Hot Cocoa

Traditional Hot Cocoa Mix

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• Shake in a Mason jar:
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• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/8 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 TB table salt
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• For individual servings, pour 1 cup whole milk into a microwave-safe mug, and microwave on high just until hot. Add 2 tablespoons of cocoa mix, and stir to dissolve (you do not want clumps of unsweetened cocoa--gross--so I usually use my cocoa maker and it comes out perfectly mixed and frothy). For a larger batch of cocoa, warm the milk in a saucepan set over medium-low heat, taking care not to let the milk boil; as it warms, stir in 2 TB of mix for each cup of milk.

Note: Make sure it's well stirred in the milk. You don't want chunks of bitter chocolate!

I like to add hazelnut or other flavored creamer sometimes.

Crockpot Hot Cocoa (haven't tried yet but I'm going to for my next winter party!)

Liv's Applesauce Mug Cake

3 TB flour
1 heaping TB brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp baking powder
1 TB applesauce
1/2 TB vegetable oil
1/2 TB milk
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Crumb topping:
1 TB butter
2 TB flour
1 TB brown sugar

Bake for 1 min (or 1.5 min) in the microwave.

Indian Beans and Rice

Here's another take on rice and beans.

Jasmine yellow rice:
2 Tbsp butter
diced half onion
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 cups uncooked long grain jasmine rice (see directions below for how much rice I used for the rice cooker)
3 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf, optional

I sauteed the onion and garlic in butter, added 3 cups of rice using the rice cooker measuring cup (which is about 3/4 cup), browned the rice a bit, and then threw everything in the rice cooker. I could have upped the spices, but it was good. I want to figure out the logistics of making this in the Instant Pot next because I love the saute feature!

Chickpeas:
15 oz can chickpeas
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne
Salt and Pepper to taste

Use the same pan as you used for the rice, add all the ingredients, and cook your chickpeas to desired brownness/crispness.

This might be a menu-in-progress. What veggies would be best with this? Special kind of sauce? Something with coconut milk or yogurt? Anyway, my idea was to substitute our usual cilantro/lime flavors wrapped in tortillas with a curry flavor wrapped in pita bread. I loved it (so did Hans), but the kids not so much. So I guess it's good for our Thursday night easy dinners.

Instant Pot Experimenting

Honey Garlic Chicken and Rice Pilaf   (Instant pot is just for the rice.) We didn't have brown rice (when did we run out?) so I used white with the same ratios in the instant pot and it worked great. I omitted the salt in the rice with full salt chicken broth, and it was perfect. Shannon said to do quick release for rice. We didn't have reduced sodium broth for the chicken either and then Hans put more salt on the raw chicken, and it was a bit too salty :(.

Refried Beans  We need longer than 35 minutes--maybe try 40? We used full sodium chicken broth and omitted the salt. I knew I would need to add more salt when mashing them, but I needed to add quite a bit! I didn't have time for a natural release--does that make a big difference on cooking times? I forgot to buy a jalapeno, so I added cumin.
Pinto Beans (not to mash) Oct. 2017: Covered generously with water, added some chicken Better than Bouillon, dried onions and cumin. 38 min on high, but could do less. Using some for chili tonight, saving some for healthy quick snacks and freezing the rest.

Mashed Potatoes  These were perfect--could do even more potatoes to milk mixture ratio.

Au Gratin Potatoes Such an easy dish (I added some cubed ham to make it dinner). This does call for broiling them in a different dish for a crispy top layer, but you could skip that step.

Chili Garlic Instant Pot Noodles These are really good. Following the recipe (except I couldn't find the brown rice noodles and had to use regular rice noodles), they're rather salty, so I steamed some more veggies for 10 minutes on my stove and added them--so good! I'd do reduced sodium soy sauce if you aren't adding more veggies. I tried adding some veggies into the instant pot the second time (hoping they wouldn't get too mushy), and while the taste was still good, and the veggies weren't mush, they kind of clouded up the dish itself so that everything didn't look as crisp anymore (the texture wasn't great). So I like veggies cooked separately, but is that worth it to use the instant pot when you could just do it all on the stove at that point?

Marcy's Favorite Brownies

The trick to these is that my mom first made them wrong and melted the whole package of chocolate chips in the batter. I think that may have contributed to a thicker brownie, which is what I've been going for for years--I want the kind you can cut and take to a party because it doesn't just flop apart. So make it either way with the 2nd cup of chocolate chips, but I've found a favorite here!

Healthy Recipes for Future Reference

These mostly come from the health challenge fb page:

Vanilla Chia Pudding

Carrot Tomato Coconut Soup

Kid-friendly Spaghetti Sauce

Tacos: ground beef cooked with taco seasoning (i make it myself- less sodium and maltodextrin) mix in romaine lettuce, cut up tomatoes, cheddar cheese, OPA ranch and salsa. Sometimes we bake corn tortillas to make "chips"
I use 90% lean ground beef and usually add black or pinto beans and corn to the meat and seasoning.
This stuff is really good with ground turkey: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/homemade-taco-seasoning/

Overnight Oats  (Karin uses plain Mountain High yogurt)

Chick Pea and Roasted Cauliflower Salad--I love this simplified. Just roast chick peas along with the cauliflower and onion (seasoned as desired with olive oil and cayenne for heat) in the oven, and then toss with hummus. Voila!


CCK: Banana Peanut Butter muffins (cook longer than the 20 min)

Want to try this healthy "potato" soup.



Just now I cut a nectarine over a bed of spinach--so all that good juice flavored the spinach--and I added almonds. Voila! Mid morning snack to feel like a million bucks.

Healthier Spanish Rice made in rice cooker. Use low sodium or no-salt for the canned items, if desired.

2 rice cooker cups of brown rice
1 can of vegetable/chicken broth
1 can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 small can tomato sauce and then fill can halfway with water to add too
diced ½ onion
diced bell pepper
½ tsp chili powder (could do more)

Stir everything. Cook on brown rice setting.

We added black beans to it in our individual bowls. Ground turkey would be yummy.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

These are great, in my opinion. I don't think my kids were fans of the oats in there. They wanted regular banana bread texture. I love the oats. The tops bake to a good sugar crunch--I'm not a fan of muffin toppings because they're so messy and unhealthy (and an extra step), and the tops of these were perfectly tasty. I made these without any modifications, but I'd definitely see what less sugar is like, or whole wheat flour, or applesauce for some of the butter.