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Happy Valentines Day, well at least to those that celebrate it! I have to say we don’t really bother much in our household. I have made a nice meal for dinner but apart from that we are not all about the hearts and flowers!

This mornings breakfast was a big bowl of Dorset Cereals Low Fat Berry Flakes with a chopped apple and rice milk plus a vanilla coffee:

I love this cereal, I reviewed it a while ago and when I saw it on offer I couldn’t resist buying another box. As you can see I certainly don’t go for the 30g recommended serving size, I need at least a full bowl full to keep me anywhere near full!

Lunch was a really tasty salad containing wild rocket, spinach, carrot, red and green pepper, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts and fresh coriander topped with some sesame smoked tofu and the most delicious dressing taken from my Fresh Asian Salad recipe: sesame oil, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and ginger. I also had a peach:

 

Mid afternoon I snacked on a chocolate peppermint stick Luna Bar, love these!

I hit the gym for my usual Monday night workout – 20 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, 20 minutes of HIITs on the step machine, 30 minute spin class and my abs and core exercises.

Dinner was a little more special than usual for valentines day. I made myself some organic spelt spinach tagliatelle with spiralised courgette and asparagus, two heaped teaspoons of la sacla organic basil pesto and vegetarian parmesan style cheese:

Holy yum this was great! First time I’ve bought pesto to eat at home, before this I’ve just eaten pesto in restaurants. This was just so tasty! I’ll have to have a crack at making some homemade pesto sometime. James also had pasta but with some mixed seafood and a tomato sauce. Although we made a bit of an effort with this meal we ended up eating it in front of the TV, so much for romance ;-)

Dessert was delicious!

Chocolate Amaretto Mousse (makes 2 servings, based on Chocolate Covered Katie’s Recipe)

• 1 block of mori nu silken tofu
• 2-3 tablespoons of cocoa powder (I used Green and Blacks)
• 2-3 tablespoons of agave syrup
• 2 tablespoons of amaretto liqueur or 1 – 2 teaspoons of natural almond extract (I used 2 tablespoons of liqueur plus 1 teaspoon of almond extract)
• Flaked almonds for garnish (optional)

Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer to your prettiest bowls and chill for at least an hour before serving:

This tasted so good! I used a little more cocoa powder and agave than usual as this was being shared with the hubby and he likes things a little sweeter than I do. I would start with adding a tablespoon at a time, blending, then tasting and adjusting measurements accordingly. I love blended tofu puddings, especially chocolate mint, chocolate orange and chocolate peanut butter and this is another worthy addition!

We’ll also probably finish the bottle of red from the weekend a bit later :-)

Clearspring goodies for review

I was ridiculously excited to be able to link with the great company Clearspring to review some of their products!

Brown rice udon noodles, soba noodles, miso ginger ramen noodles, soya sauce ramen noodles, sencha green tea, tamari and black sesame rice cakes, apple and blueberry fruit puree, organic tofu

I’m already a huge fan of Clearspring products including their nori, kuricha tea, miso pastes etc. and I absolutely can not wait to try some of these new products out. I’m really excited to try the new tofu – its organic and can be stored at room temperature with a longer shelf life rather than having to be refrigerated. Its also completely free from artificial preservatives. I also think the instant noodles and rice cakes look really interesting! Clearspring are a fantastic company that offer organic and mostly vegan high quality products that are free from artificial colourings, preservatives, MSG or genetically modified ingredients. As usual I will give feedback as I try these out then do a full review post.

I was extra pleased to be able to link with a company like Clearspring as I really wanted to feature some products that haven’t already been reviewed on lots of other blogs. This is also why I jumped at the chance to try out the cosy teas and the Plamil dairy free chocolate. I think its great that we share favourite products and companies but I also think its good for us to retain some originality – especially for the sake of readers who must get sick of seeing the same products repeated on blog after blog. I’m going to try and adopt this approach more in the future – I think its lovely to seek out and feature different companies and new exciting products when possible!

I’ve discovered so many great products via blogs such as nakd bars, Bear granola and nibbles and Booja Booja to name but a few! Do you enjoy seeing products reviewed on blogs? What products have you discovered via blogs?