I haven’t made hot chocolate in a long time. Sure, I’ve had it at cafes (I’m a pretty big fan of rich chocolatey goodness), but I haven’t made it in my own house.
The last time I bought a canister of hot chocolate was something like 3 years ago when we started the zero waste thing, and I’m embarassed to admit it, but it never crossed my mind that you could make hot chocolate without hot chocolate mix, so I’ve done without ever since.
Until yesterday. Yesterdayday it snowed, and then the sun came out, and it became just the sort of gorgeous wintery day that beckons to you to grab a book, curl up at the window seat, and sip hot chocolate. And then it hit me. I had cocoa, I had sugar, I had milk; by golly, I could make hot chocolate.
Of course, after my “breakthrough”, I checked online and found out that I was far from the only one who had ever done this. Obviously people used to make it before Carnation and Nestle stepped in with pre-packaged mixes. In truth, just about everything we buy at the store can be made from scratch. Well, maybe not Kraft Singles, but you know what I mean.
What’s something that you used to purchase before realizing it was nearly as easy to make it yourself?
The Clean Bin Project Blog 
Sounds yummy Jen. I melt semi-sweet chocolate chips to make my homemade hot chocolate. If you heat your milk in a saucepan, you can melt the chips as you heat the milk. I like the taste a bit better than using cocoa. With the minus 30 degree Celsius weather we’re experiencing here right now, hot chocolate sounds great. Thanks for the idea.
I also make my own salad dressings. They are easy to make with a few ingredients. I have a great ranch dressing recipe that I love better than anything store-bought.
making baked beans from scratch tomorrow for the first time.
I used to purchase all kinds of pre-mixed baking stuff, like cake mixes, Bisquick, Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa, etc until I realized that all of any of that stuff is just flour, sugar, baking soda pre-mixed for you and with a hefty price tag attached. Now, as I can no longer eat wheat. I’m not buying even the flour, but that is beside s the point: human beings existed and ate just fine before the advent of so-called labor saving devices- I mean really, how difficult is it to toss some flour, baking soda, salt and cut up butter into a bowl for biscuits, anyway? Does using something like Bisquick pre-mix really save *that* much time? Nope.
lol I ADORE DIY cocoa too, been making it for a while (no sugar, just milk+cocoa!)
I’ve been recently thinking about chocolate ‘pudding’ too, not sure what to substitute corn starch with, or how to make it! 🙂
in the old days, my mum & we used to make ‘whipped cream’ from a satchel (yikes!) and potato plum dumplings too.. (from a pre-made mix!) – not anymore, ever since dad started the healthy food thing and cured his rheumatism with it… !
You should look up avocado pudding. Unless of course, you’re trying to eat local. Lol. I think its basically avocado, cocoa and milk blended together into a creamy delicious treat! =)
Soup!
Alphabet was my favourite. Or Chunky chicken noodle for when I wasn’t feeling well.
Now I don’t even think twice about pulling together a quick squash soup from a roasted butternut and stock. On rainy days I look forward spending a day making stock, roasting veggies, and pulling it all together and with a loaf of homemade bread, ta boot!
Yum! There’s no going back now.
I will be trying to make my own peanut butter tonight and mustard later this week. I was buying my pb bulk from Save on Foods but they took out their wet bulk section.
Tortillas. Somehow, the concept of making them from scratch never occurred to me until I lived somewhere where you couldn’t buy them. All of a sudden, I can throw them together in no time, for quesedillas, tacos, homemade pizza, naan…
Laundry detergent! I received a great recipe from the Queen of Green Blog on the David Suzuki webpage, and haven’t looked back. Its so easy, and costs just pennies per load. Plus I get to experiment with my own scent combinations using essential oils.
I agree Veronica – the borax free liquid one is our new favorite
I was lucky enough to grown up in a household where most things were made from scratch so it actually boggled my mind to find out that people used the Carnation hot chocolate packets outside of brownie camps. However I must admit that when I found out that you could blanch tomatoes, remove the skins and dice them yourself, instead of just opening a can to throw into the “homemade” tomato sauce, my world was rocked.
I like to try to figure out what I can make of the things I usually buy and see if I can switch to homemade. I’ve made yogurt (but its not something I eat a lot), I make gingerale in the summer (yeast, sugar, water and ginger), and I make my own bread whenever I have time.
Right now I’m on a noodle kick. It hadn’t actually occurred to me that you could make pasta noodles from scratch without fancy equipment, but its easy and fun! Just a couple of eggs, some flour, salt and a bit of water. They freeze well, so I like to make a month’s worth at a time.
Sprouts! Used to buy them in the plastic clamshells without realizing you could make about 30x as many for the price by buying the sprouting seeds instead and very little work.
yogurt and granola. I used to save them for special occasions because they were so expensive, and once I learned to make them at home, we have them every day for the same cost as eating cheap cereal with milk. Way better.
popcorn!!! (worse, microwave popcorn)
Since I was opposed to buying pancake mix with ingredients I did not want to give my grandchildren, I made my own. I could vary the original recipe I found and make additions and substitutions to make it healthier. Recently I made 2 variations of chocolate pudding-yum!