Baby, it's cold outside!

Nothing helps us survive the winter like a great cup of cocoa.  We drink a lot of it around here, and over the years have come up with a bunch of ways to enjoy it.  One of our favorite new cocoa ingredients is Pop'rs!  Pop'rs are like flavored pop rocks (remember those--they explode in your mouth!). They were originally designed to help motivate kids to eat their veggies (butter, buffalo wings and taco flavors).  As it happens, my kids eat their veggies the way they are, so when I won one of Veggie Mom's Pop'rs Giveaways, I picked cocoa, raspberry and cinnamon flavors (plus butter for popcorn--mmmm). They make some heart and hand warming treats!  Go visit Veggie Mom at Eat Your Veggies right now, and you could win some too!  She's got an infomercial you won't want to miss, featuring my very own Ben P. (who you may remember is the chocolate mint boy like his mom).

If you need a good warm drink, here are a few recipes:

Chocolate Mint Swirl

Add Mint Truffle creamer to a cup of hot cocoa.  Sprinkle with cocoa Pop'rs to get the crackling started.  Top with whipped cream.  Sprinkle with Andes Creme de Menthe baking chips and more cocoa Pop'rs.

Razzle Dazzle

Add Chocolate Raspberry creamer to a cup of hot cocoa.  Sprinkle with raspberry Pop'rs.  Top with whipped cream, and sprinkle with more raspberry Pop'rs, cocoa Pop'rs, or both.

Spiced Apple

Add cinnamon Pop'rs to a cup of hot cider (spiced is even better).  Top with whipped cream and more cinnamon Pop'rs.  I can imagine this would be heavenly drizzled with caramel!