The Chicken Shed Chocolate

We all deserve to indulge from time to time and let's be honest, the only way to really treat ourselves is with some delectable choccies; however, we don’t mean ANY old chocolate!  At  The Amazing Blog, we're always on the lookout for something a little bit more luxurious and lucky us The Chicken Shed were kind enough to send us some of their unique handcrafted raw chocolates just in time to satisfy our sweet tooth (NB: Made with organic honey, not refined sugar!) This family company launched in October 2013 and has continuously developed new flavours that we couldn't wait to sink our teeth into. We also mentioned them in our Christmas Wish List a few years back and have been craving to try their latest offerings ever since.

This time they sent us their No. 6 Orange Chocolate and their No. 9 Ginger Chocolate bars. The No. 9 gave a warmth of the ginger blended perfectly with the creaminess of the Criollo chocolate which simply melted in our mouths. The ginger subtly tingles your taste buds in a way that is quite addictive.

Of course, we all know chocolate and orange make the perfect pair, but No. 6 takes on this dynamic duo leaving you craving more. It has double the dose of orange to pack a punch, but the scattering of orange peel across the top made it look like we were biting into a piece of art and a delicious one at that. 

Each chocolate comes sweetly wrapped up in a rustic white, minimalist package. It gives it that lovingly artisan feel that perfectly matches what's on the inside. We would like to quickly mention that just because we like to indulge, doesn’t mean we don’t care what goes into our treats. Sweetened with organic wild forest honey from Zambia, each handcrafted bar only uses the purest organic ingredients without refined sugars, dairy or gluten, so these raw bars will satisfy your cravings without any of the guilt. So go ahead, get yourself have a bar or (like us) two!
The Chicken Shed Chocolate bars are available in 9 mouth-watering flavours, our favourite being ginger of course. You can find them here for £4.50 each. There is a special 10% off until the 30th of April 2018 if you shop on their website using the discount code: AMAZINGPR.

Drasanvi - Chia Seeds and Collmar-Cao

As we make our way further into 2018, it’s easy to forget those resolutions we made back in January. No matter what your goal for the year is, it’s never too late to add a health kick to your list, as it’s usually around this time of year when we need to give our body that little boost from Mother Nature. At The Amazing Blog, our secret to maintaining our health and keeping our energy levels up is the Drasanvi Chia Seeds and the chocolate drink Collmar-Cao. Drasanvi is a Spanish brand that has been producing high-quality food supplements for over 20 years and we already know we adore their Collmar Marine Collagen line, so we can say with certainty it's a brand we trust. Their teams are made up of biologists, chemists and nutritionists constantly researching to improve the formulas of their products or to find new ways of extracting natural active ingredients from plants, fruits and minerals.

Collmar-Cao is a food supplement made with pure cacao. This drink powder is enriched with vitamins C, B2, B6, B12 as well as magnesium, calcium, iron and marine collagen. Therefore it's not just super yummy but also benefits your whole body and well-being. The Collmar-Cao is also packed with proteins and minerals, which will boost your metabolism and combat fatigue. The chocolatey flavour makes it an ideal addition to your breakfast; just add to your milk of choice, hot or cold, stir, and enjoy. 

The Chia Seeds are a must have superfood for anyone looking for a quick and easy way to get in some much needed nutrients. Chia Seeds are naturally packed with vitamins, Omega 3, 6, 9 and minerals including iron and magnesium. In addition to being a great source of fibre and protein, these seeds have a delightfully subtle nutty flavour that goes well with a wide range of recipes. Simply add them to your daily oatmeal, smoothie, and even juices or soak them and watch as they expand into a gel that is perfect for baking. The seeds are free from sugar, preservatives and colouring and have earned their superfood title for a reason.

We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day and getting it in is key to leading a healthy lifestyle, which is why we adore how easy both of these supplements make it for us to achieve our goals. You can purchase the Chia Seeds here for £9.95 and the Collmar-Cao here for £14.95.

Turmerlicious

Everyone is jumping aboard the Turmeric bandwagon, due to its amazing health benefits, and we here at The Amazing Blog think incorporating it into a latte is the perfect way. Turmerlicious has created a range of delicious instant turmeric lattes and we were lucky enough to try the Ginger, the Choco, the Vanilla and the Chilli Choc.

This wonder spice has been renowned for its healing abilities for over 4000 years. So much so, the Sanskrit translations for turmeric is ‘one that wins over diseases’. Even science says so, and in the last 30 years there have been over 6000 peer reviewed publications supporting the benefits of Turmeric. Turmeric is hailed for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and is said to be beneficial in reducing heart disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s and more. Add this goodness into a delicious drink, and you have a winning combination.

All of the powders are caffeine-free and are a combination of natural ingredients; turmeric, coconut, cinnamon, ginger and black pepper. This aromatic blend of spices create a soothing and delicious hot drink, and all you need to do is add three teaspoons of the mix to hot water. This gem of a product is ideal if you are trying to cut down on your caffeine intake. Just replace one of your cups of coffee a day to Turmerlicious and you’ll be left happy and healthy!

Turmerlicious powders are free from dairy, gluten, artificial flavours and GMO’s.

Purchase Turmerlicious here for £6.95 (200g) or £1 for a single serving (20g).

Friday Favourites - Latest Cookbooks

We love nothing more than making a home cooked meal at The Amazing Blog. We find the process of cooking to be an incredibly therapeutic one, as well as being one of the best ways to make small and easy changes in your life. We’ve always thought that mixing things up in the kitchen is an excellent, if not the best, way to lift yourself from a slump. In fact, many of the best evenings we’ve had, have been sitting around a table with friends sharing a bottle of wine and a delicious and carefully prepared home cooked meal. As such, we are always looking for new cookbooks with exciting, delicious and new recipes for us to try! So here is a review of five of our favourites to help you add a bit of extra spice to the kitchen; from five-star restaurant cuisine to Jewish home cooking,  game day favourites and kitchen hacks! We've even included a special book for all you chocoholics out there!

First on our list is The Mountain Café Cookbook: A Kiwi in the Cairngorms, which was written by the brilliant chef at the Mountain Café in Scotland, Kirsten Gilmour. One of the main reasons we love this book is its inclusivity! In the introduction, Gilmour talks about taking a trip with a coeliac friend and realising how hard it was for her friend to eat food and stay healthy. Despite being told food was safe for her it often wasn’t, and she would suffer the horrible effects later. As such, Gilmore vowed to make food that was reliable for everyone. Her book is filled with mouth-wateringly good recipes and using a key, she takes the care and time to let you know which recipes are gluten-free, vegan, egg free, wheat free and dairy free! It can be a daunting task finding a recipe that is safe or reliable when cooking for a friend with dietary restrictions,  and in our experience has led to less than desirable meals, but with this book in your kitchen those days will be a thing of the past. Having this key takes the pressure off, and you know that everyone will be happy and leave the table feeling safe and looked after.

The book is full of exciting flavours including your favourite classic dishes with restaurant quality twists; such as beef, chorizo and mushroom stew, lamb kofta kebabs and sweet potato, spinach and caramelised onion quiche. The salads in the book were definitely among our favourite recipes, and were so much more than your everyday garden variety salad; our two favourites were the seared lamb, halloumi, orange, roasted carrot and almond salad and the sweet potato, red pepper, pine nut and feta salad. These are delicious as light summer dinners as well as healthy lunches to take with you to work.

You can purchase these wonderful recipes and much more here from £20.00

Diana Falk’s cookbook, The Hungry Fan's Game Day Cookbook: 103 Recipes for Fangating, Eating, Drinking & Watching Sports, is the perfect book for those days when everyone comes over to watch a big game or race. The food is not only fun but delicious, and each recipe is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser!

The book is a mixture of healthy and decadent ideas, that will all help with the festivity and excitement of your next sports event. From Bacon, Cheddar Spud Nachos to panko and coconut crusted prawns to lentil salad – there is a delicious recipe in here for every sports lover you know. What we think is fabulous about these recipes is that, whether your guests know everything there is to know about sports, or are completely uninterested, both will have a fun time – even if your team loses!

You can purchase this cookbook here for £18.22 and be the MVP of the day!

We cannot think of a more appropriate title for a cookbook, as in Yiddish the word Fress means “to eat copiously and without restraint.” This is exactly what you’ll want to do as you peruse the recipes in this book. Emma Spritz was a finalist on BBC1 Masterchef, and her cookbook brings together a melting pot of Middle-Eastern and Eastern European tastes to create big flavours that are happy and sociable dishes to feed to friends and family. 

We love how unfussy Emma’s style is, her food is all about extracting maximum flavour from the simplest ingredients in the easiest way.  Embracing recipes from Poland, Russia, Israel, North Africa and Algeria, there is bound to be a delicious recipe for you in here. Whether the recipe brings back a homely familiarity or an exotic new flavour you cannot go wrong with these meals and are sure to wow your friends. 

you can purchase Fress: Bold, Fresh Flavours from a Jewish Kitchen here for £17.00 to start cooking these delicious Jewish flavours at home

Next, on our list is Mastering Chocolate: Recipes, Tips and Techniques from a Master Chocolatier - we would be monsters if we didn’t give you at least one indulgent dessert-centric cookbook! If you want to wow your chocoholic friends and be revered as the master of all chocolate, then this book is for you. With twenty recipes from simple truffles to awe-inspiring tiered cakes, this book explains the essential equipment and provides complete step-by-step photos of each stage of every recipe to help you make the most perfect desserts possible.

The book was written by award-winning pastry chef and chocolatier Mark Tilling.  In case you don’t know who he is, he is the twice UK chocolate master and winner of the first series of BBC2’s Bake-off: Crème de la Crème. These recipes have been tried, and tested and are easy enough to tempt beginners while having the perfect range and creativity for professional chefs! We are still on the lookout for another excuse to make the utterly divine chocolate berry tart!

If you fancy becoming a master chocolatier, then you can purchase Tilling’s cookbook here for £20.00.

Now, while this final book is not technically a cookbook, we simply had to share it with you as Kitchen Hacks: Uncommon Solution to Common Problems is a definite must have! The book teaches you brilliant and easy ‘kitchen hacks’ such as how to professionally hull of a strawberry using only a straw, how to easily peel a hard boiled egg, and how to preserve herbs by freezing them in oil for easy and quick use the next time you need them. What we loved about this book is how it has completely revolutionised the way we move around in our kitchen and how we prepare the food we make. It’s taught us new, better and more time efficient techniques. So now when we have a dinner party, it’s an effortless occasion, and we get to spend time with our guests! We cannot imagine our lives without this handy book being within reach.

You can purchase your very own kitchen helper here for £7.99

So what are you waiting for? Anyone of these books will spice up your everyday cooking or impress at your next dinner party or family lunch. So whether you are trying to get out of a slump or looking to dazzle someone, you'll be able to do it with these in your kitchen. 

Chocolate Treats- Gnaw Chocolate

Here at The Amazing Blog, we are certainly partial to an afternoon tea break, and when a hamper full of Gnaw Chocolate goodies came our way, we were thrilled to try them.

Gnaw’s chocolate mission is to bring back the fun with chocolate. Since when did receiving chocolate as a present become so bland? We love that Gnaw Chocolates made us feel young and excited about treats again. The indulgent selection they sent us included their mini bars, big bars, hot chocolates and buttons. We thought the mini bars were a great idea for taking on the go - they come in a 5 or 10 pack which you can customise, choosing from their 5 different flavours. Our favourite had to be the Peanut Butter, closely followed by Salted Caramel.

The big bars are the ultimate chocolate hit, and we tried the Rocky Road, Banana, Mint and Dark Chocolate. The flavours are all delicious and the packaging is creative yet sleek - perfect for all ages. Their buttons were tasty treats that are deviously more-ish, and the Mixed Chocolate and the Caramel Bags are the perfect size for sharing (if you want to). Gnaw haven’t stopped at food however - they have also created a Hot Choc Shot, which looks like a chocolate lollypop. If you place the stick into hot water it melts to form a rich hot chocolate. Gnaw Chocolate is lovingly hand-crafted in Norfolk, using locally sourced ingredients and natural flavours.

Whether you need a last minute gift idea or are an avid chocolate lover, Gnaw Chocolate can be purchased online here. Their products start at £7.50.