Family Fun Night: Frozen (and a recipe!)

When our family went from "Just the Two of Us" to "And Then There Were Three", we decided we wanted to establish a family tradition, so we came up with "Family Fun Night", which happens almost every Friday night.

Sometimes we watch a movie. Sometimes we play a game or do an activity outdoors together. The point is, we're doing something together as a family. As we continue adding on to the family and the kids get older, we'll let them start taking turns choosing the family activity.

Granted, Ry Guy doesn't actually watch TV yet - he's too little. But, we include him in the dinner (and sometimes a portion for the activity) part of our fun night, then M and I continue the fun without him after he goes to bed. So, it's sort of Family Fun Night/Date Night. Ish.

Ry Guy {10 months old} out for a walk with the fam.

Anyway, we try to do something fun or different. We usually eat pizza (family favorite!!), but depending on the activity, we may make it a theme night where the meal or dessert somehow ties into the activity/movie.


We hadn't done a theme night in a while, but I was inspired by my best bud, Beka, who has a series going on over at her blog where she watches a movie and makes a recipe to go with it. She's had some great pairings already - check it out!

Since Beka wasn't planning to include Frozen in her blog series, I decided to use it for my Family Fun Night.  While Frozen didn't turn out to be my favorite Disney movie (Aladdin and Mulan top my list), I did really enjoy the songs and the characters.

I'm a big Broadway musical fan, so I loved hearing Idina Menzel sing! Overall, it was a cute movie and had enough funny parts to keep M entertained between the songs (his least favorite part). Anna was probably my favorite character, but Olaf the snowman made me chuckle the most.


Unless you've been a hermit for the last year, you've probably at least heard of Frozen. If not, check out the trailer here.

And the Recipe Part... 
Of course, just hearing the word "frozen" gets me in the mood for something icy. I tossed around a few ideas, but in the end decided to keep it simple. Instead of doing a whole theme dinner, M and I slurped Frozen Hot Chocolate after Ry went to bed. Yum.

I'm excited about how the Frozen Hot Chocolate recipe turned out. There's about a million versions of the recipe floating around the internet, based on the famous drink from Serendipity 3 in New York City. A lot of the copy cat recipes included Ovaltine or Swiss Miss powder, but that's not something I keep on hand anymore, so I decided to try a "real food" version.

It wasn't hard to do and the results were fantastic. I used raw milk, Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder (Ghiradelli would have been awesome as well!) and Rapadura (an organic whole cane sugar), although pure maple syrup would also work.  I topped my frosty glass off with some freshly whipped cream (yum-ness!) and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. Feel free to top with chocolate shavings/curls, additional chocolate syrup, or a sprinkle of cocoa powder.

And, to quote Olaf the snowman, "Heat and cold are both so intense, put them together - it just makes sense!" Sure does... enjoy!

Real Food Frozen Hot Chocolate

by Raye

Prep Time: 5 minutes + 2 hours in freezer

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Keywords: stove top blender beverage dessert refined sugar free chocolate

Ingredients (2 servings)

• 2 c. whole milk
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened (baking) cocoa powder
• 3 Tbsp pure maple syrup or organic whole cane sugar (such as Rapadura)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• 1/4 c. chocolate syrup (I love this one!)
• fresh whipped cream, optional
• chocolate shavings or curls, optional

Instructions

• In a small saucepan, combine cocoa powder, sweetener of choice, milk and salt over low heat. Whisk slowly and continuously until smooth and warmed through. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
• Let mixture cool for a few minutes, then pour half of the mixture into an ice cube tray (or a few shallow freezer-safe containers). Freeze for at least 2 hours. Refrigerate the other half until ready to serve.
• When you're ready to serve, blend together the frozen hot chocolate cubes, the cold chocolate-y milk and the chocolate syrup in a blender. If you're using a high powered blender, use the smoothie setting. If you're using a standard blender, use the ice crush mode or pulse until it reaches "milkshake" consistency.
• Transfer to mugs and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings or curls (or additional chocolate syrup) if desired.

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