Winter Garden and (Vegan) Hot Chocolate

Yesterday I decided today would be a car free day. Which turned out we spent the whole day at home (friend came over to visit in the AM) and after the kid's nap we hung out in the garden, knee deep in snow (armpit deep for the kid) and dug around looking for things and checking it out. It's been on and off again cold so we hadn't yet ventured out back. But today was 4C which is pretty unheard of for early February in PG which gave us a comfortable hour outside.

Growing up on the Northwest Coast it was cold and snowy (now, due to climate change, not so much) and I have fond memories playing on the farm waist deep in snow, or sitting on a ridge we had on our property after snowshoeing out in fresh snow and sharing a thermos of hot chocolate. Same with after a day tobogganing or skiing, I'm sure. The hot chocolate was always a powdered hot chocolate mix combined with water. Sickly sweet. Piping hot. When we came inside and the kid asked for hot chocolate I immediately craved the same sickly sweet, piping hot chocolate.

What You'll Need: Small sauce pan, whisk, 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips, 2 cups almond milk (or other cartoned milk like the coconut one or soy, PREFERABLY UNSWEETENED), 1/2 tsp vanilla.

What You'll Do: Set the sauce pan over medium heat and add the chocolate chips. Watch them for a few minutes, they start to melt and change colour (without actually melting). Add 1/4 cup almond milk and whisk until combined into a syrup. Up the heat a smidge and add the remaining milk, 1/2 cup at a time, whisking well at each add. Bring to a soft boil and pour into two cups. I added some leftover coffee to mine=yum.