Model Kitchen by Cesar Casier

Spring is in the air and we all know what that means, summer is right around the corner. Around this time of year we all start thinking about eating healthier in order to look our best while strutting around in our bathing suits. However, eating healthy can be hard. But we have something here at The Amazing Blog that can help you get ready for summer and bathing suit weather in an easy and fun way. Model Kitchen by the model Cesar Casier is full of different meals and snacks that can help show you that eating healthy can be both fun and delicious. With quick and easy to follow recipes, luscious pictures, lists of some of the best hot spots from all over the world and recipes written by some other very famous models this cookbook is sure to excite your taste buds and get you ready for the warmer weather that is sure to come.

Cesar gives you so many tasty recipes that I found it difficult to choose just one for a family dinner party. After a few minutes of browsing through the book and debating which would taste best, I eventually decided upon his recipe for Oven Roasted Lemon Chicken. The recipe was very easy to follow and the ingredients were so simple I had no problems trying to find them in my local Sainsburys. The recipe took no time at all and I was able to present my family with a gorgeous meal that impressed them all. It may not have looked at delicious as the photo next to the recipe, but I definitely tasted just as good.

Through this cookbook, Cesar shows us how important and easy healthy eating can be, although we like to think that once in awhile a guilty pleasure can’t hurt. You can purchase your own Model Kitchen cookbook online for £26.22 and get ready to create some incredible meals.

Look what the Easter Bunny found!

With Easter fast approaching, I’m sure we are all looking for something to treat our friends and family to. We, here at The Amazing Blog, like to surprise our loved ones with little festive trinkets to help get them in the Easter spirit. Whether it’s a bag of decadent egg shaped chocolates or something to help make our home feel more festive, in this post there is sure to be something for you.

This little bunny is full of bath time fun. The Hoppy Easter Bunny from Lush is full of 7 baths worth of limited edition, Easter themed goodies. Inside the adorable bunny packaging you can find a bright pink Fluffy Egg and the re-usable Carrot bubble bar. Each Lush treat smells amazing and sure to make you, or anyone else, instantly think of Spring. You can purchase this Hoppy Easter Bunny from their website for £11.95.

These candy coloured Nordic House Glass Easter Eggs look good enough to eat. These pretty baubles can be hung from a spring inspired twiggy display or piled high in a glass bowl as a center piece on your dining room table. These eggs are available in several different colours such as white, silver, grey, ochre, green, turquoise, purple and pink, and they can come in either a frost or shiny silvery finish. These eggs are sure to give your home the perfect amount of Easter cheer in the most sophisticated way. You can purchase a set of 3 fro £5.95 off of their website.

Can you think of a better way to serve an Easter Salad? These festive Rabbit Ears Salad Servers are the perfect compliment to any big Easter dinner. Using these salad servers will put you in the Easter mood and are sure to amuse your family and friends as well. You purchase these salad servers from their website for £5.95.

Treat your loved ones, or yourself, to these gorgeous Half Dozen Chocolate Harlequin Eggs by Demarquettes Chocolate. Each pink box contains 6 brightly hand painted Harlequin inspired chocolate eggs, 3 are milk chocolate and 3 are dark chocolate. The use only the finest British ingredients to create a unique and mouth watering chocolate so that each eggs tastes absoltely delicious.  You can purchase these eggs from their website for £12.50.

Looking for the perfect after Easter dinner dessert? Look no further than Farhi’s impressive one kilogram gift box of mini speckled candy-coated praline Easter eggs. These beautifully packaged and presented mini eggs are perfect for sharing and make for the ideal after dinner dessert. There will be enough for everyone, trust us. Go all out and purchase your own box from their website for £19.99.

Finally, we have something that the adults can enjoy. After work on Thursday, March 28th, follow the white rabbit down to Bart's Speakeasy for the Easter event Bart's Mad Hatter's Tea Party. There, you can take advantage of the specialty cocktails, champagne and of course, cupcakes. Then, at 6pm join them for their Easter egg hunt with a twist, the prizes are sharing cocktails as well as Veuve Cliquot. So grab your top hats and tea pots and enter the Wonderland that is Bart's Mad Hatter's Tea Party. You can RSVP at 020 7581 3355 or email them at ariana@barts-london.com.

Terrafertil Goldenberries

With the spring right around the corner, it's that time again where we try to work out a tad bit more than normal and eat a tad healthier…well at least the girls in the office are. At The Amazing Blog we have found a delicious berry snack that provides you with a satisfaction of feeling good, while eating them. The superfruit Terrafertil dried Goldenberries  (or as we call them in the UK Cape Gooseberries) is the perfect snack to crave.

The dried Goldenberries really are a “little nuggets of nutritional gold”. Goldenberries soar right past cranberries by providing you 166% more antioxidants. These little nuggets contain a rich source of vitamin C, iron, magnesium, potassium, fiber, and phosphorus. While eating Goldenberries I enjoy the taste of them and feel good about eating them (not that guilty feeling I have after eating chocolate covered raisins). The Goldenberries have a sweet and sour taste at first, but as I kept popping them into my mouth it started to balance the two tastes together. With these dried Goldenberries grown and processed in Ecuador and Colombia on Terrafertil Goldenberries Fairtrade farmland selected for soil and air quality, it ensures the highest standard of fruits. Organically produced and distributed, the UK is finally getting the gift of Terrafertil Goldenberries.

You can snack without feeling guilty with Terrafertil Goldenberries. For only £2.99 a bag, you can feel good about the way you snack! To purchase these little nuggets of nutritional gold you can go to Holland & Barrett. Snack the right way with Goldenberries to feel full of nutrients!

Isle have a pair of these!

Now that Spring has sprung this week, I’ll be expectantly gazing up at the skies every morning, ever hopeful of a small hint of blue amidst the fluffy clouds. And as the proud owner of Mojai, my elderly and extremely fluffy pet (who constantly nags me for his regular walks) it makes me even more conscious of the forecast. Perish the thought we should both be caught short in the rain on our way to The Amazing Blog with me arriving for a meeting looking as if I’ve stepped off a trawler boat; you know the look - an oversized rubber mac, a worn hat and tatty old black wellies squelching in the rain, certainly not the most stylish of attire!

So in preparation for more glamorous rainwear, I found these rather stylish pair of Ilse Jacobsen ‘Rub’ Boots. Instead of rather boring black wellies or some of those outlandish patterned ones - that go with absolutely nothing - these rather understated rubber boots are the answer. I particularly like the ones in the softest custard yellow that come with some rather elegant black lace-up ties (as you've probably guessed we've all gone a bit ‘yellow’ mad this week!) The designer Ilse Jacobsen’s inspiration was that she was tired of bad smelling PVC rubber boots and raincoats, and hence went on to design an alternative. Since first establishing herself as a footwear brand Hornbaek in Denmark in 1993, she has gone on to create a global brand with a stylish, functional and comfortable rainwear collection which is ideal for outdoor activities in both urban and suburban settings.

These ‘Rub’ boots are made of 100% natural rubber and are lined with cotton-fleece lining with a wool innersole. This makes them both warm and comfortable to wear in any weather. Best of all I’ll guarantee that they’ll add that certain little ‘je nais se quoi’ to any mundane outerwear that you’ll be sporting for the forthcoming April showers.  ‘Rubs’ retail at £110 (stockist tel no: 00 45 4970 4176) and they are stocked in the UK at Coggin.com, Question Air and Harvey Nichols.

Lift your mood with a little Abahna

Abahna is a quintessentially luxury British brand. Founded and run by Ed and Claire Croft, Abahna is a family run business and together the couple are passionate about sourcing natural ingredients and creating products that enhance your mood. It is definitely one my very favourite discoveries and hopefully it will become one of yours too.  All the products beautifully packaged and smell quietly literally as though they are ‘heaven scent’.

I find it very difficult to pick a favourite from the range of the four fragrances Mandarin and Sicilian Bergamot  (Uplifting), Lilac Rose and Geranium (Relaxing), White Grapefruit and May Chang (Refreshing), and the Frangipani and Orange Blossom (Soothing).

However, as we are all currently huddled up in the office at the Amazing Blog  looking out at rather bleak and grey London skies, we are definitely  in need of something to cheer us up.  So for now, my choice of Abahna fragrance has to be the delicious, warming and vibrant scents of the Frangipani and Orange Blossom Room Spray  (even Mojai the office dog gets a squirt!)  Out of all the essential oils Frangipani is probably the most uplifting with its heady aroma but when combined with the gentle orange blossom it blends to make a very special soothing scent. In a former life, I interviewed several esteemed massage therapists who told me that Frangipani essential oil is commonly used by many massage therapists in hospices to help give their patients a great feeling of euphoria. Interestingly, they classify it as their 'giggle juice'. Anyway, we are all now wafting in this wonderful mood-enhancing room spray, evocative of blue skies with racing clouds and lush green summer pastures. So roll on Spring!