Spirit of Summer has arrived in store at Marks & Spencer and there are a selection of offers to take advantage of to try the new dishes and meals.

The first is the £7 Summer Meal for Two. It's a main, a side and a salad, for two to share. There are chicken, fish and meat options, but I really found myself fancying the vegetarian offers. I chose the tomato & mozzarella stuffed peppers, above, but there were also very tasty looking stuffed aubergines. It was tricky to choose, which became the theme or selecting items for this blog post. There is a lot of fab new products on the shelves in the Spirit of Summer 2017 range, dishes and ingredients I haven't seen in supermarkets before even, so choosing is tricky, due to wanting to try everything at once!

After oven cooking and trying the mozzarella stuffed peppers, I HIGHLY recommend them. The pesto drizzle was heavenly. I'll be buying them again.

So it's handy to be able to choose from the deli 3 for £7 deal, and the new Spirit of Summer deli dishes are included. There are also summer meat selections in the 3 for £10 offer and I had to try the new calamari with pomegranate dressing.

The new summer deli items are from all over the world so there are a lot of exotic tastes to try. Last summer season the ranges seemed fixed in the Americas for flavours, but Spirit of Summer 2017 is all new, and already I'm loving the variety this year a lot more.

Another deal you can take advantage of right now is 20% off a wide range of the summer meals and desserts. This includes much of the range that doesn't fall under the deli or meat deals. For example the lamb flatbread was only £2.40 with the offer, which is a bargain for a fancy pizza for one.

The new desserts I haven't investigated too much yet, but there are cakes, cupcakes and fridge desserts in the 20% off deal. The Valencian Orange & Almond cupcakes are a delight. I'm fond of anything with almond, and the flavours balance each other nicely. Perfect for afternoon tea.

Finally, the small square salads are 2 for £4 and there are a good half dozen new dishes to choose from. The feta, tomato and morello cherry salad was a must try for me. The green courgette salad was fresh and light and would make a great side for an early BBQ.

Let me know what Spirit of Summer treats you've tried this week, @rudedoodle on Twitter.

If you don't put on weight over Christmas, you haven't done the holiday season justice. The average person puts on half a stone, which can easily be shifted in January with careful watching of calories for a week or two. I never begin trying to lose this weight on January 1st. There are still so many left overs to indulge in, and boxes of sweets to work through. Once we get about two weeks into January and Smix is back at school, I can turn to losing the Christmas chub.

A nice way to do it is with simple calorie counting and the Marks and Spencer Eat Well ranges. You watch for the sunflower symbol and know those ranges, including all the fresh fruit and veg, is a good choice for healthy eating sessions.

I usually skip breakfast and just have coffee, but when I'm trying to lose weight I actually add in this extra meal. It helps get your metabolism working and stops snacking cravings later on. M&S have these snazzy little on the go porridge pots, shown above, for £1. You can also buy packs of sachets of porridges for £2.50

There are several healthy eating ranges at M&S. Count on Us is a low calorie range of typical meals made with less calories. Fuller Longer is a range of meals with ingredients specially picked to fill you up with good stuff.

The range I chose from this week is Balanced for You. Again it focuses on keeping calories down, but also using great, healthier ingredients, so it's a bit of a mid way point between the previous two ranges.

It also has a selection of fresh new dishes this January, and who can resist prawn & crab macaroni cheese? Hard to believe this can be used as 'diet food'.

Lastly I chose Balanced for You for this post as the meals were all on 3 for £10 mix and match when I was in store on Monday. Means you can stock up on 6 meals to cover your whole week evening dinner for £20, taking one day a week off for dinner as a cheat meal.

So porridge for breakfast, Balanced for You for dinner, but what for lunch. When you are watching your weight soups are a great way to fill up at lunch. M&S are kings of delicious soups, and again their range just happens to be on offer, buy one soup, get the other half price. The beetroot soup is my favourite, but I'm keen to try the crab bisque.