, I posted a recipe for Homemade Oreos earlier this year.  This is a fun and easy twist on that recipe.

To tell you the truth, I didn't have a cake mix that I used for my original homemade oreos, so I used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and added 6 TBS of Cocoa Powder and eliminated the chocolate chips.

This is the recipe that I used for the filling.

Filling:

1 - 8 ounce package of softened Cream Cheese

1/2 cup Shortening

Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla 

1 cup of peppermint baking chips

Mix together Cream Cheese and Shortening until smooth.  Add powdered sugar  and vanilla until you reach a spreading consistency.  Mix in about 3/4 cup of peppermint chips.  You may add food coloring if desired.  Put in between 2 cooled cookies.  Use the rest of the baking chips to roll around the cookies. Enjoy!

Hot Chocolate Party!

Last week we decorated our Christmas tree and we always have Hot Chocolate as we decorate.

This is our tray of goodies that we used for our Hot Chocolate.

We stuck marshmallows on the end of straws and dipped them in white chocolate.

We did the same with the candy canes.  These made for a wonderful and fun way to stir our Hot Chocolate!

The kids loved this and had so much fun.  Drinking the Hot Chocolate was just as much fun as decorating the tree!

Our Christmas Stockings

Last year each of us shared our Christmas Stockings.  I figured I would combine them so all of our new followers could check them out.  

Here is my (Brooke's) stockings.  You can find more details about them HERE. I need to add one more stocking this year!     Here are Briana's stockings, you can find that post HERE.   Here are Bridget's stockings- made out of Levi.  Check it out HERE.
  Here our the stockings that we grew up with!  Our mom still hangs them up in her house every year.  You can find more about it HERE.

Christmas Peanut Butter Balls

Christmas Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients

2 Cups Creamy Peanut Butter

1/4 Cup Butter at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

1 Bag of Wilton Candy Melts

Directions

Combine the Peanut Butter, Butter, Salt and Vanilla until creamy.  Add the Powdered Sugar, a little at a time, until everything is combined.  Form the dough into little balls and stick in the freezer until firm.  Melt the Wilton Candy Melt in a bowl and dip the balls into the mixture until coated. 

Let the Candy Melt firm up and Enjoy!

Christmas Decorations

Since Briana posted her piano Christmas Decorations here last week, I decided to go ahead and post mine...

I have posted most of these projects here on our blog.  You can find the Christmas Block Nativity HERE.

Someone actually gave me this Snowman.  It is actually made out of an old bed post.  Such a great idea!  Behind the snowman is my Mod-Podged Temple.  You can find that post HERE.

I hope that everyone is having a GREAT time decorating for Christmas!!

Old-Fashion Candy Dispenser

About 2 weeks ago we had the great opportunity to guest post at Sugar Bee Crafts!  We wanted to share our Old-Fashion Candy Dispenser with everyone today!

This Old-Fashion Candy Dispenser is SUPER easy!  

All you need is... 

Baby Chicken Feeder (you can find at any local feed store) for about $3,

 a Small Mouth Quart Mason Jar,

and three large bags of M&M's.

  You fill the Mason Jar up with M&M's and then it just screws onto the chicken feeder.  That's it! The best part about it is that you can change out the candy depending on the season.  You can use Candy Corn for Halloween,  and different colored M&M's for each season.   It is also great for portion control because you can only eat a few M&M's at a time (great for kiddos!)  

 

The Start of the Christmas Season

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

All of us sisters spent Thanksgiving in different places.  Brittany spent her week with her in-laws riding a train in Northern Arizona.  Bridget spent it with her in-laws in Vernon, AZ.  Brooke drove from Amarillo to Arizona to spend it with our parents.  I stayed home in El Paso because my husband had to work the entire week in Labor and Delivery.  Apparently, people still have babies on Thanksgiving.  :)  We all had a wonderful time though!  Hopefully we will be able to see each other during the Christmas holiday!

During the Thanksgiving break, my kids had an entire week off of school.  We kept busy doing all sorts of things.  One of them was the start of Christmas decorating. 

 My twins, age 12, put lights outside in the front yard. I love that they wanted to do it!  Everyone has a little Christmas tree in their room that they get to decorate however they want.  (Hobby Lobby after Christmas sale was perfect to pick those up.  You can't beat 90% off!)  Our family Christmas tree is still a work in progress, but I will post pictures of it later...

One of my favorite places to go is our front room.  Our Christmas tree is in there and well as our piano.  I love listening to my boys practice their piano songs and getting ready to play piano duets for our family in Arizona.  Having 5 boys taking piano lessons provides lots of music all day long.  Even my 2 little girls get their own "practicing" in.  :)

What's your favorite room to decorate for the Christmas holidays?

Christmas Pajamas

I totally forgot to post my children's Christmas Pajamas last month...  So instead of waiting any longer I just decided to go ahead and post them.

I was really proud of myself, because I did not have a pattern for these.  I just used my children's pajamas that they already wear as a pattern and it worked really well.

 I added some ruffles to my daughters top.  She absolutely loved it!

My son was so excited for his Pajamas, he still wants to wear them every night.

Lately my son has been insisting on wearing his hat to bed.  If I do not put it on him when he goes to bed, he will wake up crying for it.  He is also majorly attached to his bear that he calls "B".  I have had to sew on this bears head, repair its nose and do many other procedures on it to keep it alive.  

Does anyone else have a child like this??

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Non-Alcoholic Eggnog

Non-Alcoholic Eggnog Recipe

Ingredients

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar 

2 cups milk 

Pinch of Cloves

Pinch of cinnamon 

1 cup cream 

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1 In a large bowl, use a whisk or an electric mixer to beat egg yolks until they become somewhat lighter in color. Slowly add the sugar, beating after each addition, whisking until fluffy.

2 Combine the milk, cloves, and cinnamon in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Slowly heat on medium heat until the milk mixture is steamy hot, but not boiling.

3 Temper the eggs by slowly adding half of the hot milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly while you add the hot mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

4 Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture begins to thicken slightly, and coats the back of the spoon. It helps to have a candy thermometer, but not necessary; if you have one, cook until the mixture reaches 160°F. Do not allow the mixture to boil, or it will curdle. (If the mixture does curdle you may be able to save it by running it through a blender.) Remove from heat and stir in the cream.  Let cool for one hour.

5 Mix in vanilla extract and nutmeg.

Chill.

 Yield: Makes 1 quart. Serves 4-6.

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Christmas Blocks

Here are some Christmas blocks that I made with my boys for Christmas Presents. They had so much fun putting these characters to life. We made a Christmas Tree, Santa, and Snowman out of 4x4 posts.

I had my husband cut the 4x4 post

2 1/2 in for the head,

4 1/2 in for the torso

and 6 1/2 in for the base.

You will also need:

Red, green, and white paint

And Black and Orange, Yellow (for the Snowman and Santa)

Random sizes and color buttons

White Feather Boa (for Santas Beard)

Heres the Christmas Tree which was the easiest to make out of the 3. All I did was paint the blocks green then sanded the edges. Then I hot glued on some of my colorful buttons all over the place. For the star I glued a wooden star that you can get at craft stores or a small ribbon at the top.

Heres the Snowman which I painted white then sanded the edges again. I painted the eyes and smile "rocks" with black paint with a Qtip. Then the nose just a triangle with orange paint.

For the torso I glued on 3 buttons.

Heres the Santa which I painted red. I then sanded the edges and the face 3/4 of the way off just on one side. I got a Qtip again and dabbed white paint on top for the cap. Then I painted on just eyes and a nose with black paint with a fine tip paint brush.

For the beard I cut the White Feather Boa 4 inches long. Then, hot glued it onto the face just in a U shape on the checks. That way it droops down the torso.

Then on the torso block I painted a belt with black and yellow paint.

There they are.

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas Wreath

We were one of the blogs that participated in the 12 Days of Christmas over at Everything Under the Moon!  We were excited to do so!

Our posting day is today! 

So you can head on over HERE and check out our before and after pictures of a Christmas wreath we "fluffed" up!

Oh Christmas Tree!

One of my sons has been wanting to do this project for a while now.  So we decided to do this last night.  We made Christmas trees!

Materials needed:

Waffle ice cream cones

Green frosting

M&M's

Sprinkles

All the kids frosted their cones and then decorated them!  They had so much fun!

The rule was: You make it, you eat it!

And they enjoyed the eating part too!

Merry Christmas everyone!

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