Simple food- Coffee Creamer

Make your own Creamer- Cut out the Chemicals!!!!

My favorite thing ever....putting everything I make into mason jars. I love it. If I can give everyone a gift in a mason jar I am thrilled. I think they are so fun.

But I digress.

If you happen to use creamer and don't know what is in it I will go ahead and share the news: there is nothing in it. Nothing that you would recognize. The two major brands on the market, and you know what they are, have little to no milk and no intelligible ingredients, their main ingredient is water....what? I encourage you to check it out. Its scary!!! I have kidney stones and the cheaper of the two have soy, an ingredient I was told not to ingest. So I went to switch over to the other brand(which is more expensive but....have you ever had kidney stones? You would do what you could to not feel that again....ever) and found out that there is no soy in it....but its still full of chemicals. I was shocked. Since then Baileys has come out with a creamer that does have milk in it, its the second ingredient. But their first ingredient is still water.

Also, I know you have heard the rumor that castoreum, a flavor found in the anus of a beaver, is a flavor that they put in many products. After much research and disbelief I tried to prove the rumor wrong, emailed McCormick and asked specifically if they use castoreum. This is the email I got back, copy and pasted:

Dear Ms. H:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We appreciate your interest in our Clear Imitation Vanilla Extract and welcome the opportunity to be of assistance to you.

Due to proprietary reasons, we are unable to disclose all the ingredients in our products. However, if there is a specific ingredient you need to know about, we can verify if it is or isn't in the product.

There is castoreum in our products.

If we can be of further assistance, please call us at 1-800-632-5847. If you wish to respond to this note by e-mail, please include your name and e-mail address.
We hope to have the continued pleasure of serving you.

Sincerely,
John-Michael
Consumer Affairs Specialist

Ref # 2040500

I have to say, beaver anus was never something I thought a company would have the audacity to use in a product and label it "natural flavorings"(hey, they didn't lie! They just seriously misled and manipulated the American people...no big deal). Since then I have found that many processed foods have castoreum in their products if it is vanilla or berry flavored. My family has been trying to eat simply, no processed foods, and now I have facts that back up our decision. No beaver butt for us!!! 

Lets move on. 

My creamer is simple simple. I don't like to use canned milk because its processed. I like to see where my ingredients come from(the "why" is above). Obviously I can't always do this but I try. So lets start by making some sweetened condensed milk from scratch:

ingredients:

3 cups whole milk(you can use skim I've heard, I've only used raw milk for this recipe)

1 cup sugar(I use organic cane, you can decide what kind, there is no difference except the organic takes 

                    longer to dissolve)

Pour milk into a pan, add sugar. Turn heat on medium and whisk the sugar in. Milk should get hot and steam but should not get to a rolling boil. Watch and stir. Then turn the heat down and keep it steaming and stir to keep it from sticking to the pan or curdling. I let it sit all day and then just stir it when I remember to. It will thicken on low-medium but it takes a LOOOONG time. You can stand by the stove and keep the heat higher but you have to watch it! It will curdle and then you will have to throw it away. 

Keep heating it until it thickens. You can tell the texture because it will have a slightly thinner than pudding consistency. It should be gooey.

Ok, now onto the creamer, which is even more simple:

- All of the yummy sweetened condensed milk you just made

- enough milk to make it the consistency of creamer, add milk SLOWLY. If it is too thin it will taste watery in your coffee.

- any flavor you want to add

Put it all into one of the gorgeous jars you ran out and bought and shake! 

Yay! You are done. Have a cuppa! Perfect for this cold afternoon.

I have an amazing salted caramel topping I'm currently perfecting, it will be up soon! 

May the Lord bless you on this beautiful Saturday!!!!