Tantalize your V-Day sweet tooth

My Partner in Pretty's post from yesterday has had me thinking all sorts of delicious thoughts. I'm especially dying to try Carmela Ice Cream. With their garden-inspired ingredients Carmela certainly has some beautiful-sounding flavors for their ice creams and sorbets like Lemon Basil, Spices Strawberry, and Lavender Honey. Their Rose Petal Ice Cream (pictured above) is part of their Valentine's Day Assortment. It doesn't get more romantic than organic rose water ice cream flecked with organic red roses. And if that doesn't tempt you, then Blood Orange Sorbet, Brown Sugar Vanilla, or Dark Chocolate Cacao Nib might do the trick.

Carmela only uses seasonal, local and organic ingredients and never uses colorings or flavorings. You can find Carmela online, at the Culver City, Hollwood, Silverlake, and South Pasadena Farmer's Markets, or at Locali (5825 Franklin Ave, Los Angeles).


I'm also all excited about a new Irvine-based company called Xan Confections. Founded by Susan Johnson of Susan's Healthy Gourmet (the meal of choice for Celebrity Fit Club!) and OC chocolatier Tracey Downey, Xan's chocolates are all non-dairy, gluten-free, vegan, and low-calorie. Sound too healthy to be delicious? Well I can attest that these chocolates are absolutely superb.

Their Saintly Sins Collection, perfect for V-Day, is pure fruit blended with 100% organic blue agave nectar and encased in dark chocolate. Me and the BF ate a ton in one sitting and I feel much better about it after finding out that each piece was 29 calories, 1 gram of fat and 5 grams of carbs. Wow!

Get them online or at Southern California Whole Foods.