The Non-Dairy Creamer Replacement

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.... coffee. Hot filtered water, the perfect blend of fresh roasted coffee beans, and... water, sugar, palm oil, corn syrup, sodium caseinate* (a milk derivative), dipotassium phosphate, natural and artificial flavors, mono and diglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate, carrageenan, salt. I mean, seriously!?! Who wants to drink that?

Well, my husband, as a matter of fact. 

Not anymore, thank goodness. As we have spent the past couple years re-examining the food that we eat and feed to our children, we made a point of eliminating that from our grocery list. For a long time, I was buying the Silk Soy Vanilla Creamer, until I realized that it isn't much better (or maybe any better at all...). So, what to do? Coffee is a necessity (obviously) and, to some, creamer is a necessity.

I myself am happy with organic half and half... others are happy with their coffee black. Here are the solutions for the rest of you french vanilla, hazelnut, mocha, caramel cream lovers! International Delight has come out with their "Breve" line. This made me nervous at first glance, because when I worked at Starbucks, a Breve drink was a latte made with half and half. That is like drinking 16oz of half and half in a grande latte. yikes! One day, I actually read the back and was pleasantly surprised. Here are the ingredients in the Vanilla Caramel Cream: Milk, sugar, cream, water, less than 1% natural and artificial flavors, potassium citrate, dipotassium phosphate, carrageean. Clearly, a vast improvement over the original International Delight. 

Now, I am not advocating this as a health food. Obviously, you would be better off with black coffee, organic half and half, or an organic non-dairy creamer (which I have yet to find). But since this blog is about shades of green living, and a gradual change to organic food, recommending this creamer over others seems reasonable. This is an easy, inexpensive change that eliminates some nasty stuff from your coffee. 

For those of you who want to take your change one step further. I found some recipes for homemade organic creamers. They look delicious; I'm planning on making some this weekend! Here is the recipe for the traditional vanilla.

French Vanilla

1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1 vanilla bean

Whisk together milk, cream and maple syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cut vanilla bean in half, and scrape out seeds. Add seeds and vanilla bean to milk mixture. Turn off heat, cover the pot and steep for 30 minutes. After mixture has steeped, strain through a fine mesh sieve, pour into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator. (If you don’t have a vanilla bean on hand, simply replace it with 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract). 

You can find more recipes at:  http://deliciouslyorganic.net/homemade-coffee-creamer/