Winter break leaves time to be creative with your morning beverage. Put down your boring, everyday cup of coffee and spice it up with one of these tasty hot chocolate recipes, courtesy of two recipe bloggers.

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Spicy Hot Chocolate Mocha

Courtesy of Katerina Petrovska of diethood.com

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups milk

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder

1 tablespoon instant coffee granules

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

Toppings

Whipped cream

Marshmellows

Mini chocolate chips

Chocolate syrup

Caramel syrup

Instructions:

1. Put all of the ingredients, except the toppings, in a medium-sized saucepan and cook over medium-to-low heat. Whisk constantly for two to three minutes or until mixture is heated through.

2. Pour into two cups and add toppings.

3. Serve.

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Minty Hot Chocolate

Courtesy of Joy McCarthy, holistic nutritionist of joyoushealth.com

Ingredients:

1 cup almond milk

2 tablespoons of raw cacao

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

¼ cup hot water

2 tablespoons of loose leaf mint tea

Serves 2

Instructions:

1. Use small food blender to mix raw cacao, maple syrup and almond milk until combined. At the same time, boil 1/4 cup of water and steep mint tea.

2. Use small saucepan and heat blended chocolate mixture on low until ample temperature is reached. Do not burn the almond milk.

3. Combine mint tea and the chocolate mixture, and remove heat. Divide the final two into two small cups.

4. Place dark chocolate or mint chocolate shavings onto the surface of the beverage.

Abby can be reached at [email protected].