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Homemade Food Gifts for the Holiday share

vegan cookies-in-a-jar from Vegan Richa

There are so many reasons to choose homemade foods. Not only do homemade foods always taste better than their packaged, boxed and plastic-wrapped counterparts, homemade foods are infinitely more healthy. Processed foods are notoriously laden with sugar, salt, fats, oils, preservatives, chemicals and fillers. When you make your own goodies, you know where everything comes from, what the ingredients are, and you can infuse all your foods with love and positive energy.

One of the best ways to share homemade foods is to give food gifts for the holidays. I've already decided that my friends and family will be receiving either homemade granola, cookie mix or homemade sauerkraut for this year. Everyone is always asking after my recipes, so what better way to share my foods and hopefully inspire people to find their path to healthier living?! Here are some of the best ideas I found for homemade food gifts to share this holiday season (there are a few bonus homemade non-food items too!). What's your favorite homemade gift for the holiday?

Cookies in a Jar: Everyone loves cookies, but not everyone feels like they are qualified as bakers. Take the guesswork out of homemade cookies with cookie mixes in a jar. Choose your favorite cookie recipe, make a cute recipe card, and give away goodness! Here's a recipe and tutorial from Vegan Richa, one of my favorite vegan cooking blogs.

Homemade Granola: This is the homemade granola recipe that I will be sharing with my friends and family. It's so easy, wholesome and deliciously more flavorful than the stuff in boxes. Best of all, oats are pretty cheap, so this gift is a pretty affordable option for those of us on a tight holiday budget. Find unique jars at thrift stores to make it extra special, or use little fancy baggies with handwritten notes.

Homemade tea mixes: Show off your flair for spices and herbs with homemade tea gifts. Choose your favorite tea (red, green, black or white), mix in your favorite herbs (lavender, camomile, vanilla, spices) and place in a cute jar for months of happy holiday memories. Find small, cute jars lying around your kitchen or at the thrift store and get packing! Here's a cute tutorial for homemade chai tea from the Kitchn.

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homemade chai mix from the Kitchn

Homemade Whipped Body Butter: Give the gift of natural beauty! Homemade body butter is made with awesome ingredients like shea butter, coconut oil and more for a luxurious treat for someone special. Here's a Mint Chocolate Body Butter from Mommypotamus. Yums!

For the dog-lovers, Homemade Doggie Biscuits: Even our furry friends need good food! Treat the canine in your life to special treats with this great list of homemade dog treats from the Kitchn.

And of a whole mess of other great ideas, check out this great post from 100 Days of Real food for instructions for making homemade vanilla extract, homemade breads, and homemade spice mixes.

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love your doggies

Posted: | Categories: DIY beauty, gifts, holidays, homemade, Living

Dec

Raw Superfood Chocolate Truffles share

superfood chocolate truffles with dates, nuts and raw cacao!

During the holidays most of us are overwhelmed with holiday treats of all kinds. It seems like there are always cupcakes at office parties, fancy drinks at cocktail parties, and edible gifts all around. There are a million other ways that junk food infiltrates our life at this time of year, and just like holiday songs that get stuck in your head, these sugar-laden treats linger in your body for days and weeks, making us feel less than vibrant.

If you want to avoid those junky sweets altogether, you can keep your sweet tooth happy by choosing healthier sweet treats to share at events and keep around the house. These Superfood Chocolate Truffles are the perfect answer. These easy treats feature a mix of nuts, superfoods (maca and coconut) and covered in homemade, raw superfood cacao. Super yums for the holiday season or anytime of year!

Superfood Chocolate Truffles

½ cup almonds
½ cup walnuts
Pinch salt
¾ cup Medjool dates, pitted
2 Tablespoons maca powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
Homemade Raw Chocolate Topping
½ cup finely chopped raw cacao butter (I like Navitas Naturals organic cacao butter)
½ cup raw cacao powder
2 Tablespoons honey or agave (optional)
Pinch salt (optional)

Add almonds, walnuts and salt into the food processor. Blend until very fine- much like the texture of sand.
Add dates, maca, cinnamon and coconut oil. Blend again, until mixture begins to thicken and stick together inside the processor. Turn out into a mixing bowl.
Measure out 1 Tablespoon mixture and roll into a ball in you hands. Layer onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roll out all balls, then freeze for 15 minutes (see photo below).
Meanwhile, make the Homemade Raw Chocolate Topping: Add a few inches of water to a small saucepan, and place a slightly larger glass bowl on top. Add cacao butter to the glass bowl. Heat water until boiling, then reduce heat. Cacao butter will melt and turn into a liquid. When it's fully melted, stir in cacao powder and stir until totally smooth. Add in honey/agave and salt if desired. Remove bowl carefully (steam will be trapped, so use caution!) and place onto a kitchen towel (for some images of this process, see this homemade chocolate post here).
Remove truffles from freezer and dip into chocolate using a spoon. Dip once and let cool to solid, then dip again for a richer coating. Return to freezer to set chocolate for at least 15 minutes. Move to refrigerator to keep for weeks.
Note: as you can see in the photos, these can also be made in a candy mold. Add some chocolate to the mold, then add small balls of nut mixture, then cover with more chocolate. Enjoy! Makes approximately 15 treats

superfood balls, before chocolate coating!

gorgeous chocolate truffles

Posted: | Categories: chocolate, Food+Drink, homemade, Living, recipes

Aug

Five Easy Ways to Build a Cleaner, Greener Diet Now share

As a chef and educator, I work with people to find solutions to some of their most difficult food issues. For many people it seems that the solution (or at least the beginning of the solution) is to make some quick fixes. Sometimes it's the smallest things that can damage our diets in the worst ways. And amazingly, the things that are the worst for our bodies are also terrible for the planet and your budget too!

Check out the list below for five ways to build a cleaner diet for your body and a greener diet for the planet!

1. Skip the whites!

The so-called white foods have been linked with many of the lifestyle diseases we face as a society. Our Standard American Diet is loaded with white flour, white rice, white potatoes, and white sugar. While some of these are naturally white (the potatoes), the others are all heavily processed and bleached before they make it into our foods. Alternatives are whole-grain breads, brown rice, and unrefined sugars like coconut sugar, dates and honey.

2. Ditch the soda!

Soda is just straight up bad. Regular soda is bad, diet soda is bad, even 'natural' sodas and sweetened beverages are bad. And they are all bad for the same reasons. Firstly, our body is not designed to digest the excessive amount of sugar in soda or drinks– but we're not designed to digest all the chemicals in diet soda either. There are many studies linking consumption of sugary beverages to weight gain and other lifestyle diseases. In addition, all those plastic bottles end up in the landfill (only a small percentage are actually recycled). Plastic can also leach chemicals into our bodies. And it costs so much money to buy all those beverages! Healthier options include homemade water kefir, soda water with some stevia (they even make soda pop flavored stevia!), or just water with lemon. Kombucha and iced teas are also good choices, but watch for added sugars in all of these products.

3. Buy everything UNSWEETENED

One of the big problems with the processed food industry is that the are hidden ingredients in everything. Most often, those hidden and necessary ingredients include salt, fats and SUGAR. Sugar can be found in pasta sauces, ketchup, almost all bottled beverages, and even health foods like whole-grain breads, granola bars and non-dairy milks. I was furious when I learned that my favorite 'original flavor' almond milk and soy milk contain sugar as the third ingredient! Learn to read the labels and try to choose products without any added sweetener. Your tastebuds will learn to appreciate the the natural, subtle sweetness found in foods.

4. Buy in bulk

The bulk section is my favorite place in my health food store! You can buy grains, beans, pasta, herbs and so much more in their most pristine form. No chemicals, no fillers, no BPA-lined cans! Yes, buying in bulk means you are cooking whole grains and beans at home, but I promise the results are worth it. You save money, save packaging, and save yourself all the crap that's found in pre-cooked and processed foods.

5. Skip the Starbucks!

I was a barista for many years, and so I have seen first-hand the crazy that coffee inspires! But, it's also super expensive, mega wasteful (hello, Starbucks recycling programs?!), and it's really not that good for you. All those caramel macchiatos and Chocolate Chunk Frappuccinos are loaded with conventional dairy products and loads of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Couple that with the acidic coffee and you have a very unhealthy beverage, my friend. I'm not going to suggest you give up your morning brew, but it would be good for you and our planet if you made your own coffee at home. Using a regular coffee maker or a French press (here's a great how-to for the French press method) you can make customizable brews at home for a fraction of the cost. Add honey, coconut sugar and organic dairy or coconut milk to further healthify your cup of joe. You can also make cold-brew coffee, which is super easy and not so energy intensive.