The latest in Chocolove’s delectable chocolate line: A dark chocolate bar with almonds and sea salt. Aside from having the perfect Valentine’s Day packaging (each Chocolove bar includes a love poem inside the wrapper), this bar features everything I like: a sweet-dark taste and good antioxidants, due to the 55 percent cocoa content, heart-healthy almonds, and a touch of sea salt for a zippy contrast. (Other great Chocolove flavors include Chilies & Cherries and Toffee & Almonds.) You’ll find them nationwide at Whole Foods, Target, and other major stores. Love it.

Certain healthy foods are traditionally considered aphrodisiacs, and what better time than Valentine’s Day to try them out? Add these aphrodisiac foods to your grocery cart, suggests the fortuitously named Melody Hart, ND, PhD, of ChicagoHealers.com.

1. Nuts and sesame seeds. These, says Hart, contain the amino acid L-arginine that enhances blood flow throughout the body. Try our nut-and-seed-laden Coconut Almond Crunch Granola for your Valentine’s Day breakfast in bed.

2. Dark chocolate (70% or more cocoa). Chocolate “releases pleasure-enhancing endorphins in the brain, plus contains the feel-good chemicals phenylethylamine and serotonin, released by the brain when you are happy or feeling loving or passionate,” says Hart. These Chocolate Lava Cakes ought to do the trick.

3. Oysters. The richest food source of zinc, which does good things for sperm, oysters also boost blood health with iron. Try one of my favorite Valentine’s Day recipes, Warm Oysters on the Half Shell with Spicy Ponzu — it’s easy, and a showstopper.

4. Licorice improves circulation, acts as a stress reliever, and has a stimulating smell, especially for women. Anise, an herb often mistaken for licorice because of the similar smell, adds a wonderful scent to these Anise-Orange Rye Rolls, perfect to serve with dinner. And look for Panda all-natural Licorice Chews at your natural foods store.

5. Chile peppers. Capsaicin, the compound that makes peppers hot, increases circulation and releases feel-good endorphins. For a spicy and superhealthy vegetable dish, try Kale with Ginger and Chiles.

Check out even more libido-loving foods … and get cooking!

This luscious recipe for Heart-Shaped Pasta with Proscuitto, Peas, and Arugula is courtesy of Colorado chef Eric S. Lee, author of the new book, Sweeping Her Off Her Feet: The Ultimate Guide to Romance and Seduction in the Kitchen (Dreamworld, 2010). With his simple directions for combining delicious, real food, even a novice cook can make a “wow” dinner for his or her sweetie. Look for heart-shaped pasta at your natural foods store; it’s often carried seasonally. For more great Valentine’s Day menu ideas (including breakfast!), go to deliciousliving.com and search for “valentine.”

Heart-Shaped Pasta with Proscuitto, Peas, and Arugula

6 ounces heart-shaped pasta (or bow-tie noodles)

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup white wine

Optional: 10 large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 cup chicken broth (or 1 teaspoon bouillon dissolved in 1 cup warm water)

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch (dissolve it into chicken broth)

6-8 paper-thin slices prosciutto, cut into 1-inch ribbons (ask for it this way at the grocery deli)

3/4 cup frozen peas

2 small Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced (just cut into quarters and scoop out the seeds)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups roughly chopped arugula or 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

Salt and freshly cracked pepper

4 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta until just barely tender. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking water.

2. Preheat a large sauté pan on medium-high heat. Add oil and garlic, and sauté garlic until it begins to soften, approximately 20-30 seconds—do not let it brown. Add white wine and cook until reduced by half. (If using shrimp, add now; stir for 2 minutes, until nearly opaque.)

3. Add broth with dissolved cornstarch and bring to a boil; add reserved 1/4 cup pasta water, prosciutto, peas, and tomato, and cook for about 30 seconds. Stir in lemon juice, remove from heat, and let stand another 30 seconds. Fold in cooked pasta and arugula or basil. Salt and pepper to taste, divide between two dinner plates or pasta bowls, and top with shredded Parmesan.

Suggested wine – Sauvignon Blanc, Vouvray

From our sister publication Natural Foods Merchandiser comes this blog on the recent passage of bills in Washington and Wisconsin, banning bisphenol-A (BPA) from baby bottles and other food-contact applications. They’re the third and fourth states, after Connecticut and Minnesota, to enact a BPA ban, in a flurry of legislation mere days after the FDA issued its new turnaround position on BPA on January 15 that admits “some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children.” Illinois, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Oregon are also considering bans on BPA (which is already banned in Canada). Here’s hoping we’ll start seeing cans labeled “BPA free” nationwide in the near future.

While skiing at Vail recently, I was delighted to find that they now offer labeled gluten-free menu items at all on-mountain dining spots! Making gluten free easy to identify fits in well with Vail’s healthy-food Appetite for Life program, which not only includes gluten-free items but also sustainably produced and organic offerings … AND a budget “Lunch for Less,” which includes an entree, side, and drink, for $9.95 (how often do you find THAT on a ski mountain?). Vail Resorts encompasses Vail Mountain, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone, and Heavenly, all of which reportedly now identify gluten-free options on their menus.

Other Vail restaurants that serve gluten-free diners include:

>> Terra Bistro at Vail Mountain Lodge and Spa, with menu notations identifying not just gluten, but also nuts, garlic, sustainable seafood, and vegetarian. Chef Kevin Nelson provided these wonderful “Thousand-Year Breakfast” recipes in our Sept09 issue.

>> Larkspur, a local-fave dining spot at the base of Vail Mountain, with menu notations for gluten and nuts. They also have a kids menu (including lunch, during ski season), and a Market next door where you can buy food to go.

>> Restaurant Avondale, a seasonally driven spot in Beaver Creek. Again, notations for gluten and nuts, and a kids’ menu with fun (but nutritious) “TV dinners,” served in a retro sectioned tray.

The four salad dressings below, which chef Jamie Oliver (left) calls “jam-jar” dressings, are so easy to make, you’ll wonder why you never tried it before — and I guarantee you’ll be inspired to eat more salads and veggies. They’re from his book, Jamie’s Food Revolution (Hyperion, 2009), included in my blog of favorite 2009 cookbooks. It’s Jamie’s worthy mission to get people to eat healthier, simply by teaching them a few basics; he’s “consistently observed the most radical, inspiring and completely emotional changes, simply through showing people how to cook a handful of meals.” This March, ABC will air a new series that follows Jamie to Huntington, West Virginia — called the unhealthiest city in America — to shake things up and get people to cook and eat healthy, for themselves and their kids. Watch the trailer for the show; it’s eye-opening! And sign his petition promoting healthy food for children, which Jamie plans to present to the White House.

Jamie Oliver’s Jam-Jar Dressings

1. French dressing

Peel and finely chop 1/2 of a clove of garlic • Put the garlic, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons of white or red wine vinegar, and 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a jam jar with a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • Put the lid on the jar and shake well.

2. Yogurt dressing

Put 1/3 cup of plain yogurt, 2 tablespoons of white or red wine vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into a jam jar with a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • Put the lid on the jar and shake well.

3. Lemon dressing

Put 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a jam jar with a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • Squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon • Put the lid on the jar and shake well.

4. Balsamic dressing

Put 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar into a jam jar with a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • Put the lid on the jar and shake well.

MediaPost features this interesting take on top food trends for the year ahead, based on a survey of retailers, restauranteurs, journalists, food producers, and farmers and presented at this week’s Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.

1. Good-for-you foods. Hooray! And I hope that includes the concept that good-for-you foods can and should TASTE good. Obviously, that has always been Delicious Living’s guiding principle for food.

2. Coconut. I’m getting the sense that people are finally understanding that coconut, with its medium-chain fatty acids (as opposed to long-chain, as in animal fat), is a wonderful part of a healthy, satisfying diet. Hey, centuries of healthy, tropical-food-eating peoples can’t be all wrong.

3. Gluten-free. No surprise here. I know it’s called a trend, but I prefer to think of it as a long-overdue awakening for the many, many people that have felt vaguely (or seriously) ill for a long time and are just now realizing it could be gluten. Watch for kids’ gluten-free issues to be the bridge for adults to go off gluten and feel better, too.

4. Exotic citrus. Interesting! I wonder what classifies as “exotic.”

5. Nostalgic foods. Again, how defined? Is this the same as comfort food? And are there international-flavor takes on this, as America’s melting pot looks to the foods and flavors of their ancestors? I could go for some arroz con pollo right now…

I get quite a few chocolate samples this time of year, and here’s my new favorite: Alter Eco’s Dark Chocolate Quinoa Midnight Crunch, a fair-trade, organic dark chocolate studded with crispy quinoa. It’s fantastic! Like one of those old-fashioned crunch bars, but way, way better — better tasting, better for the Earth, better for cacao farmers who receive equitable wages for their crops. This gluten-free quinoa chocolate bar is a brand-new product that’s scheduled to hit shelves just before Valentine’s Day, so keep an eye out for it. Alter Eco, a company O Magazine calls “visionary,” also produces other flavors of fair-trade and organic chocolate bars, as well as fair-trade and organic olive oil (that’s also carbon neutral!), sugar, packaged quinoa, and rice.

My gluten-free son and I have tried several gluten-free sandwich breads (what I consider the holy grail of gluten-free foods), with some real disappointments along the way. But no more. The grail is found. It’s Udi’s gluten-free sandwich bread — both the white and the whole-grain versions. Udi’s Handcrafted Foods — bakers of yummy, all-natural items, from breads to granola — has somehow managed to make a gluten-free sandwich bread that tastes and feels like “real” bread … even without toasting (the classic trick to make most gluten-free breads approximate typical bread). It’s readily available at Whole Foods, King Soopers/CityMarket (our local grocery), and other markets. (They also make gluten-free muffins and cinnamon rolls, all in a dedicated GF facility.) My son is so thrilled that he’s recommending Udi’s bread to his college house kitchen manager so they can stock it there. AND joy of joys, if you live in Colorado, I’ve just discovered that Udi’s operates four cafes in the Denver area! We tried to go to the Louisville sandwich shop over the holiday break but it was closed. I hear it’s awesome, and I’m going to try it as soon as possible (as is my son next time he’s home, because of course they can make their sandwiches on the gluten-free bread). Thank you, Udi’s, for making a GREAT gluten-free product that anyone can enjoy, whether or not they need to avoid gluten.

Lemon grass, a woody stalk from a grass plant, is a unique and essential flavor to many Thai and Vietnamese dishes (such as curry or Tom Kah Gai soup), as well as tea. Fortunately nowadays it’s easy to find lemon grass in grocery stores; look for it in the packaged-herbs section. It’s easy to use:

1. Choose stalks that look fresh and light green with a creamy, white-green root end.

2. Tear or cut off and discard the outer woody layer and the hard root end; you’ll be left with the very pale green and tender stalk, which you can chop in large or small pieces and add to your dish.

3. Lemon grass’s healthy essential oils add an unmistakable tart flavor element to food, but unless you’ve minced it extremely fine, discard the pieces before serving (they’re too tough to eat).

Lemon grass pairs deliciously with dishes flavored with cilantro, basil, coconut, kaffir lime, and seafood. Try this easy and delectable recipe for Baked Cod in Lemongrass-Coconut Sauce tonight!