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\f0\fs24 \cf0 Hey everyone, welcome back to livWhole. Nothing reminds more of the holidays,
the winter, the chill in the air, the snow falling than a nice warm cup of hot cocoa.
So today we're gonna make a more nutritious version. We're going to throw out all the
processed and the packaged and we're going to do it from scratch which I love, it's one
of my favorite\ things to do. We're going to start with our
ingredients. We've got some milk. I prefer almond milk. I've got an unsweetened variety,
vanilla, and you want make sure if you are getting some substitute milk substitute\'85
almond milk, rice milk\'85 a lot of those have added sweeteners so you wanna make sure
you have the unsweetened variety. I love this one, unsweetened vanilla, so it gives it this
extra little flavor. You can also get unsweetened chocolate almond milk which would do if you're
a chocolate freak like I am and you can add chocolate to the chocolate which is treat
because you get that double dose. But if you're going to use just plain milk that's fine.
I would recommend whole milk or two percent, skim milk I don't know it just tastes blah
to me. It just tasteless like water and this is something you want to be nurturing and
warm and comforting right it's almost like comfort food. Then we have some nice good,
rich, unsweetened cocoa powder or cocoa powder. So again, you want the unsweetened variety.
If you want to make this right you don't want all that Swiss Miss stuff with all the sugar
and the fillers\'85 just straight up coc0a powder.\
\ I love a really good vanilla. I think it makes
the drink. To me it makes everything tastes better, adds a little extra flavor, so we're
gonna add some of that today. Agave is sweetener. So if you're watching your sugar levels, you
could also use stevia which is a natural alternative uh... it's a no calorie sweetener but it's
not chemical. As I say, avoid the pink, the blue and the yellow. It's a chemical, I don't
know where they make it. Stevia is found in nature and it's really nice in liquid form
'cause it's very concentrated you don't need that much. But you can do a blend of the two,
which is what i often do. \ \
What's really gonna make this spicy is cayenne, OK, and the cinnamon. It's going to warm the
insides.\ \
And then we've got this extra antioxidant boost with the cocoa nibs. You may have heard
in the news people saying "go ahead and each chocolate it's good for you." But, you really
want the purest form of the chocolate to get the nutrient, nutritional benefits out of
it.\ \
So we have the cocoa nibs here, and\cf2 \cf0 they're very bitter they're not very tasty
on their own. Here's a note, you probably don't want to have this late at night if you're
sensitive to\ caffeine because the cocoa nibs like this,
pure and bitter, have quite a bit of caffeine. So this is something maybe mid-day instead
of a cup of coffee. If you're going to do this at night and you have any sensitivity
to caffeine, then i would recommend skipping the cocoa nibs. But they are very high in
anti-oxidants.\ \
Let's throw it all together shall we? I've already warmed my milk with this little pot
I put on the stove which I love. You can use the microwave, not the best option, but if
that's all you got, listen, if that's what you got\'85 use it.\
\ And, we're just going to put it in the blender.
And, I'm using a blender however, you can do this with a saucepan and just start to
stir the ingredients in. I'm going to use a heaping tablespoon of the cocoa powder.
AGain, these are general measurements. I'm not much of a baker, and baking is the only
thing where you need to be pretty precise. I'm more of a hey let's try and see how it
comes out and you know. Start with less and you can always add more. So, again, it depends
on how rich you like your hot chocolate. i would say at least a heaping tablespoon per
cup of milk. Now we have the vanilla, and i'm going to do about a quarter of a teaspoon.
You don't want to go too strong on that. You don't want to overpower the chocolate. i'd
say i'm probably going to about that.I That's not too much, but just enough to give it sweetness,
and again, it depends on how bitter you like you chocolate if you don't like too sweet.
I'm also going to add some of the stevia. Play with this, this is not set in stone by
any means. I'm basically just giving you the ingredients you need and then you go do it
like you want. \ \
Cayenne though... i like me some spicy. Going to warm the insides. And cinnamon, i like
me some cinnamon. I am going to toss a little bit of the cocoa nib in here. Just give it
a little boost.\ \
Now this is the super duper, mack daddy of all blenders so it's going to be pretty loud,
block your ears, but you're going to see it's gonna froth everything up pretty nicely\
\ I have to say if you are going to invest in
one kitchen item this would be it for me. I use it pretty much every day for smoothies
and drinks like this, tonics. it also kinda warmed it a little bit more because of that
energy of the blender. It's nice and creamy and frothy. You now have a very powerful antioxidant
rich creamy hot cocoa\cf2 . I\cf0 hope you enjoy it. Cuddle up with a good book and i'll
see you next time.}