Hot Cocoa

My boys love hot cocoa. In fact, sometimes I think they go out to play in the snow just so they can come in and demand cocoa. But have you ever read the ingredients on a packet of store-bought cocoa? Yuck! Instead, I make my own dry mix in a big batch and just add it to hot water as needed.

My basic recipe is:
3 cups non-fat powdered milk
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
dash of salt

I use 4 tablespoons of mix for every 8 oz of water.  You can punch it up with vanilla extract, chocolate syrup, chocolate chips (or grated chocolate if you want to get fancy), peppermint or peppermint flavoring, cinnamon, etc. And don't forget the marshmallows!

Free Homeschooling Resources

If you are homeschooling and have not visited Successful Homeschooling - you need to! Carletta has a website, a monthly newsletter, and a blog, all full of helpful information. This week she has compiled a quite comprehensive list of Free Online Homeschooling links. I see all my favorites listed, plus a lot of sites I was unaware of. My older boys got mp3 players for Christmas, so I'm off to download some free audio books!