G'NOSH Gourment Dips

While most of us at The Amazing Blog have our own favourite topics we love to blog about - from pets to pampering - when it comes to food, our passion is unanimous. Whether we're drooling over the latest cook book on offer or sampling the cuisine at a Scandanavian Supper Club, food is, quite literally, always on our mind.

Unfortunately I don't happen to possess the most natural flair in the kitchen. And thanks to my foody housemate I frequently suffer from severe food envy when he knocks up one of his specialities - from barbecued seabass to home made hummus - my dishes pale in comparison. And I certainly have neither the time nor the energy to create all the home made sauces that he concocts after work which temptingly lace the fridge doors.

Having recently been alerted to G'NOSH Gourmet Dips, however, I no longer have to sit petulantly with a soggy jacket potato wishing I had the know-how to put together a decent meal. Forget the pre-packed greasy pots of supermarket guacamole, G'NOSH Gourment Dips are made using the finest of ingredients meaning that they taste as fresh as if you made them at home. And while they can be used in the classic way - with tortilla chips and vegetable crudites - they're also brilliant as a fuss-free addition to any meal and can be stirred into soups or pasta, used to marinade meat or even spread onto a pizza base - the possibilities are endless.

With five mouth-watering flavours: Sun Dried Tomato & Basil, Spicy Red Pepper Muhumarra, Sweet Black Bean, Smoky Roasted Aubergine Babaghanoush and Beetroot & Mint there's a dip to tantalise every taste-bud! Our favourites were the Babaghanoush and Sweet Black Bean - both full of flavour with an added kick - which we spent one very enjoyable afternoon dipping a mammoth pack of Kettle Chips into!

To get your hands on these delicious dips, head to Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Wholefoods or Waitrose, or for a full list of stockists check out their website.

Fentiman's

On hot summer days, there's nothing better than sipping on a nice cold drink. Now, I know it's bad form to make generalisations, but I think I've found an exception to that rule. Fentimans has the most delicious range of (non-alcoholic) summer beverages. The Amazing Blog just can not get enough of their products, it's a mild obsession. These botanically brewed beverages (say that five times fast) are such a great alternative to the fizzy drinks from the corner shop. Even the bespoke bottles they come in are stylish. The method of botanically brewing is one of the things that sets Fentimans beverages apart from the rest. Through a mixture of roots and herbs, the beverages keep their natural and and tasty - the sedimentation which occurs from this process only serves to enhance all the flavours in the drinks and make sure that all the raw materials used in the process end up in the bottle. Fentimans have a great range of concoctions, including Curiosity Cola, Seville Orange Jigger, Ginger Beer, and Dandelion & Burdock. My personal favourite (it was a hard choice) is their Pink Lemonade, it's so cool and refreshing and absolutely perfect for a hot day. Fentimans have been making their carbonated beverages since 1905 and are still going strong to this day, once your try one of their drinks you'll understand why.

So grab yourself a few cool Fentimans this summer, you won't regret it! Fentimans is available online or at Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Tesco.

Black Garlic

Like most 20-somethings, I am borderline hopeless in the kitchen, so I'm always on the look out for ingredients that save me a job or make things that bit more painless. And The Amazing Blog has delivered a tasty little treat for you: Black Garlic. Now don't be frightened, even though it looks like one of your kitchen experiments gone wrong, it couldn't taste any farther from it. Everyone knows popping a bit of garlic onto chicken, into a sauce or with some vegetables makes everything taste better, but if you thought that before then Black Garlic will be your new kitchen holy grail. It's not supposed to replace regular garlic, as it's a completely different flavour sensation, it's soft and velvety and adds an amazing layer of flavour to whatever you put it in. In order to make Black Garlic,  a bulb is put through a heating and moisture process for several weeks, creating the intense flavour and colour. Black Garlic has almost twice the antioxidants of regular garlic and is low in fat and is first date safe, no garlic breath here! The great thing about Black Garlic is its versatility, their website even has recipes for you to try out and modify with your new favourite ingredient. So whether you're using it for a more traditional dish, or trying a more daring approach, some Black Garlic is the perfect complement to your meal.

Black Garlic is available for £1.40 in Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco and a variety of independent food stores.

The Mortimer Chocolate Company

Here, at The Amazing Blog, we're self-confessed chocolate lovers who, more often that not, enjoy a daily chocolate treat. Two of my colleagues however, have somewhat bravely given chocolate for lent, so when Mortimer's Pure Dark Chocolate Powder arrived recently, there was all the more for the rest of us! And with hot chocolate being perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up, I was more than happy to try it out. Unlike a number of hot chocolate drinks on the market that are laden with flavourings, sweeteners and additives, Mortimer Chocolate Powder is simply that - pure dark chocolate powder.

My favourite flavour is the West African, a blend of cocoa liquors from Foresterotype cocoas from Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria, containing 100% chocolate with 70% of cocoa solids. The Mortimer Chocolate Company imports cocoa en mass from factories in Africa and South America, and then they make it into chocolate to their own recipes in the UK. Having a cup of Mortimer's hot chocolate on a cold spring day like today is the perfect antidote to a stressful day in the office. It's also very easy to prepare, just heat some milk, add 4 heaped teaspoons of the chocolate powder in each mug and enjoy! As I’m Spanish, I would accompany this with some delicious “churros”, but I'll have to wait til I get back to Spain!

And I guess I’m not the only one that loves this flavour, because the West African chocolate has been voted as the Nation’s Favourite Hot Chocolate by the Chocolate Festival.  Available in Waitrose stores and also online.

All Mortimer Chocolate products are gluten and soya-free, they don’t use lecithin and they don’t contain nuts. And if you want to find your inner domestic goddess, why don’t you check out their website for their mouth-watering chocolate brownies recipe? Having been sent a batch ourselves I can confirm they were devoured in a matter of minutes and were simply delicious!

Sakata

Having started the New Year with the best possible intentions, I’m embarrassed to admit that the inevitable has happened and as predicted, the cold weather and January blues have completely overridden all my saintly resolutions. After boasting to the girls at the Amazing PR office that I would be hitting the gym religiously, eating healthily with no snacking in between my well-balanced meals, minimising my alcohol consumption and drinking gallons of water I am feeling incredibly discouraged at my failure to keep to any of these promises past the three week mark.

Knowing that my habit of snacking in between meals would be the hardest to tackle (as demonstrated by the chocolate wrappers and crisp packets routinely cluttering up my desk) I was not surprised that this was my first failure, however thanks to some recommendations on healthier alternatives from the girls in the office I am feeling decidedly less guilty about my lack of will-power.

Already a huge hit in health conscious Australia, Sakata Japanese rice crackers are the first flavoured crackers to launch in the UK. Available in four flavours: Original, Classic Cheddar, Sizzling Barbecue and Sour Cream & Chive they are perfect for satisfying my craving for crisps and at only 9 calories or less per cracker and gluten-free they have quickly become my guilt-free snack of choice. Now all I need to do is find a guilt-free cocktail…suggestions are welcome!

Sakata rice crackers are available from Waitrose and Ocado.