Sweet Treats Make A Bad Day Better

Today has not been the best of days. It started off well, with a yummy smoothie for breakfast...

Inspired by Kath Eats, I decided to forgo the spinach for today in favour of a pretty pale pink smoothie. Banana, oats, milk and the last of the strawberries blitzed together and topped with a spoonful of PB&Co Dark Chocolate Dreams. Yum! I loved the texture of this - it reminded me of strawberry shortcake - but next time I would add more strawberries for a stronger flavour - we only had 4 left over from my birthday picnic on Sunday.

The good start to my day also included plans to go see my friend for a long over-due catch up. As Liam was at uni with the car, I'd planned to catch the bus. An hour bus journey instead of half hour in the car, but worth it to go see my friend. Apart from the bus never turned up. Baby and I waited at the bus stop for over an hour, by which time the bus I'd planned to catch was non-existent and the next one was late too! Luckily I'd packed lots of fruit snacks to last baby through the day - he got through a whole banana and an apple just at the bus stop. In the end, I admitted defeat and cancelled on my friend before heading back home :( We're going to see her on Thursday instead (in the much more reliable car this time!) but I was still disappointed not to go today.

When we got home from our failed plans, I wanted to avoid giving in to the 'eating as much chocolate/cake etc' temptations. Whilst I'm not sure what I ended up making was much healthier...it was definitely tastier! Dark Chocolate Dreams Covered Fudge Babies...

Inspired by Katie's Chocolate Cookie Ball Pops, except I must've skim read the recipe when I first read it (sorry Katie!) as I thought the cookie balls were fudge baby style rather than actual cookie dough.

I decided to go with my original idea, so first I made a batch of Katie's Chocolate Fudge Babies (using cashews instead of walnuts)...

and let them chill in the fridge for a while (you could freeze them for quicker results).

Katie covered her cookie balls in melted chocolate, but I had a jar of PB&Co Dark Chocolate Dreams calling out to me! I only covered about half the batch as it made loads, so some I will store in the freezer plain (I can always cover them in chocolate/DCD at a later date I guess, or they're delicious as is!)

The half I did cover though...mmmm...bit of a messy job but so worth it! I melted the Dark Chocolate Dreams to make it easier to work with, and then rolled the fudge babies in it, rolling some in a bowl of sprinkles after. This would probably be an easier job if the fudge babies had sticks in them to hold, but hey, this was a last minute 'cheer me up after cancelled plans' idea!! Once I'd covered the fudge babies, I put them in the freezer for about half an hour until the Dark Chocolate Dreams had firmed up.

So pretty!

I left them out to soften for a bit until daughter came home, then we enjoyed some as a yummy afternoon snack!

Mmmm, definitely a good way to cheer me up! Chocolatey, squidgy (once defrosted a bit), tasty...and I can almost pretend they're healthy!! :)

After I'd made these, I logged on to the computer to read a few blogs and noticed Katie's latest post about featuring reader's favourite vegan treats...good timing or what! :) After double checking that Dark Chocolate Dreams is actually vegan (it is!) I decided this would be the perfect treat to submit...it's certainly set to become one of my new favourites when I need a super chocolatey fix! Check out Katie's post if you want to submit your own treat, such a great idea, thanks Katie!

I did also eat something savoury while Liam was picking daughter up from school - with all the waiting at the bus stop etc I'd managed to miss lunch! So a quick sandwich with the last of my basil smoked tofu and a smidge of mayo...

I've never had tofu in a sandwich before but this was really good, a super easy snack! :)

Liam is cooking dinner tonight as a belated birthday treat for me (we ran out of time on Sunday and I ate separately yesterday due to going to Circuits) I'm looking forward to how it turns out! He's said he wants me to stay out of the kitchen completely so he can get on with cooking (me, interfere? Never!!) so it's time to relax...maybe my day will turn out to be a good one after all! :)