My little hometown has been hit by unseasonably cold and rainy weather lately. On one particular dreary day, my family was feeling especially bogged down with cabin fever. To remedy the situation, I suggested a day full of movies, a roaring fire, popcorn, and hot chocolate. Needless to say, my 3 year old was especially on board with the idea of hot chocolate. One problem? I had ran out of hot chocolate instant packets, and I had no motivation to brave the rain for a grocery run. So I decided to make some hot cocoa from scratch. Most recipes call for cow's milk, but I'm currently breastfeeding a baby who may have a dairy sensitivity. Therefore, I decided to use a carton of unsweetened coconut milk and keep the recipe vegan. I was so surprised by how easy - and how incredibly rich and delicious - homemade hot cocoa was! It was so simple and so tasty that I don't think I'll ever use the packets again. One batch make about 4 to 6 servings, and if you don't drink it all, it keeps quite well in fridge and is easily reheated.
This recipe is, in my completely biased opinion, the BEST pumpkin pie recipe on earth. It's an old recipe, created by a family friend named Mattie. It's her recipe from the 1950s, except it actually involved using real pumpkin, not canned. I cheated and used canned, but added an extra step to make the canned pumpkin taste more like fresh pumpkin. Sadly, Mattie passed away many years ago, but her amazing recipes live on in our house. I wish I could have gotten a better picture to really illustrate how wonderful this pie is, but I had a pie crust mishap (as I often do...crusts aren't my thing). Regardless of how it looks in photos, I promise you this is the creamiest pumpkin pie you will ever, ever eat.
My favorite new recipe find this season is Gimme Some Oven's 7-Ingredient Easy Zuppa Toscana. It's a creamy Italian soup made with sausage and gnocchi, and it warms up your entire body when you eat it. It's super simple to make, and takes only about half an hour to whip up. While this hearty soup definitely tastes like it's an indulgent high calorie meal, it's actually under 450 calories for a huge bowl of it. So slurp away!
