Friday Favourites - Mother's Day

Guess who? She often deprives herself, yet makes certain you have the best of everything.  That’s right, it’s Mum! Our mum’s really are the best and deserve more than one day during the year to be celebrated and appreciated.  All of us here at The Amazing Blog want to help make your mum’s special day perfect, so we have a few original ideas up our sleeves. Ranging from candles to cocktails, there’s something for every mum!

A burning candle is a great way to set the tone for a relaxing afternoon or evening.  Wick & Tallow candles offer the luxury of a home accessory with a touch of British individuality.  Constructed from scratch by product and interior designers, as well as a biology graduate with an interest in botany, Wick & Tallow Waxsmiths intrigue candle-lovers with their contemporary twist on both the candle's packaging and scent.  The original black matte colour of Wick & Tallow packaging (with a vibrant highlight colour) coordinates flawlessly with the unique scent of the candles, which last up to 50 hours!  The Patchouli & Grapefruit Candle, for example, is a calming yellow (perfect for mum!) which flawlessly matches the notes of garden floral and tart grapefruit in the burning candle.  Find the Patchouli & Grapefruit Candle here for £35.00. And as a Mother's Day treat, Wick & Tallow are offering a 20% discount on this candle when you use the code, MUMSTHEWORD. Make mum feel young and modern while relaxing to the scent and design of Wick & Tallow candles.  A variety of candle colours and scents can be found here.

On her special day, mum deserves to sit back, relax and pamper herself with a fun cocktail in hand!  To make her job a bit easier, Pontoon Cocktails have designed pre-mixed, frozen and unpasteurized cocktails which guarantee the same freshness as the day they were made!  Offer your mum the fun and frilly Angelica mixed drink from Pontoon Cocktails!  With a mix of contemporary and traditional ingredients like Ketel One Vodka, Cocchi Americano and Regan’s No.6 orange bitters, Angelica is a hand-crafted pink plunge of citrus and flowers.  Perfectly packaged with a ribbon tied around its top, the Angelica mixed drink from Pontoon Cocktails is a perfect gift for mum!  A 500ml of Angelica is £34.99 and can be found here.

If drinks aren't your mum's style, maybe she'd prefer a chocolate treat. Like most women, mum certainly loves clothing and shoes, but gifting clothing or shoes to mum can be a challenge.  Why not combine her love for shoes with the sweet temptation of chocolate with a La Signorina Chocolate Stiletto! La Signorina specialise in fair-trade, hand-made chocolate delicacies in the shape of shoes, bouquets and chess sets.  These Italian style dark chocolates give personality to each piece with their fair-trade chocolate beans, and La Signorina kindly sent The Amazing Blog the Fortuna Chocolate Stiletto!  Fortuna was the Roman goddess of fortune, promising mum good luck in the months to follow. Not only is the shoe the size of a wearable stiletto (UK size 3), but the inside of the slipper is detailed with the La Signorina insignia and is finished with a chocolate flower on the toe.  Specializing in chocolate gifts, La Signorina lets mum have her shoes and eat them too!  Select the perfect chocolate stiletto for mum for only £40 here.

If your mum grew up during the 60s or 70s she is probably familiar with Aqua Manda, after smelling the perfume on her own mother!  This nostalgic perfume is the ultimate memory jogger, taking mum back to her flower power days. Aqua Manda uses the psychedelic colour orange to reflect the era in both colour and scent!

Made with essential oils of mandarin, ginger, lavender, patchouli, cinnamon, and other aromatic herbs, Aqua Manda consists of an abundance of fruity scents.   The refreshing and light smell is a great pick me up and works perfectly as a summer fragrance. The oriental and spicy base notes give a kick to the perfume which can help in the mornings if you get up early and need something to wake you up. Once applied, the perfume sits on your skin all day and only fades slightly. Take mum back to childhood with this happy, fruity and fun scent!  A bottle of Aqua Manda is £39.99 and can be purchased  here.

Dr. Zak’s – High Protein Pasta

We here at The Amazing Blog  strive to eat healthy foods but as you know that is easier said than done. We find that sometimes we have to cut out a few of our favourite pasta dishes just to stay on track, but we may have found a healthier alternative thanks to Dr. Zak's and their High Protein Pasta.  Dr. Zak’s and his team have crafted products that are low-carb and high in protein without having to sacrifice flavour!

Given that Dr. Zaks himself is a doctor and body building champion and his partner Denise Chester specialises in nutrition, it is no surprise that these products  are high in nutritional value to support the athlete in you or simply a healthier lifestyle. Dr. Zak pasta has 50g of protein in every 100g serving with 50% fewer carbohydrates than other pastas. The products offered contain Pea Protein Isolate – a vegetable protein source – so the pasta is vegetarian friendly! Pea Protein Isolate is absorbed by the digestive system slower than other protein sources, which helps keep you fuller longer - this kept me from all the unnecessary snacking that tends to happen throughout the day.  It also delivers all eight essential amino acids to your body. All of Dr. Zak’s products are 100% non-genetically modified with no artificial colours, preservations or additives.

I used Dr. Zak’s pasta for dinner with green beans, tuna, pesto and pine nuts to create Amazing PR's easy and delicious (if I say so myself)  pasta that I just had to share. Preparation is simple, if I made it so can you!  The pasta was very light so I did not feel over-stuffed after eating dinner but I did feel full for the rest of the night. To get cooking, find your Dr. Zak’s High Protein Pasta online here or in-store for only £4.99

Tuna Pesto Pasta Recipe:

• Bring a pan of water to boil and add the pasta
• Simmer for 8-10 minutes, drain and set aside
• Add olive oil to pan and sautee pesto with tuna, green beans and pine nuts
• Mix in pasta and add peper to taste
• Enjoy!

Carib Gourmet – Coco Gourmand

In need of an exotic sweet treat following lunch or dinner?  As you know we love our sweets here but sometimes due to the ingredients we know some of our readers cannot share in our delight. We here at The Amazing Blog  have uncovered delicious treats using exclusively the sweetness of coconut milk, making some of these treats gluten free and suitable for vegans. Using coconut as an alternative to sugar, Carib Gourment shows their sweet-side with their Coco-Gourmand line of sweets for all to enjoy!

 As a Caribbean based fine foods specialist, Carib Gourmet offer an array of foods from chilli sauces to confectionary desserts fit for food connoisseurs. As dessert lovers ourselves, we were eagerly excited to try the Carib Gourmet Coco Gourmand selection including Coconut Fudge, Coconut Brittle and Coconut Drops.  When we received this sweet assortment of Coco Gourmand desserts, I immediately indulged in a piece of Coconut Fudge. Coco Gourmand combines the softness of fudge with the flaky texture of coconut to create an exceptional delicacy. Their Coconut Fudge is lighter and slimmer than most fudge bars, avoiding that dreaded heavy feeling of sugar in your stomach or overconsumption in my case.  We definitely recommend these treats not only as a pick-me-up but also as a gift, a party dessert and even to share at work! The Coconut Fudge is only £3.50 and can be found here  while the other treats can be found here.

Also if you’re interested in learning authentic Caribbean cooking style or you want to create these delicious Coco-gourmand delicacies yourself, Carib Gourment has cookery classes just for you! Caribbean cooking representative, Vanessa Bolosier teaches techniques to mastering Caribbean cuisines and desserts. This course, designed for beginners, offers attendees personalized hands-on learning while indulging in scrumptious treats. This allows you to be able to cook up a batch of these amazing treats for your family and friends.  Sign up for a Caribbean cooking experience from  and feel free to send some our way once you’ve become a master Caribbean chef!

The M’hencha Company - Moroccan Cake

Sometimes our body, soul and taste buds are in need of a holiday, and we here at The Amazing Blog  have found the perfect escape!  The M’hencha Company offers a range of spectacular treats, including our favourite Moroccan cake, has taken our taste buds on an exotic journey!

 With a passion for ‘awakening the senses’ through baking, The M’hencha Company founder, Sophie channelled her love for cake making into her specially designed M’hencha Cake.  Praise of her Moroccan delights from family and friends soon turned into recognition from colleagues like three-star awards at the Great Taste Awards, as well as at the Guild of Fine Foods.   Sophie and The M’hencha Company offer a variety of delicacies from bite-sized treats to celebration cakes, with both eating and serving suggestions. For the M'hencha Cake we received, it is best recommended to be eaten within five days of delivery, which we had no problem with that here in the office! This delicacy is a crunchy yet gooey coiled pastry cake made of almond frangipane, citrus zests, rosewater and perfectly topped with crumbled pistachios. Given that it was our first taste of Morroccan cake, it was a hit here in the office leaving us wanting more. After consumption however, there were a few guilty faces in the office, which I found amusing since calories are the least of my concerns. All the more to me I say!

The Moroccan cake is suitable for breakfast, lunch or dinner- personally we found the M’hencha Cake satisfied perfectly as a mid-afternoon snack. The M’hencha Company suggests pairing a slice of cake during breakfast with coffee, enjoying a piece during lunch with a Moroccan mint tea or indulging in a slice of cake for dessert following dinner.  Delight yourself with a classic 6” M’hencha cake, serving 3-4 guests, from The M’hencha Company for £16.95 here.

Vallebona – Cheese and Honey

We here at The Amazing Blog always have an appetite for exploring new gourmet foods, so when our friends at Vallebona Sardinian Gourmet  contacted us, our stomachs were rumbling!  This family owned delicatessen is a proud, leading supplier of gourmet Sardinian and Italian produce within the UK.

With history dating back to the 1890’s, this business has been providing genuine Italian foods to homes, restaurants and cafés in the UK for over a decade.  Vallebona offers Artisan Cheeses, carefully selected Italian wines, various honeys, salami and other Italian delicacies that provide healthy, modern options to British cuisine and home cooking.   The company is currently owned and operated by the Stefano Vallebona, the great grandson of the original owner and continues to maintain connections with suppliers from that date to the start of the business.  Vallebona’s dedication to its roots assures customers of its truly authentic Italian foods.

Sensing our hunger for something new, Vallebona delivered delicious Pecorino Rosso Cheese and Honey with White Truffle to our office doorstep!  Pecorino Rosso is a Sardinian pecorino cheese (from the island of Sardina) and is made primarily of local Sardinian sheep milk.  The creamy, medium texture of Percorino Rosso makes the cheese easily scoop-able and the perfect accompaniment to Honey with White Truffle.  This speciality cheese is offered in blocks of 200g and 1kg.  A 200g block of Percorino Rosso Cheese can be found here for £3.20 .  The Vallebona Sardinian Gourmet Honey with White Truffle is a light acacia honey dotted with generous pieces of truffle.  This delectable combination makes for an intensely flavoured honey; Honey with White Truffle is an ideal complement when drizzled over the Pecorino Rosso.  The honey is offered in various size containers of 45g, 120g and 250g.  A 45g jar of Vallebona’s Honey with White Truffle can be found here for £3.92 .  The Pecorino cheese and Honey with White Truffle can also be purchased as a set, along with a suggested recipe and a 50g bag of Music Paper Bread for £12 here .

 Vallebona also invites you to sample their authentic Italian goods, in-store on Saturdays while you shop at their warehouse deli in Wimbledon .  Vallebona Sardinian Gourmet Pecorino Rosso cheese, Honey with White Truffle and other gourmet items can be purchased online here  with free delivery for orders over £50.  Buon Appetito (Good eating)!