I picked up all these leaves and corns from a walk around the neighborhood, just before falling of first rain of the season. When fall settled, and winter is coming, warm drinks are our friends. Although I enjoy green tea, hot chocolate is what me and kids indulge for weekend breakfasts……

You started to write a blog post, about vegan hot chocolate.

You wrote down the first paragraph and found out that your recipe notebook isn’t around. You went looking for it and passed your daughter’s room and saw all the books, toys and clothes laying on the ground. You just cannot help cleaning everything up. When you finished picking up all her clothes and sent them into the hamper, you thought: “it’s about time to do a laundry”. So you went out and downstairs to launch the washer. You passed by some really thirsty plants and decided to fill them up with water. On the way a squirrel was scared by you and rushed up the apple tree. Oh, I better get some apples before they all got eaten by insects. Apples here we come. After apple picking it was impossible not to taste at least one. So you washed and started to eat your apple while checking Instagram at the same time. “There are some comments I have to reply”. So it went on and on…

Three and half hours later, you sat back down in front of your computer. The post you planned to write has still only the first paragraph. “Ok. I better start with the recipe”, but, “where is my recipe notebook?” Here we go again!

Got the picture?

If you are a stay at home mom or dad, a primary caregiver of your family, you know what I’m talking about. Things seems just come to you and you can never finish all of them. At same time, you really want to create a work for yourself that you enjoy doing and can provide an income for your family. But since you are working from home. Those household tasks just get to you.

I come to a realization that there are always things to do around the house, and for my family. But if you want to achieve something by doing YOUR THING, you have to put it as a priority. You have to block one chunk of time for it. It is not easy, sometimes kids are not felling well, or someone fell on the stairs and bumped her head (yes that’s me), you have to give THE THING a break, and get back to it when you can.

So a few weeks after I drafted this post, I came back and continued. I made a cup of hot chocolate, dedicated 2 hours to it, and let other stuffs go (our of my eyesight and my mind), and write, and write, and write……

Compare to store bought hot cocoa mix, this hot chocolate has a very pronounced chocolate flavor. Because of unsweetened chocolate (100% cocoa) and cocoa powder. I used coconut sugar in my recipe, but you can use whatever sweetener, and you can custom the sweetness to your liking.

I didn’t set up to create a vegan version of hot chocolate, it just happened to be vegan. It’s very easy to convert to traditional hot chocolate if you want. And if you like to indulge you can even add some mini marshmallows on top.

If you feel you are in the same boat as me–working at home+serving as a lead parent, I would love to read about your experiences. If you ever need something to drink while settling down and doing your thing, give this hot chocolate a try.

Thank you for reading!

x Qi