Coffee Milk

The weather is changing to that lovely autumn weather here, and that just begs for a hot drink. Both of my kids love all sorts of hot drinks, even coffee, so we improvise a bit to make things more kid friendly (for them).

Not being big caffeine drinkers anyway, we keep decaf in the house (we drink ½ caff., but there is always 100% decaf available). The kids love the taste of coffee, but we’re not too keen on them having coffee as a drink. Thanks to many shopping visits to Trader Joe’s, the kids have become fond of “coffee milk”.

Coffee milk really is nothing more than a tiny bit of coffee (with whatever sweetener you desire) to a disproportionate amount of milk. At Trader Joe’s, I tend to do something like a 1:4 ratio of coffee to milk. Enough for the flavour, but also always a drinkable temperature for them.

At home, we use a Keurig with a refillable k-cup. I make a single cup of decaf coffee, split it between two mugs, and add milk. Since this is 100% decaf, I’ll do a 1:1 ratio. We also add stevia powder at home since they really don’t need a bunch of sugar. On the rare occasions they get sugar, we just stir that in before adding the milk so it dissolves better.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Sun Tea

Few things excite me about summer more than sweet tea. I’m a huge fan of sweet tea. More so, I’m a huge fan of sun tea. My whole family is, actually. We can go through a lot of it, but we often make “Arnold Palmers” with it (half tea, half lemonade) which helps it stretch a bit.

I’ve actually been asked a few times how we make sun tea, so I thought I’d share it with all of you. People do it many different ways, but this is how we do it:

·         1 container

·         6 (black) tea bags (we usually do 3 decaf, 3 caff)

·         1c sugar

·         1 gallon of water

That’s all you need! Well, that and sunshine. I add the cup of sugar to the container first, then the water. Finally, I add the tea bags (and lid!) and place it in the sunshine for the majority of the day (we prefer at least 6 hours). After we bring it inside, we strain the bags, stir to mix in any undissolved sugar, and enjoy!

Some people prefer to dissolve the sugar in a bit of hot water before setting it out, but we never do. Not all the sugar will dissolve, but that’s okay. My kids don’t need a bunch of sugar!

Other alternatives would be doing 3 black tea bags and 3 flavoured like raspberry or peach. If you’re curious, yes… both taste amazing mixed with lemonade!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Chai Latte

I've always been a fan of chai. Growing up I loved it. Today I love it. Chai lattes in cold weather, iced chai lattes in hot (or a chai milkshake!).... chai all year round!

My children want what I have, of course, and who could blame them when it's something as delicious as chai? Since I discovered Oregon Chai concentrate, I've been a happier mama. I emailed them to inquire about ingredients in their "spices". When I was pregnant, I took care to avoid fennel and anise. Neither Tazo chai concentrate nor Oregon chai concentrate listed the ingredients of their spices. I prefer the taste of Oregon chai by far, so when they emailed me back to tell me they do NOT have fennel or anise in their concentrate, I was ecstatic. 

They continued their email with:
"I would like to mention that we have recently introduced a line of chai tea bags, two of which DO contain ground anise seed, so you will want to avoid those for now. (These would be The Original and Energia.) The only one of the tea bags which does not contain ground anise seed is the caffeine-free Dreamscape. "

Good information to have! So, excitedly, I found their caffeine-free chai concentrate at the local grocery, and indulged in my favourite drink(s). I've continued to purchase the caffeine-free chai concentrate, as I'm still nursing Squiggle and she doesn't need the caffeine! That, and Bobble wants to share the drink, and he doesn't need that, either.


Long intro for a simple "recipe", but it's not really a recipe today so much as a suggestion for a lovely drink you can share with your children, caffeine-free.

If you're curious, no. I was not contacted by Oregon Chai to post for them, and I am not being compensated for this post. I just seriously love this product!

Chai Latte

• Oregon Chai Concentrate (Caffeine-free) 
• Milk of your choice (If you want a milk alternative, Oat milk is fabulous with this as it is a naturally sweet milk) 
• Whipped cream (you can make your own easily, or find a natural whipped cream like Cabot at Trader Joe's) 
• Cinamon

1 - Pour equal parts of chai concentrate and milk in a cup (you might want a little less concentrate if you are adding whipped cream... I always taste this cold before heating up to make sure I like the ratio).

2 - Heat small cup (for a child) for 30 seconds (will make nice and warm for them, but not hot), or 1-2 minutes for a large mug or to make hot.

3 - Add whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. 

MOMables Recipe Review - Chocolate Syrup for Chocolate Milk!

Another delicious MOMables recipe found below! For more information on what MOMables are, check out my info post and giveaway HERE!

Do your kids love chocolate milk? Okay, so my kid had never had chocolate milk when I first tried this... but I sure loved it plenty! I hated that the ingredients on the Hershey's Chocolate Syrup bottle were so... fake? Unappealing? Both? I totally get that it's not supposed to be healthy. After all, it is chocolate syrup, thus full of sugar. Just because something is sugary doesn't mean it has to be artificial.

The store bought ingredient list (found here) lists HFCS and then Corn Syrup as the first two ingredients and then sugar as the 5th. Is all that really necessary? Isn't sugar enough? Last I checked, sugar was pretty sweet... never mind the fact it has artificial flavour. Why? Cocoa powder takes fairly chocolatey, right?

Okay, so I'm pretty irked by all that... when I stumbled across a MOMables recipe for home made chocolate syrup. Honestly, I think this recipe is what turned me on to the MOMables in the first place. This was definitely the first recipe from there we ever made.



My husband was always the one to make this. It turned out so well (and disappeared so quickly *cough*) that he started making larger batches and just refilling our old chocolate syrup bottle. It was super easy to make and would be done very quickly. He has had to throw a batch (or two?) out before as he left to do something instead of staying and stirring it. That, of course, led to a burnt taste. Soooo, if you make this, stay and stir it. It doesn't take long. It's also delicious!

Disclosure: These opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.