Thursday, January 26, 2012

GCC Recipe Swap- Thrifty Coffee Drinks

In the comments of my last post someone asked me why in the WORLD I bought sweetened condensed milk so often! So I thought I'd let you in on my Starbucks busting secret. Instead of buying a $5 coffee every day I make my own sweet coffee drink for less than $2 per week. And it's so embarrassingly easy. All I do is make a full pot of coffee, mix it into my Pampered Chef Quick Stir Pitcher (because it just needs one pump every morning to keep it all stirred up) with one whole can of sweetened condensed milk and put it in my fridge for the week. It tastes like a vanilla latte! Every morning I pour myself a mug and heat it in the microwave. During the summers I drink it iced. It's not any less healthy than my regular Starbucks drink with all their syrup in it and it feeds my craving for sweet coffee at a teeny tiny price. Occasionally when I'm meeting a friend I'll still get a Starbucks Caramel Brulee Latte or a Salted Caramel but honestly I like my own drink better.

Oh, and here's that pitcher I was talking about. I got it from a friend who wound up with one too many. I love the darn thing because it holds a whole gallon.



Do you have a recipe you'd like to share? Please link directly to your post (not your homepage) and please include a link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

Have a great weekend!

8 comments:

Rachel said...

What a great idea! I used to work in a coffee shop and that's exactly what we would do with the "frapachnio" type drinks. We would make a huge pitcher of premade mix, that would usually last about 3 days, and whenever a customer would order a drink we'd just pour it in the blender with some ice. Quick and delicous.

www.thelaughingbrunette.com

Mama Squirrel said...

I discovered a similar "fancy coffee dupe." We recently got a blender and have been using it to make the Hillbilly Housewife's long-popular vanilla-flavoured Magic Milkshakes (a recipe made with ice cubes and powdered milk, not with ice cream). There's usually a bit left in the blender after the girls have poured their milkshakes, so I add the remains to a cup of coffee. To me that tastes pretty decadent.

Unknown said...

Glad I never got quite sucked in to Starbucks :)

StaceyN said...

I love it! I have a coffee shop addiction, too, at our local drive-thru espresso. Whenever I am in town, it calls to me... audibly! So awhile ago, I set out to make a version of my favorite super-strong decaf mocha, and now I can make for 40 cents the same coffee I used to buy for $4.50 plus tip! And I have found that I don't even care to slow down at all when I drive past that little drive-thru because I am so satisfied.

Now that I am preggo again, I can’t stand coffee (happens every time), so my husband has been drinking my coffee mix instead, and now he is hooked. I guess it will be a little less economical once I have this baby and we are BOTH drinking it every day, but it does keep us quite happy without having to rob a bank for mocha funds :-).

Unknown said...

Thanks for hosting! I love checking out your tips/tricks to save! There are always great recipes at the Swap too!

Anonymous said...

Could you please let us know how many cups of coffee to how much condensed milk you are using? I have a small 4 cup coffee maker, so I'd like to know how much milk to use. Thanks!

Gayle said...

I use a whole pot which for me is 48 ounces/6 cups of water. Although I like it really sweet with a dark brew.

Diane said...

Never could get used to coffee, I sure did try :) Thanks for hosting.