Homemade Coffee Creamer

I've been on a label-reading kick lately. I've been trying to cut down significantly on the amount of artifical sugars and high fructose corn syrup the girls and I consume.

I made the "mistake" of looking at the label of the one thing I have to have in the house - my coffee creamer. I love my coffee, and while I can drink it with plain half and half, I much prefer a flavored coffee. Even at Starbucks, I get cinnamon dolce in my iced coffee (cheaper than an iced latte and I get free refills).

I was browsing Pinterest today (like I do every day), and saw a pin about homemade coffee creamer. The pin lead to Mrs. Happy Homemaker's post on Homemade Coffee Creamer. It seemed easy enough, and she has recipes on how to make different flavors (because while I like Vanilla, I like variety).

Tonight, I made the vanilla flavor. I mixed the 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 3/4 cup half-and-half. I then used a little over 1 tablespoon of vanilla (I like strong flavors). I started to put everything in a mason jar, but my jar was going to be too small. I had finished the last of the creamer I had (CoffeeMate Peppermint Mocha found at Grocery Outlet) this morning and washed out the container, so I put everthing into that and shook it like a Polaroid picture (not really, but I sang that song and Little Sis got a kick out of that).

Of course, after making the creamer I had to test it. So I made a cup of Starbucks Veranda Blend in my Keurig. The creamer smelled good (I could smell the sweetened condensed milk, though), and it actually tastes pretty good! I can't wait to try some other flavors.

I need to get into the habit of taking more pictures when I do my Pinterest finds. The only picture I have is the one of my coffee in my hand-painted mug.