mother’s day gift ideas

We’re taking a short break from my travel posts to share a few ideas for Mother’s Day coming up this Sunday! I partnered with Whole Foods for this post with a few quick and easy ideas for your mom (in case, you know, the day snuck up on you – it’s okay, you still have some time).

1) Breakfast for Mom

Breakfast can be easy peasy with a few fresh fruits from Whole Foods, a little bit of yogurt, milk and plain old oatmeal. This is like a five minute recipe that be done a day in advance and then taken over to Mom’s for a surprise (or planned) treat.

Here I made Peach and Honey Overnight Oats. Here’s how to do it:

Dice up your fresh peaches (or whatever fruit you choose to use – strawberries, bananas, berries, etc). Add two cups of oats (plain old fashioned oats), 1 cup of yogurt (I like to use non-fat greek yogurt to control the amount of sugar that goes in), 1 cup of milk and a few tablespoons of honey. Mix the oats, yogurt and milk into a bowl and stir until combined. If you like it a little runnier (thin rather than thick) add another half cup of milk. Add the fruit and honey. Put into a container and stick it in your fridge over night. Garnish with slices of your chosen fruit and enjoy the morning with mama!

Also pick up a few of Whole Food’s breakfast pastries for a few extra brownie points. Above (from the left) we have a berry turnover, an apple turnover and a peach pastry. All flaky and all delicious!

2) Good Soap

This exclusively made for Whole Foods soap not only smells great but it’s also made with fair trade shea butter and 1% of the annual sales goes is donated to the Whole Planet Foundation.

I stumbled upon this while browsing around in the “there’s no food on this aisle” aisle and was impressed by how GREAT the soaps smelled. The white one is coconut, the pink one is rose and the green one is mint. The best part is that these are very affordable. One bar of soap will set you back $2.49 or you can get three bars for $6. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

3) Popcorn

Okay, now this here is the real “lazy” idea. Basically take these lovely flavored popcorns and either give as-is or repackage them all nice and pretty in new bags tied with string, like so:

You can get the clear bags at a craft store like Michaels or at Do It With Icing on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. Give a little to mom, keep a little for yourself with this method. Pro-tip: of the three, I liked the herb popcorn the best.

If you want to get a little more creative, you can pick up a bag of the plain popcorn and doctor it up yourself. Just melt a bit of butter and add your spices to that before pouring it over the popcorn to create a new flavor. Some ideas: brown sugar and orange, Parmesan and black pepper, Parmesan and oregano, truffle oil, or use one of those seasoning packets used to make ranch dressing. You can also drizzle the popcorn with melted chocolate for a way to sweeten this up.

4) Chocolate

What woman doesn’t love chocolate? Whole Foods has a large selection of chocolates that are not only tasty but also contribute back to society in some meaningful way.

This Dark Chocolate and Almond chocolate bar supports the Tanzania Schoolhouse Project. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this chocolate bar goes to support schoolchildren in Tanzania.

The Divine chocolate is from a fair trade company.

“Farmers pooled resources to set up Kuapa Kokoo, a farmers’ co-op, which would trade its own cocoa, and thus manage the selling process more efficiently than the government cocoa agents. Kuapa Kokoo – which means good cocoa growers – has a mission to empower farmers in their efforts to gain a dignified livelihood, to increase women’s participation in all of Kuapa’s activities, and to develop environmentally friendly cultivation of cocoa.”

And PS – the milk chocolate and spiced cookies bar is DELICIOUS.

Finally the last chocolate bar on the right, Endangered Species Chocolate, donates 10% of net profits to organizations that support species conservation, habitat preservation and humanitarian efforts. They have a three year partnership with an organization and then with a company wide effort, they choose a new organization to support.

All of these chocolates are tasty and help in a small way to make the world a better place.

5) Flowers

And for another really simple idea for mom, they have a variety of flower arrangements. I totally loved these Tulip and Gerber Daisy Mason Jar Arrangements – they looked so festive and bright and I loved that they came in a really simple, reuseable mason jar container.

I hope these last minute ideas help with your mother’s day planning this year!

* Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for Whole Foods Markets. I was paid for this piece but all ideas and photography contained here are my own.