easy peasy fake mocha that’s South Beach friendly

Is it snowing where you are?  After a winter full of unseasonably warm temperatures so far, we finally got some snow last night.

it started yesterday afternoon – I enjoyed watching it out my bedroom window

this was our street last night

In honor of our first real snow (and I’m sure many of you in the north are laughing at what I consider a “real” snow) I’m going to share with you my newest favorite hot drink.  It’s super simple to make and won’t break your New Year’s resolution to diet.

I like coffee, but I’m not a huge coffee drinker.  It’s more of a treat for me than a necessity.  I can only drink decaf (I react really badly to caffeine) so it’s not something that I have to have in the mornings to wake up.  I own a coffee pot but it stays stored in the top of a closet unless my inlaws are visiting or I get the rare urge to make some coffee.

Usually that desire comes if it’s really cold or I’m trying to cut back on sweets (then the coffee + Splenda seems like a sweet treat plus it keeps my mouth busy so I’m not eating junk).  It hasn’t really been that cold until yesterday, but since I started back on South Beach last week I’ve been wanting some sweets that were SB approved and needing something to occupy my mouth when the cravings hit.  So last week I got out my coffee pot and made some coffee from the bag of decaf coffee that I’ve had since college (yeah, that’s how much I don’t make coffee) – so it’s at least 4 years old.  Still tastes fine to me, not that I’m picky about coffee.

The second day I that I made coffee I realized the bag was almost empty (I guess it’s about time after 4 years!).  I didn’t really want to buy any more, since I figured it would get used so rarely that it might hang around for 4 more years, so I switched to diet hot chocolate (it actually tastes good, but every time I drink some I think of that scene in Miss Congeniality where she drinks the diet hot chocolate and spits it out ’cause it tastes so bad).  But as I was making the hot chocolate I saw a thing of decaf instant coffee (again, several years old…) in the back of my cabinet that I had bought for a recipe.

I know some people will make coffee and then add a packet of hot chocolate to it for more of a mocha feel.  I decided to do the reverse and add instant coffee to my hot chocolate.  It was great!  It was more chocolatey than coffee tasting but it had just a hint of coffee.  Plus it didn’t require brewing coffee.  And it was SB friendly.  Winning!

I feel silly posting the steps because it’s so easy, but here they are just in case:

All you need is instant coffee and hot chocolate mix (no sugar added is best if you are doing South Beach, however I haven’t been able to find that at Kroger the past few times I’ve looked for it so I’ve had to switch to diet, which is still pretty low in sugar).  Plus water.

I microwave a cup of water for 1 minute and 30 seconds and that’s the perfect temperature for me.  While the water is in the microwave,

dump one packet of hot chocolate mix in a mug

and add a scoopful of the instant coffee (more or less depending on how much coffee taste you want)

pour the hot water in the mug and stir it up really well

an easy, quick mocha to warm you up or combat that sweet tooth

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 packet hot chocolate mix
• instant coffee
• water

Instructions

Heat one cup of water (I use a glass measuring cup) in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds.  In a mug, combine 1 packet of hot chocolate mix with 1 spoonful of instant coffee (more or less depending on how much of a coffee flavor you want).  Pour hot water in the mug with the mixture and stir.  Enjoy!

(and if you’re more into cold drinks than hot ones, check out my mock McDonald’s mocha frappe)