Hot Chocolate 101

My daughter Alicia is going to Guest Blog for me today.

I work at a day program for adults with cognitive and physical disabilities.

Today the lady I was supporting hosted a Valentine Party for a bunch of her friends and wanted to give them Hot Chocolate because chocolate and Valentines go together. She wanted to give them something to drink.  This a drink we had figured out a recipe for around Christmas time. She had wanted to figure out an alternative to coffee for a diabetic friend.  They both said they had not had hot chocolate for many years.

  We put all of our ingredients into a large cooking pot. We used  one and a third cup of instant skim milk powder or enough to make up a liter of milk. We used a third cup of cocoa and half a cup of Splenda.  We stirred up all the dry ingredients, poured in the 5 cups of water, stirred it thoroughly again and put the pot on the stove on low so it could slowly heat up and be ready for when her friends arrived.

People were so excited to have the drink. Her guests and my coworkers told her how much they loved it and commented on how good it smelled in the house! They even asked her for her recipe. We wrote the recipe out for a few of them and titled it Hot Chocolate 101 so that is where the name comes from.

My coworkers had a cup and then wanted seconds. They were used to drinking powdered hot chocolate mix and most had never tried hot chocolate made from scratch before. They commented on how different it tasted. For a lot of the disabled individuals it had been a long time since they had hot chocolate of any kind. This was a really nice recipe because it allows us to control the sodium, sugar and fat content making it accessible for different diets including heart friendly and diabetic diets and so allowed everyone to share in the treat.

Hot Chocolate 101

1  1/3 cup Skim Milk Powder
1/3 cup     Cocoa 
1/2 cup     Splenda 
5 cups      Water.

1. Place dry ingredients into a large pot.
2. Mix ingredients with a large spoon
3. add water and stir again.
4. put on a low heat on a stovetop and stir occasionally.
5. Serve using a ladle.
6. Enjoy!

Serves about 6 

Note  from Linda:
I think I will test this out with a slow cooker next week and then try it out at work. I am always looking for a nice treat that people on special diets can share.