Dairy-Free Hot Chocolate

It's that time of the year - time to curl up in front of a fire with a blanket, a good book... and a cup of hot chocolate! 

But for people like my husband who can't have dairy, you have to get a little creative.

So make dairy-free hot chocolate!  I figured out my own recipe, and I actually like it so much that I prefer it over regular hot chocolate.  It's cocoa-y, nutty, and not too sweet.  And all you need is almond milk, cocoa powder, and sugar.

Homemade Dairy-Free Hot Chocolate

The primary challenge with nailing down a recipe for hot chocolate is the fact that mugs come in all sorts of different sizes!  For my recipe I use 4 cups of almond milk, which is enough for 2 generous mugs of hot chocolate.  If your mugs are very large, this might not quite fill them, and if your mugs are small, there will be some extra for a top up!

Measure 4 cups of almond milk into a pot.  (Saucepan?  I feel like recipes always call them saucepans.  But who actually calls them saucepans in real life?  Still, in writing, "pot" seems kind of strange....  This is an interesting situation.  Well, either a pot or a saucepan.  They're technically the same thing, so it doesn't really matter.)  Add 3 tablespoons cocoa.  The amount of sugar depends on whether your almond milk is sweetened or unsweetened.  If it is sweetened, you will only need 2 tablespoons sugar.  If it is unsweetened you will need 5 tablespoons sugar.  I like using fair trade cane sugar.  But you can use any sweetener, and different sweeteners add their own unique flavour.  Try sweetening your hot chocolate with honey, or maple syrup!

Using a whisk or spatula, stir frequently while heating over a medium-high heat.  As it warms, you may want to use a small spoon to taste it and make sure that it is sweet enough for you.  Heat until steaming hot.  It's okay if it boils, just make sure that you are stirring it so it doesn't burn.  Remove from heat, pour into mugs, and enjoy!  You can try adding a quarter teaspoon vanilla extract, mint extract, or other flavouring, or top with mini marshmallows.

Dairy-Free Fudge

Shhhh.... I'm going to tell you a secret!  Promise not to give it away?  I'm giving Jesse fudge for Christmas!  He loves fudge, but it is pretty expensive, and anyway he shouldn't eat it because of the dairy in it.  So I am making dairy-free fudge!

To be honest, if you're reading this after Christmas morning, it's not a secret anymore.  But it's fun to think that we are sharing a secret anyways!

This fudge is so yummy, and it's actually a really easy recipe, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Dairy-Free Fudge

Sift 4 cups icing sugar and 1/2 cup cocoa powder into a bowl.  Add 1 cup chocolate chips, and set aside.  (If you want the recipe to be strictly dairy-free, be sure to use dairy-free chocolate chips.)

In a medium pot, measure 1/2 cup almond milk and 2 tablespoons margarine.

Heat on a medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until it starts boiling.  Remove from the heat and add the sugar/cocoa mixture.

Mix, and add 1 teaspoon of flavouring (vanilla extract, mint extract, hazelnut extract, etc.).  I used mint extract.  Hooray for chocolate-mint yumminess!

Mix until thoroughly combined.  I found that it got pretty stiff by the time I was done.

Spread in an 8x8 pan.  I used a silicone pan, and it worked really well!  If you use a regular pan, you would want to grease it or line it with parchment paper.  I found that the easiest way to spread it out was with the back of a spoon.

Cool in the fridge for several hours.

I turned it out onto a cutting board to cut it into squares.

And I decorated them with crushed candy canes.

In a tin, ready to give to Jesse!  The fudge needs to be stored in the fridge or freezer, since it gets pretty soft if you leave it at room temperature for too long.  You can check out the original recipe at this link.

Pretty Christmas fudge!

What are some of your favourite kinds of Christmas baking?

Super Easy Goat Cheese Lasagna

Lasagna.  It's always been a special treat.  Perhaps that is partly because making all of those layers can seem like a lot of work!  (Of course it is also because it is so yummy!)  But lasagna can actually be easy to make!  Basically, lasagna is made up of four parts.  The noodles, a tomato sauce, a cheese sauce, and crumbled or grated cheese for the topping. 

The noodles are easy - you buy them!  You need 9 noodles for a regular sized lasagne, which is generally half of a package of lasagna noodles.  And there is no need to cook them beforehand!  Putting the noodles in uncooked makes things easier by skipping a step, and they cook just fine later in the oven with everything else.

The topping is simple too - just grate or crumble cheese on top.  So the only parts that take work are the tomato sauce and the cheese sauce. 


Tomato Sauce

For this layer, you basically start with store bought or homemade spaghetti sauce.  Then just add whatever you want!  Use plain marinara sauce to keep it very simple, add sauteed vegetables for extra colour and healthiness, or add some cooked ground meat or beans to make it a heartier meal.  Season with salt and pepper, and whatever other spices you fancy.  I make my own canned spaghetti sauce, so I use a quart jar of that as a base, and then add a half pound of cooked ground beef and a cup of dried beans that I soaked overnight and cooked.  This layer can take the most work, but if you make extra you can use it for a spaghetti meal later in the week - making two meals at once!


Cheese Sauce

For this layer I use 150 grams of soft goat cheese and a cup of almond milk.  I whisk them together, and that's it!  Basically, the goal is to have about a cup and a half of soft, slightly liquid cheesiness.  So feel free to experiment with different kinds of cheeses that you like!  Ricotta cheese or cottage cheese are pretty standard.  For milder cheeses you would want more cheese and less milk.


Putting it All Together

Once you have your 4 parts ready to go, you need to layer them in a 9x13 inch casserole dish.  Here is how the layers go:

3 noodles across the bottom of the dish
1/3 of the tomato sauce
1/2 of the cheese sauce
3 noodles
1/3 of the tomato sauce
1/2 of the cheese sauce
3 noodles
1/3 of the tomato sauce
Grated or crumbled cheese topping

Then bake the lasagna in a 350 degree oven for about an hour.  The cheese should be melted and the sauce bubbling!  Let it cool just a little bit, and enjoy!

This week I made a lasagna dinner for 9 people so I made a double batch in a large pan.  Jesse was the only one who couldn't have regular cheese, so I crumbled goat cheese over his portion and grated regular cheddar over the rest of the lasagna.  It was fun to cook for such a large group!

Heading out for the day and want to get supper ready before you go?  You can also cook lasagna in a crock-pot!  Just layer the lasagna right in the crock-pot instead of a casserole dish, and cook it on low for 4-6 hours.  I tried it earlier this summer and it worked really well!

Chocolate Pudding with a Secret

I like pudding.  My family can attest to this - when I was in the hospital after giving birth, I got so excited that my hospital meal had pudding for dessert.  Probably too excited.  But in my defense, I hardly ever have pudding, because we try to eat healthily and only buy natural, healthy foods.  That is why, when I saw this pudding recipe, I knew that I had to make it.  That is because this pudding has a secret:

It is healthy!

For real.

It is full of natural ingredients: honey, cocoa, almond milk, vanilla, and... wait for it... avocados!

Avocados are the secret ingredient in this chocolate pudding recipe.  Don't let that weird you out.  I was skeptical too, but I decided to try it, and I'm so glad I did!  It tastes so good - very creamy and rich - and not at all like avocados.

If you still need convincing, Jesse really doesn't like avocados but he loved this pudding, and he wants me to make it again!

This recipe is also very easy to make!  Cut up the avocado, put everything in a blender, mix it until it's creamy, and refrigerate.  That's it!

Have I convinced you to give it a try yet?  You should!

One batch made plenty for four of us.  We had it for dessert last night and just dug into the bowl of pudding with our spoons.  It was thoroughly enjoyed!

Here is a link to the recipe I used:  Vegan Chocolate Pudding.  The only changes I made were using honey instead of agave nectar and using 3 small avocados instead of 2 large ones.