Make your own-Caramel Mocha Iced Coffee

I am all about saving money these days and one area where I can do better now that I am back to work is eating lunch out and the morning coffee/breakfast drink.  I've resolved with the exception of meeting a friend for lunch every now and then to take my lunch everyday.  I've always pretty much packed my lunch but every now and then you get in a rut where either you don't feel like packing anything, you run out of time in the morning or nothing is appetizing.  Where most of the money (and calories) are spent though is the morning cafe drink.  Both Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts are on the way to my work and both have a drive thru which make it so much easier to stop on the way to get an iced mocha or frozen hot chocolate (the small FHC has 450 calories!!!!). If you purchase a typical coffee drink for approximately $3.50 a pop every work day (approximately 250 days) you will spend $875 a year!!!  The typical cost of brewing at home is about 25 cents.  BIG difference!  Now I wasn't one to stop everyday but on average I was stopping between 1-2 times a week.  I am not going to claim that I won't ever stop again-no one can make a skinny iced mocha latte like Dunkin Donuts-oh and throw in a blueberry bagel with cream cheese-but brewing at home is cost effective and I've gotten creative with tricking myself!

Honestly I think most of the appeal (besides it being good and I don't have to make it) are the cups.  It sounds stupid but I feel 'cool' carrying around one of those green and brown cups with a lid and a sleeve.  SO to up the cool factor for making my own I purchased reusable coffee house cups one for hot and one for cold.  Actually the hot cup was a gift I got a year or so ago and while I have used it some I plan on using it more!  The cold cup I got at the TU Bookstore so not only am I showing some school spirit-I am saving the environment and money.  AND once I am done my iced coffee, I can use it to drink my 8 or more glasses of water-SCORE!

So hot coffee is growing on me-I did get fancy schmancy Bailey's coffee creamer to make it more bearable and more like DD and Starbucks and thanks to some extreme couponing blogs I got it for .49 at Giant.  It's pretty good!  You can even get them in 'skinny' flavors so you don't add too many calories.  Iced coffee for some reason tastes different to me-I love it (with the creamer of course). Here is my iced coffee recipe.  It's pretty yummy if I say so myself. 

I start by brewing a good old pot of Folgers-The best part of waking up!  I chill the coffee overnight (or for a few hours until chilled).  This is great for busy mornings because you will have the cold coffee ready to go in the fridge and you can make it ahead of time on Sunday for the week if you wish-I would do this if I had a nice seal-able glass pitcher-but I am sure it's best with fresh coffee.  I start by squirting a teeny bit of Hersey's Syrup in the bottom of the cup.  I then pour the Caramel creamer on top-you can add as much as desired.  Stir together until mixed well-I stir with a knife because it's taller than a spoon.  Then I add my ice-a significant amount-I fill up about half-3/4 full of ice.  Then I pour my coffee over the ice, add another splash of caramel creamer, give it another swirl and voila!  You could always be fancy and add whip and chocolate syrup on the top but since I am trying to loose this baby weight I am trying to cut calories everywhere I can.

It's nice and refreshing for these hot summer months and has the perfect amount of  caffeine in it for me.  I don't need much-in fact I really don't need it at all but these 5am wake up calls are starting to catch up with me.  I really should have some more pictures of the 'product' but I would rather spend those extra minutes in the morning with Lilly rather than snapping pictures of my drink.  BTW Tommy thinks I am slightly nutso when I start snapping shots of our food...tehehehe!

Gotta run-my pot of joe is finished brewing for my morning drink and I need to finish laundry, pack my lunch, pack my work bag and maybe vacuum...all the things I have to do once Lilly goes to bed because I don't want to miss a moment with her!  I am trying to get to bed by 10ish since 5:30am comes all too quick!