Being fans of local sourcing and fresh, healthy food, we’ve been scouring the amazing (local-sourced-ingredient) recipes from Hello Fresh. They deliver all the required fresh ingredients along with inspiring new recipes direct to your door.

Tonight we are cooking this Butterflied Mexican Chicken with Homemade Beans

Ingredients

• 1 Hass Avocado
• 1 Lime
• 1 Tbsp Chipotle
• A splash of Tabasco
• 2 Chicken breasts
• ½ cup of coriander
• 1 red onion
• 1 Tsp Ground Cumin
• 1 Tbsp Tomato Puree
• 1 Can organic mixed beans
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 red pepper

Recipe

• Pre-heat your oven to 220 degrees. Chop the peppers, coriander and onion, then drain the beans
• Cover the peppers in olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes until they're soft and crispy round the edges
• Start to cook your onions in a tsp olive oil on a medium-low heat. After 5 mins add beans, cumin, tomato puree, 5 tbsp water and as much Tabasco as you dare
• Pre-heat your grill to a high heat and put the peppers on the middle shelf. Butterfly your chicken (make a cut on both sides and pull the sides so they lay flat like an open book
• Coat the chicken in the chipotle and the zest and juice of half the lime
• Cook the chicken on the top shelf for 6 mins on each side
• Take 2/3 of the bean mixture from the pan and mash. Mix the rest of the beans in
• Cut the avocado lengthways
• To serve, cut the chicken lengthways and place on top of the beans. Mix your roasted peppers and serve on the side with your avocado.

We have also teamed up with Hello Fresh to offer you £20 off your first order. Click here www.hellofresh.co.uk/neom20 to see what you could enjoy when you order this week and to redeem your offer.

Continuing our series of ‘Spring Pots’ blogs, Laetitia Maklouf gives Neom followers some of her best tips for instant, seasonal loveliness you can plant in pots.

For summer clouds

Go quickly! and find some verbena x hybrida or nemesia (which will be out on the shelves just as soon as the weather stops being naughty). A wide, shallow terracotta container is best and plant masses together. You’ll eventually get a gorgeous pastel puff of froth for your trouble which, when it gets straggly can be brutally chopped and fed with liquid seaweed, to make it come back again and delight you for even longer. I love it passionately.

For the promise of bliss

Of course, at this time of the year, you must sow or plant sweet peas. Wait until the weather is warm enough if you want to start them from seed (and I’m talking about the sort of whether that allows you to bare your neck and throw out your arms). Or, you can simply buy seedlings from the garden centre and plant them in a nice deep container, making sure they have a wigwam of canes up which to scramble when the time comes. For amazing scent, go for Spencer hybrids or the old favourite ‘Cupani’…but then you don’t need me to tell you about scent; you’re Neom lovers.

The lowdown on planting in pots

For Summer Clouds, and for the ideas in last week's blog, I would use a half and half mix of ordinary peat-free multi-purpose compost and John Innes no 2. You can just use multi-purpose but you’ll need to be a bit more attentive about watering as it is less good at staying moist.

For Sweet Peas I use one quarter multi-purpose, one quarter John Innes No 2 and half well-rotted manure. These are really hungry plants.

For feeding pots, I use liquid seaweed or tomorite regularly (whenever I remember), although I would never feed thyme or mint.

And remember to make sure your containers are as large as possible, and have saucers to catch excess water – making watering much easier

Enjoy
xLaetitia

Laetitia is author of two books: ‘The Virgin Gardener’, and ‘Sweet Peas for Summer: How to create a garden in a year’.

She blogs at www.laetitiamaklouf.com, tweets @laetitiamaklouf and face-books at Laetitia Maklouf, where you can seek her out and ask her absolutely anything you want.

Photos: Jill Mead

It’s still chilly outside... not even a hint of apple-blossom (which always, for me, heralds April in style). But a delayed spring holds the promise of glory, because it means that we may well get wonderful combinations, like blossom AND daffodils all at once. Anyway there’s no reason not to start gently playing with a few things outside, and pots are perfect for this, as they are small, and separate from the garden, and somehow tinkering with a pot does not require any firm commitment to the rest of a space (which can feel overwhelming, particularly at the beginning of the season).

For instant loveliness

Look no further than what’s on the shelves at your local garden centre right now. Because of the weather, that probably means a wonderful array of primroses, cowslips, tulips, daffodils and muscari. Snap them up and put them in large shallow containers, adding the odd hardy fern, and you have instant Spring beauty that you can plant out in your garden proper (if you have one) when they finally go over.

For cheery, smiling faces

It’s got to be pansies (or viola if you want to be proper about it). Armies of beauteous colours and textures, from fruity, frilly bright yellows, to sultry bruised blues are hitting the shelves right now. Again, for these, I like to use large shallow terracotta bowls, and I always stick to one colour, but if you’re short on space, then have a go at creating a cascade of them in stacked pots (for how-to, see my book Sweet Peas for Summer). Treat them well and these will last you well into the summer, particularly if you dead-head (remove spent flowers) regularly.

For fragrant feel-appeal

Go and gather some small pots of herbs. Thyme is a real winner, and garden centres are full of masses of different varieties, from trailing to variegated. I like to plant up a mish-mash of different terracotta pots with these lovely hummocks of scent and mass them together in one corner. You can do the same with different varieties of mint – it looks fabulous and improves your cooking no end. For Thyme and mint I use just John Innes no 2 compost as these are long-term plantings.

Oh, and one last thing; make sure your containers are as large as possible, and have saucers to catch excess water – this makes watering much less of a chore.

Enjoy
xLaetitia

Laetitia is author of two books: ‘The Virgin Gardener’, and ‘Sweet Peas for Summer: How to create a garden in a year’.

She blogs at www.laetitiamaklouf.com, tweets @laetitiamaklouf and face-books at Laetitia Maklouf, where you can seek her out and ask her absolutely anything you want.

Photos: Jill Mead

Scents this month become a backdrop for a rise in temperature and cheery yellows and pink blossom colours peeking through the windows but still need a degree of comfort.

Contentment has been a fantastic launch for us this month, there is something about the balance of juicy berry notes combined with a warmth of spicy notes that we still need at this time of year - so I'm using a Contentment Reed Diffuser in the hallway and up the stairs. I've found it mixes beautifully with the light, sparkling scent of Happiness which typically I use during the day, but will make a lovely backdrop for my Mother's Day evening meal too.

Mimosa with Lemon and Neroli is crisp but pretty, perfect for this time of the year. If you prefer something fruity, Cocooning is a fantastic scent for those in need of a little me-time, we developed it for pregnant ladies (the kit is a beautiful gift for new and soon to be mums) but I use it as a treat if I’m tired and so many people have told me they think it really improves their mood – packed with Mandarin, Chamomile and Ylang Ylang it is a nice balancing scent to take you between seasons too.

I would love to hear which scents you are using and what changes you make. Tweet me @nicolaelliott or @neomorganics we really do love to hear from you.

With spring just around the corner, we asked florist Lucy MacNicoll to show us how to create a beautiful display inspired by the ingredients of the scent of Happiness that will, excitingly, transition you into the spring season.

Visit Lucy's website at www.lucymacnicoll-flowers.com.

To create the display you will need:

Gold fish bowl vase.
1 block of oasis floral foam.
Florists' knife to cut the foam.
1 small plastic circular dish (to place the foam in) approx. 12cm diameter (this should sit on top of the vase) you can purchase from your local florist.
approx. 12cm diameter
Florists pot tape.
Sharp scissors.
5 stems white Lilac.
10 stems Mimosa.
5 stems Guelder Rose.
5 stems Wax Flower.
10 stems Craspedia.
5 stems Bupleurum
8 Lemons.

Directions

1. Soak the oasis foam in water.

2. Cut to size to fit into the circular dish. Secure foam with florists pot tape.

3. Begin by placing the stems of Bupleurum, Mimosa and Wax flower to fill the foam and start to create the outline of the design.

4. Add in the white Lilac and the Guelder Roses.

5. Then add in the Craspedia helping to define the loose dome shape.

6. Fill any remaining gaps with the rest of the Bulpherium and Wax flower.

7. Place on top of the gold fish bowl with lemons placed inside the vase.

8. Lightly spray the design with water.

9. Make sure you top up the floral foam with water every few days.

When the beautiful Goop newsletter popped into our inboxes last evening (the weekly publication curated by Gwyneth Paltrow, where Gwyneth shares the best of lifestyle) we were expecting the usual fabulous read and soft-and-stunning photography. Whilst scrolling down, we saw ‘I’m loving’ where Gwyneth shared a few things she’s loving and what did we see but the most lovely shot of our Relax candle - it’s so lovely and thrilling that we just had to share this with you. Seeing such things makes us really proud and has caused many, many smiles here at Neom HQ on this snowy Friday.

If you’re not signed up to Goop we really recommend it: www.goop.com

Happy Friday everyone and hope you enjoy a lovely relaxing weekend at home or building snowmen in your back garden.

Much love, Neom

Gingerbread is not just for before Christmas. It is also a failsafe way to keep younger children entertained in that time between Christmas and New Year. Get them busy with the cookie cutters and the icing and you can have a mini Gingerbread dessert table, made entirely by your kids for New Years Eve.

Pre-heat oven 180c
350g, plain flour
100g self-raising flour
125g dark soft muscovado sugar
125g butter, room temperature
1 large egg
125g golden syrup

Sift the flours in to the bowl of the mixer and add the sugar. Combine with a spoon. Add the butter, chopped in to pieces and mix, using the paddle, until resembles breadcrumbs. Making a well in the mixture add the egg and the syrup, mix together on a slow/medium speed until the mixture forms a ball. Roll out and cut out the shapes you want, bake on a lined sheet for up to 15 mins.

Revive the Gingerbread by warming gently for a few moments in the oven, sandwiching two gingerbread men together using a good quality ice cream and drizzling with salted caramel and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon! There is no finer way to see in a new year and your kids will feel very pleased that they baked up storm for such an important occasion.

These delicious gingerbread men are a perfect accompaniment with our Restore Home & Travel Candles - with a blend of Jasmine, Ginger & Sandalwood.

Ginger bread men by Cherry Menlove, Homemaker, Author of The Handmade Home and owner of Picketfencebaking.com

To make this beautiful wreath you will need the following:

A 35cm (14 inch) wire wreath ring.
1 box of Sphagnum moss
2 bunches of Baby blue and Silver Dollar Eucalyptus
Approx. 15 Pine cones
Long strong wires for attaching Pine cones
A reel of mossing wire
Strong scissors

1. Attach the end of the reel wire to the outside edge of the ring. Make compact clumps of the moss and bind on firmly with the reel wire.

2. Continue this process until the whole ring is covered.

3. To make a hook to hang it, bend a strong piece of wire in half and push it through the top of the wreath so that both ends comes through evenly. Twist wire together to make a loop.

4. Cut the Eucalyptus into lengths of approx. 15 cm. Take groupings of the Eucalyptus and place them on top of the moss binding them on with the mossing wire. Make sure all the foliage is placed in the same direction and positioned close together so there are no gaps and it looks compact.

5. To attach the Pine cones, wire the base of them with a strong wire leaving two ends which you can push through the ring and secure on the back of the wreath.

6. Add the Pine Cones in groups dotted around the wreath.

If I make it out for a bracing Autumnal walk this October, I'll have been lucky. It's more pea soup and drizzle in Yorkshire right now. Nevertheless it's still my favourite time of the year. I love the indoors just as much as being outdoors and making our home cosy and warm.

On days like this, we bake cakes and oaty flapjacks and the house is infused with beautiful scents and candles that flicker prettily against a greyish backdrop.

My must-have fragrance right now is Harmonise. Combining Pine, Cedarwood and Eucalyptus, it warms yet revives, green notes blending so well with woody undertones. It's the kind of fragrance that works as well on a gloomy Saturday morning as it does whilst entertaining that evening.

If I've kept my Saturday night free (my idea of bliss), then I combine organic hot chocolate with the 'cashmere blanket' of our scent collection; Real Luxury. When the children go to bed, I take a long bath in our heavenly Tranquillity Bath Foam and retreat to bed early with a huge pile of books and the soothing scents of English Lavender, Sweet Basil & Jasmine filling my room in the form of my Tranquillity Home Candle. Perfect weekends, whatever the weather.

View everything by visiting our shop page here.

Since we launched our bodycare range, I’ve been pestering the product development team about making organic Bath Foam…but it’s probably one of the trickiest products we have created at Neom and has taken us over two years. Our philosophy is to never use SLS (something which creates the foaming effect) because it can irritate the skin, so we had to take an alternative route to make sure our Bath Foam actually, well, foamed!

We eventually went for an alternative way of manufacturing and blending coconut oil and vegetable oils which offered us a safe ingredient that gave our Bath Foam those all-important bubbles in the tub. Then came adding the scent, this was another challenge. The blend of essential oils we added made the formula really watery and just glugged into the bath. So, I spent hours and hours adding in and taking out a mix of over ten different essential oils until we found the right balance of scent which made the bath foam stable, a joy to use and smell divinely tranquil.

I am thrilled to say it’s one the most successful bodycare launches we’ve had (perhaps it’s because it’s so ground-breaking! Not to blow my own trumpet or anything) so it makes all the hard work really worth it. Hats-off to our hard-working PD team too! May this pic be a reminder of all your hard work and the many, many baths we’ve had at testing the hundreds of formulations!

Enjoy our new Bath Foam made with 74% organic ingredients & 26% natural ingredients with ingredients like soothing Aloe Leaf, Marshmallow, and Sweet Almond.