Yuck!
Its hot, muggy and overcast today, so everyone in my household is getting grizzly and out of sorts...well except hubby...purely because he is at work, so I don't know what state of grizzles he may or may not be in...but they don't have a summer uniform, just a long sleeve, long pants, heavy boots, woolly socks, year round uniform...so I'm betting he probably feels like grizzling too! I would! Ick, can anyone say, clammy? *shudder*
Anyway, so whats a mum to do to cheer up a grizzly nearly 4 year old, and herself while shes at it?
make something decadent and chocolaty!
...but before we get to that, I did promise yesterday that I would post about the Choc Banana, Peanut butter smoothie!

I unfortunately didn't take a photo of it as it looked so delicious, I lost all rational thought and downed it before thinking about the pictures! Just think of a thick chocolatey looking mixture in a glass...it doesn't really need a picture :P
But it goes like this

Banana Choc Peanut Butter Smoothie

• 200ml low fat milk (or chocolate SoGood brand soy milk, delicious!)
• 1 large banana, quite ripe...I'm talking brown spots here, not blackened ok?...(when my bananas start to turn like this I throw them in the freezer straight away so I always have the perfect smoothie or baking bananas at hand....little tip if u hate peeling off the gross freezy skin when you go to use them (I hate this bit anyway), slice em up and stick them in a container in a single layer until frozen, then transfer into a freezer bag or another container and keep piling them up that way...or keep in individual containers in small quantities so you have the perfect amount to pull out and throw straight into a smoothie when you're short on time...I actually do this with most my fruit when its starting to turn, specially pears...gosh pears are rock hard for what seems like forever and then they're ripe for about 3 seconds before they rot! If you're a fan of stand up comedian Eddie Izzard, you will relate to this statement!
• 2 heaped Tbsp natural peanut butter (that you just made yourself cause you're totally awesome!!)
• 2 heaped tsp cocoa or cacao powder
• 3 heaped Tbsp wholegrain oats
• 1 Tbsp linseed (optional)
• 1 Splash of vanilla extract
• 1 Shake of cinnamon

Whizz up in the blender until as smooth as your blender can manage and go, ooooh lordy this is good!
Makes a seriously filling and tasty breakfast to keep you going all morning, and best of all, it tastes naughty, but is totally not!

Nowwwww onto the chocolatey goodness...
This recipe is actually the result of a botched up batch of Chocolate Frosting shots, as seen here
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/01/16/chocolate-frosting-shots/
Now I'm not 100% sure what I did wrong, but my coconut cream, even though I left it in the fridge for 2 days after I bought it, just didn't get thick...so it didn't work (Don't you worry, I'll be trying every brand of coconut cream I can get my hands on until I get this recipe to work though!!)
BUT I am one of these, life hands you lemons, make lemonade people...at least when it comes to anything involving chocolate I am anyway. (Come on, who isn't??!!)
So instead of admitting defeat, I used my runny, botched up mixture to make something else delicious and added some dates in along the way...you should do this too! Its amazing.

Gather together:

• 1 can of full cream coconut cream
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 5 pitted dates
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp powdered sugar or stevia if you HAVE to have it sweetened...I like without but this is purely because I've been weening myself off sugar for several years

Throw everything in a food processor and whizz until the dates are chopped up as teeeeny tiny as physically possible...we want to avoid too many "bits". You could leave the dates out completely and maybe substitute with banana or frozen fruit? (If you do this, please please comment and let me know how it turned out!)

Now you have one of a few options...
Pour it into a big glass, add a few ice cubes and drink it as the most delectable (albeit a wee bit calorific with the coconut cream, but heyyyy this is a treat!) chocolatey smoothie.

OR if you can resist downing it there on the spot, you could try what I am currently trying at the moment...

Pour about 200ml into a bowl or glass, add 2-3 heaped Tbsp of chia seeds stir through gently and leave in the fridge for 2 hours to set into a chocolate chia seed pudding...DIVINE!! Oh my gosh, my daughter just helped me polish off a batch of this... we could probably eat this forever and still not have had enough!

Alright, I'll be the first to admit the chia seeds make it looks like something that came out of...*ahem* I don't need to finish that sentence, lets just say, having a baby, I see something similar most days...BUT SERIOUSLY give it a try! Its worth it I promise you!

She knows this is gonna be good!

Sooo lovely and thick, almost like a mousse...just not as fluffy.

That my friends, is a chocolately face of success!

OR  put some in the freezer and see if it turns into some kind of ice cream!....The icecream one is yet to be seen, as it's still in the freezer awaiting results.

For now cool down and stay beautiful x