Have a Lidl Bit Of Something Naughty

There's something about a new year that I always find exciting. I think it's a timey-wimey (oops, Doctor Who reference. How did that get there?!) version of snow. It makes everything fresh and new and exciting. And of course, with it comes the promise that we'll spend this year being the very best version of ourselves, especially when it comes to the d-word....dieting.

Now, while I'm all for eating healthily, being the best you can be, blah, blah, blah, the fact of the matter is that I LOVE naughty foods!! So while I could bombard you with promises of healthy recipes and low-fat versions of my products, instead, I choose to be the devil on your shoulder. The one who whispers in your ear, tempting you away from the salads and towards the gooey stickiness of a baked chocolate cheesecake, the buttery pastry or the fluffy, creamy cupcake.

For example, dark and white chocolate baked cheesecake, anyone?!

And I do it without an ounce of shame!

BUT, not wanting to totally destroy my fan-base here, I'll take the opportunity to tell you about a new product I've had the fortune to come across. A week before Christmas, I won a giveaway through fellow blog-site Glutopia, and last week my prize arrived. A company called Howdah produce some gluten free Indian snacks (yay!!), so I've been trying them out over the last couple of days.

Gluten free snacks from Howdah

The first thing I have to point out is that NOT all of the snacks are gluten free; right now, the gluten free options (pictured above) are Masala Banana Chips, Peanut Pakoras and Peppered Banana Chips. So far, I've only tried the Masala Banana Chips and Peanut Pakoras. I expected the banana chips to taste like banana and surprisingly, they don't at all! It's an unusual flavour but really very nice. If you're a fan of spicy Indian food, chances are you'll enjoy these.

The peanut pakoras aren't as spicy, by quite a long shot, but I think the crispy case on them could do with being a little thicker. While they are a nice snack, the overwhelming taste, to my tongue at least, is pretty much one of roasted peanut.

Right now, these aren't available in a major stockist, but you can find a local stockist by visiting this page on their website.

Moving on, if you live in the UK and you're a coeliac, I doubt you'll have missed the fantastic news that Lidl have been stocking gluten free items of late. Wohoo!! My wonderful husband kindly nipped down to our local shop yesterday to check out what was on offer for me. He came back, filled with excitement, as they have a large quantity of items by Kelkin in stock. I'm sure you're all probably acquainted with that most delicious of their products, the Chocolate Teacakes.

The best part of these morsels is that they're fairly low in sugar and fat, so if you're on that horrible 'diet' word again, you can have one of these now and again without ruining your future bikini figure. Hurrah! Lidl also has Kelkin cereals, rice cakes, cookies, jaffa cakes and more! But make sure you get down there while stocks last!

Despite the fabulousness of Kelkin, one of my FAVOURITE finds has to be these lovely little chocolate bars!

In each chocolate bar-shaped box, there are 11 of these charming little rectangles of chocolate, each in its own individual foil wrapper. Inside, there is a rich, dark, crisp chocolate shell, encasing an extremely light and fluffy chocolate mousse. Because they're packaged like this, it's easy to avoid eating too much, and they work perfectly as a little after-dinner treat. Honestly, I think these would work well for a dinner party too.

So, it's shaping up to be a pretty tasty year! But it's time to add my own baking into the mix. I've signed up to have a stall at our local support group's AGM on 13th March, so I need to get my apron out and get back in the old baking saddle (so to speak!). There's a lot of work to be done, so I hope to have a lot of good things in store for you in the coming weeks!