Avoid Valentine's Day Sweetness Overload With Leftover Chocolate Popcorn

Valentine's Day is fast approaching which means two things. Love is in the air and America is about to down a worrying amount of chocolate. In fact, according to Candy & Snack Today, last year the U.S. dropped a modest $613 million on heart-shaped boxes filled with the stuff. And while indulging in chocolate from Valentine's morning to Valentine's night may please your sweet tooth at the moment, the next day you may find yourself feeling a little more than love-sick. So when you see that there's still plenty of candy waiting to be eaten on February 15, you may groan at the prospect of consuming even more sugar. However, there's no need to throw out your beloved's thoughtful and probably overpriced (some of those candy boxes sell for, like, $100 per Forbes) gift.

To make your candy more palatable for you, a person recovering from a sugar overdose, you only need to combine it with a savory base. And according to Fox News, popcorn is the perfect way to balance your chocolate's sugary taste. Often paired with candy in trail mixes, this salty treat has long been a valiant vehicle for those who want something with just a touch of sweetness. And coating your popcorn with leftover V-Day chocolate couldn't be simpler.

According to Fox News, there are two different ways you can upgrade your popcorn with your leftover V-Day eats. The easiest method is to grab a handful of pure chocolate-like kisses and a bag of microwavable popcorn. After microwaving the savory portion of your snack, you should then open the freshly popped bag, slip in your sweets, close it, and shake it up. Your still-hot popcorn will melt the chocolates and you will end up with a delicious and effortless snack.

The other way to coat your popcorn with chocolate involves those fancy sweets filled with caramel. As Fox News reports, you can simply pop your hot microwaved popcorn into a bowl, drop in your filled candy, mix the two halves together to create a snacking whole, and then enjoy your not-too-sweet treat.

However, if you want to ensure your sweets are an ooey-gooey type of melted, Melanie Cooks recommends microwaving them in a separate bowl first. According to the outlet, you should heat your chocolate for two minutes. However, you'll want to stop the clock in 30 second intervals to stir and monitor how much your sweets have melted. Then, you can add the popcorn to the same bowl and either eat the snack right away or put it in the freezer to harden up for later.

If you still have plenty of candy to use after eating up your chocolate popcorn, you'll be relieved to hear that there are other ways to not let that chocolate go to waste that doesn't involve making a cake. According to Fox News, you can add a little sweetness to your breakfast by coating your bacon in melted chocolate. You just have to drizzle the melted candy hearts onto your slices while you fry them up. And if you find you really, really like this tasty combo you can even submerge your cooked bacon slabs in your chocolate and put them in the refrigerator to enjoy that night.

Speaking of drizzling chocolate onto less-sweet-eats, you can also use your melted V-Day bounty to top off some homemade Rice Krispie treats. And, as Mental Floss notes, don't forget that chocolate and strawberries are a pairing that never fails. Not to mention, the same outlet points out you can mix your chocolate with nuts, raisins, and seeds to make a tasty trail mix. To round out our less-sugary recommendations, Fox News and Mental Floss both report that your chocolate candy works just as well on a mildly sweet s'more as any standard candy bar. So now, you know plenty of methods to savor your lover's gift that won't leave you worrying about upping your chance for diabetes.