Coffee Creamer Bandwagon

A few weeks ago, I pinned this recipe for DIY coffee creamer.  I was intrigued.  I thought, "Hey!  That seems fairly easy to do, I should I try!"  We love our coffee creamer here at the Bland house.

Like...don't even try to give me coffee without creamer, and no...Starbucks and DD regular coffee don't taste nearly as good as coffee from my house with a little CoffeeMate or ID stirred in!

But after reading a few blarticles (blog + articles) on cleaning eating and coffee creamer, I started to feel like I shouldn't be putting that non-dairy stuff in my body.

Then, my friend Amy over at Road to Roland (I also work with her at school!) tried it last week and motivated me to get off my keester and try it as well!

SO, off I went!

I got a medium sized Mason jar.  I put a whole can of sweetened condensed milk in there.  Ingredients?  Milk.  Sugar.

Next time I may try low sugar.  We'll see...

Then I added some of our favorite 1% milk, Organic Horizon.  I added just a splash of regular half-n-half in there too.

Then came time for flavoring.  This is where I messed up a bit!

I used 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract.  I wanted to make a "fancy" flavor, so I added 2 teaspoons of this caramel syrup in too.  Before I looked at the ingredients.  Oops.  The syrup is not good for you, about 10 things listed on there, 5 of which I could pronounce (and you know how with clean eating, you should be able to PRONOUNCE everything that goes into your food!) so next time I can't add that in.  I'll have to find other means of caramelizing my coffee;)

After all the ingredients are in, put the lid on, and shake it up really well.

Then, put it in your cup and brew away!  It was DELICIOUS.  Creamy and frothy and not too sweet at all, where as the non dairy is ALWAYS sweet, and if you buy the sugar free...it just tastes gross.

That was my adventure with DIY coffee creamer.  If you head over to Amy's blog you will see she made hers a different way.  If you peek at this blog, you'll see all the different flavors you can make!

Another great thing about DIY creamer?  The price!!  For the price of the milk (the amount I use in this recipe) the condensed milks (I bought 3) the flavoring (which I use for cooking and baking too) and the half and half...I can make a few batches of my creamer.  Our regular non-dairy is usually around $3.49 or $3.89 (based on Maryland Wegman's prices) a bottle.  I probably spent the same on the supplies, but can make 2 or 3 jars!

For the most part, excluding that evil caramel syrup, I know what is going into my body.  I like that.  I need to do MORE research on how to eat clean!

Enjoy your week!  Ours started out just right with a delay, so I have few hours to chill before going into work.  Thank you snow!!

Cheers!