Yum Yum Wednesday – Chocolate Coconut Mousse

Hi everyone,

Today is another edition of Yum Yum Wednesday, where I bring back one of my favorite recipes.  Since it’s Valentine’s week and I have chocolate on the brain, I thought I would share with you one of my all time chocoholic desserts.  This is my Chocolate Coconut Mousse.  This mousse is so creamy, rich and pure chocolate decadence.  If you love chocolate, believe me you will love this recipe.  Oh my gosh, it is sooooooooo good!!!  Plus it’s gluten-free, no bake and simply a crowd pleaser.  If your vegan, you can omit the cream cheese and I am sure it will taste just as yummy!  You can get the recipe for the Chocolate Coconut Mousse here.

Since I am on a major chocolate kick, I thought I would share with you some new chocolaty products that I recently tried. It seems that I have gotten a ton of samples lately and I am excited to share with you my thoughts.

Brownie Brittle – Oh my gosh, this stuff is dangerous! It’s like a combination of a cracker, meets brownie. I received 4 bags of samples and I ate 3 of them and took the other one to work.   My co-workers devoured the bag in an hour!  I have to say the Mint Chocolate Chip is my favorite, but the others taste just as good. It is 120 calories a serving and each bag contains 4 servings. I loved it crumbled up on my yogurt and ice cream. It would also be great used as a cookie crust or simply eating when you have a chocolate craving. I know you can get these at Costco, but you can check out Brownie Brittles website .  Oh and if you order online use code BB2014 for a 30% discount!  Nice!!!!  Darn it, now I may order some more.

Another product I tried was McConnells Oaxacan Chocolate Ice Cream. I don’t think they are selling this right now. I think it is a new product that they plan on releasing in the near future. Let me tell you I have never had ice cream like this before. I am not sure if I like it or not, yet I keep eating it to see if I do. I brought it to work for my co-workers to sample it and they loved it!  It’s a rich, soft creamy ice cream that has a very strong cinnamon taste, yet at the end, you get a little bit of heat in the back of your throat. I believe this is supposed to be a chili pepper flavored ice cream. Hmmm, still not sure how I feel about it?  But willing to keep eating it to find out.  🙂  One thing about McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream is that it is all natural, organic and made with local ingredients. They have a ton of flavors that I would love to try, like Salted Caramel Chip, Double Peanut Butter Chip and Churros Con Leche. They are located in the heart of Santa Barbara, but get this, they ship ice cream. So if you are craving a creamy delicious ice cream from California, give McConnell’s a try. Love that they ship!  Here is there website.

The next item is by far my favorite chocolate sample that I received. These are MARICH Confectionery candies, and boy for little candies they do give a great punch of flavor. They sent me 6 samples to try out. The flavors are Dark Chocolate Coconut Milk Caramels, Lemon Ginger Blueberries, Chile Lime Mangos, Milk Chocolate Sea Salt Cashews, Sweet Soy Lemongrass Almonds and Birthday Cake Caramels. I have to say the Dark Chocolate Coconut Milk Caramels maybe my favorite with Milk Chocolate Sea Salt Cashews coming in second. However, I was surprised on how yummy the Sweet Soy Lemongrass Almonds were. I thought they would be kind of weird tasting, but they actually taste quite amazing. You get a nice lemony flavor with a hint of green, if that makes sense and I didn’t really taste soy. Actually I may move these up to my number two spot.  All of these candies taste just amazing and I would be happy to receive any of them. Now I can understand why, because MARICH has been making candy for over 60 years. You can get MARICH candies on their website here.  They have lots of choices to choose from such as chocolate cherries, english toffee caramels and even jelly beans.  Their prices are reasonable too!  You can buy from $2.50 on up and the average price is $5.00 – $8.00 for a bag of deliciousness.  So check them out.  They would make for a great Valentine’s Day or Easter gift.  Yes I’m talking Easter already.

The next item is Nocciolata, Italy’s organic chocolate/hazelnut spread. This is not like any other chocolate hazelnut spread I have ever had. It doesn’t really taste like Nutella at all, it’s more of a creamy dessert like spread. Almost like I thick fudge with the hint of hazelnuts. I really enjoyed it and will go great swirled in ice cream or dipping strawberries in it. Nocciolata is all natural, gluten-free, kosher and has no palm oil, hydrogenated fat, artificial flavors or artificial colors. I love that they use all natural ingredients. You can find Nocciolata in stores across America. You can also check out there website for locations, recipes and product information. If you like a chocolate spread, I highly recommend Nicciolata!

The last item is something that I bought and tested out, powdered peanut butter. You know how I love peanut butter and I figured for as much PB that I eat, I better get powdered PB because it is fewer calories and fat than regular PB. Well you know I like chocolate so I thought I would give chocolate powdered peanut butter a try. I bought two popular brands PB2 and Just Great Stuff by Betty Lou’s Inc. To make peanut butter from powder, all you do is add 2 tbsp powdered peanut butter to 1 tablespoon of water, give a mix and you have peanut butter. Well between the two I really like Just Great Stuff. It tastes delish! It’s creamy, and has the most wonderful chocolate flavor with a hint of peanut butter. I add a little bit extra water to it make it runny so I can drizzle over my yogurt. he he As for PB2, it tastes good, but it leaves a little bit of a funny taste and it has a stronger peanut smell. I loved the Just Great Stuff Powdered Peanut Butter so much that I bought 6 containers of it. I mix the powder in my smoothies and yogurt. Yum! Oh and two tablespoons are only 40 calories, 1 gram of fat, 2 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein. Oh, and just because I like powdered peanut butter doesn’t mean I will not eat regular peanut butter because I LOVE PB and nothing can replace it. You can check out Just Great Stuff by Betty Lou’s here and if you’re a PB2 fan you can check them out here.

One last thing I wanted to share with you are these fabulous sneakers that I got from New Balance. You may have seen that I posted them on Instagram, because you know it’s shoes and I had to share. 🙂 These sneakers rock!! They are New Balances Revolutionary Fresh Foam 890 Sneaker.  The shoe provides a completely new approach to neutral running by combining ultra-plush cushioning with a reduced drop heel, offering a super soft, bouncy ride. It’s not only the technology, but the design of the shoe that makes them really special. Each pair has a unique spray paint finish and fresh, eye-catching design.  I just love these sneakers.  They feel like I have bouncy cushions on my feet.  I wore them while working out and I didn’t get any knee pains and oddly enough I felt like I was getting more steps in my game.  I not only love how they feel on my feet, but they are such a beautiful shade of blue.  My Husband saw them and he just loved the bright blue color, just as much as I do!!  These sneakers are debuting this week!  I highly recommend them if you’re a runner or, like me who loves to just work out!  The feel heavenly on your feet, and no kidding aside, these are by far the best sneakers I have owned.

If you happen to be in the Bay Area, the New Balance store in Santa Clara is having a special roll out party to introduce their new Fresh Foam 890  line.  I wish I could attend the event, but Santa Clara is a tad far for me to travel.  Stinkers!  But here’s the scoop.

Where: New Balance Santa Clara, 3912 Rivermark Plaza, Santa Clara, CA 95054
When: Wednesday, February 12 at 5:00pm 

3-mile fun run, followed by food, cocktails, giveaways and an exclusive Twitter Q&A with the New Balance Fresh Foam designers and project managers. Follow along and ask questions with @nbrunning and #FreshFoamSC!

Well that’s it for my chocolate edition with a little workout in between (because if you eat chocolate you need to workout, lol) Yum Yum Wednesday! Now don’t forget Valentine’s Day is Friday!

Have a great day!

Toodles,

Jennifer
P.S. All opinions are my own. I received some samples, but was not paid or told what to say or even asked to post about the products. I took the liberty to do this on my own.