Quicklinks: the Christmas gift giving edition
Posted by kathryn in Uncategorized
I’ve been thinking of Christmas gift ideas over the last few weeks. Recipes and foodie things to make.
ost Christmas gift ideas revolve around cakes, chocolate and sweets. Looking through the latest Donna Hay and it was full of bonbons, white Christmas, chocolate truffles, mini cupcakes, biscuit stacks, cake, cake, cake and cake. It all looks beautiful, amazing even, but I like my presents to be a bit different.
So I put out a request on Twitter for healthier Christmas gift ideas. And had some interesting suggestions, which I thought I’d share with you.
- A healthier cookie mix: It was Sophie who first suggested a healthier biscuit mix by sending me this link. I have lots of friends who just don’t cook. And I like the idea of giving them the means to easily produce home-made biscuits. Hence my spiced chocolate & cranberry recipe.
- Hummous basket: I also liked the idea from @BeautyWriter (who also writes here) of a hummous basket. Chickpeas, a bottle of extra virgin olive oil and some spice or herb mixes.
- Marinated fetta and olives: Christie from @figandcherry had several ideas, but I particularly liked the thought of marinating fetta or olives. You could make rosemary, chilli and lemon olives or some oregano & fennel fetta. Christie also blogs at Fig & Cherry.
- Chai: Another reader suggested making a chai tea blend. Mix together the spices and then give a separate bag of black tea. It’s a wonderful smelling gift as well. Elise has a lovely looking version at Simply Recipes.
- Spice rubs: Another twitter-er @norecipes suggested chutneys, pickles, vodka infusions, plus spice rubs. These Moroccan spices make a lovely gift, as does this home-made mixed spice blend. No Recipes also has a Chinese five spice powder on his blog.
- Muesli: Reading Chew on This during the week also reminded me that home-made muesli is also a lovely gift. I’ve made a toasted pear and ginger version this year.
And of course, if making food presents is not your bag, you could always buy Menu For Hope raffle tickets. Not only are you giving money to a wonderful cause, but you run the chance of winning some fantastic prizes.
Don’t forget I’m involved in two prizes this year. AP03 is six weeks of online nutrition coaching, while AP13 is a prize being offered through my clinic, Balance2health. It includes $220 worth of treatments and services. A bargain.
Photograph by countrygal845
19 December, 2008
Comments
Hey Kathryn – thanks for the shout out! I loooove your idea of a chai tea mix and the Pear and Ginger muesli. Delicious.
I also saw over at Noble Pig that she made dry soup mix, also a great idea, especially for colder countries.
I’ve been too busy this year to make gifts, but you’ve really sparked my creativity for next year and also b’day pressies throughout the year.
Hope you have a lovely Christmas! Christie x
Funny, I was just thinking about edible Christmas presents on the train home.
Some lovely suggestions here.
Great suggestions, Kathryn. I think I have enough time before Christmas to make a couple of batches of those cookies. I’ll have to pull out the kitchen scale from the back of the cupboard, though. (Thank goodness I didn’t part with it at a yard sale.) I’m used to measuring dry ingredients with cups.
Elaine – I’m used to using cups as well. Only problem with that on a site which is read by other countries, is that our cups and tablespoons are a different measure from your cups and tablespoons.
An Australian cup is 250ml, which I think is a metric measure. And our tablespoons are 20ml.
So grams seemed the best way to get an accurate, more universal measurement!
I prefer to give healthy gifts from my kitchen too. Mustards, chutneys, curry pastes, spice mixes are all things I have given in the past. I have made hampers this year with knitted dishcloths, homemade soaps, wreaths of home grown herbs, mustards and home grown peaches. I’ll also be adding gingerbread wreaths. Not quite as healthy but not dreadful and it will be fun for the kids to help make.
Lots of great ideas – I love giving biscuits etc but healthy food seems less of a burden – especially as I have a few people around me who are trying to eat healthier lately
Leave a comment