For many of us, the last few years have been lean years in terms of material wealth. This means that the holidays are an excellent time to remind ourselves that the best and most meaningful gifts don’t have the highest price tags: they’re the gifts that embody love and consideration. To me, the best gift is one that indicates to me that the person giving knows me well enough to know what would make me smile.

I like to think that I keep this in mind when I give gifts to family and friends: they’re not always fancy, and they’re often not even store bought, but they are full of love, and I always try to fit my gifts to the tastes and fancies of the people I’m giving to.

This year, I made more edible gifts than I ever have before. It was a little more work than usual, given my final exam schedule, but absolutely worth it. I was really happy with how my holiday treats turned out, and I’ll definitely be repeating them. Here, for the 2011 giving season, is a roundup of my favorites—most of which you saw here when I first posted them—as well as my picks for holiday dining this year (don’t worry: there will be more of those in the next two days).

Raw, Vegan Macaroons

Low Fat, Raw, and Vegan Apple Cinnamon Raisin Granola

Sweet n’ Spicy Candied Nuts

Sour Cream and Cherry Muffins

Cocoa Crunch Buckwheat Granola

Vegan Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies

And, if you’re looking for some fantastic holiday dishes to prepare tomorrow, on Sunday, and throughout the week, you can try:

Creamy Fusilli with Beets, Kale, and Toasted Pine Nuts

Raw, Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Sunflower Seed and Cashew Cheese with Cranberries

Gluten Free, Vegan Stuffing with Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash

Curried Cauliflower with Fresh Cranberries

Vegan Colcannon

Enjoy!!!

Looking back, I think that Christmas was truly the holiday that taught me to be conscious of my own good fortune. I was so grateful for my cozy holiday dinners, my gifts, my friends, and my family, and it occurred to me that so many people around the world were spending their own Christmases without shelter, warmth, food, or company.

This Christmas, as we all get ready to dig into presents and feed ourselves like kings and queens, let’s all try to remember not only the many other human beings who are less fortunate than we are, but also the hundreds of thousands of animals who are suffering this holiday season—all too often, suffering for us. Let’s remember that they, too, are without warmth, shelter, or rest; let’s remember that they’re often sick, scared, and lonely. Before you check off all of your Christmas gifts, please consider donating to your favorite animal-oriented charity or non-profit, or, if you’d like to link your own life to that of an animal in need, please consider sponsoring an animal at a local farm sanctuary.

My life is so much richer because of Hamlet, the ornery pig I sponsor at Poplar Springs Animal Sanctuary near DC. And the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in upstate New York is the place I learned how to connect intimately and compassionately with animals. There’s really no greater gift you can give yourself and an animal than the gift of a newly forged relationship.

For a list of farm sanctuaries near you, check this link out.

And an early, tasty, happy Christmas to you, readers See you tomorrow!

xo

Greetings from NYC! This is a bittersweet homecoming, as my grandmother’s funeral is today, but it’s also great to be home, and in the company of my family and friends. It has been a long, long six months since I first arrived in Washington, and I’m looking forward to a little reflective time over this break. I’m also looking forward to catching up on some sorely needed blog work: emails, comments, updates, guest posts, and so on. Finally, I’m looking forward to being upstate with Chloe on Wednesday and Thursday! I haven’t gotten up there in well over a year, and I’m long overdue.

So, while I attend to family duties today, I’m leaving you all with yet another edible gift idea: the first were my pumpkin and mocha chip macaroons. And now we have something a little more traditional: candied nuts. But this traditional recipe gets a spicy twist with some untraditional spices, and a touch of heat. Hence the sweet n’ spicy part!

I first made this recipe years ago, while I was still working at FSG. It quickly became my coworkers’ and friends’ favorite of my gifted treats, and I’ve been making it every single year since. I guarantee that you’ll have the same results with your loved ones, if you make this recipe. And the good news for all of my readers is that there’s no dehydrating required, so you won’t have to modify this recipe for your oven.

Sweet N’ Spicy Candied Nuts (vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Makes about 4 cups worth

2 cups pecans
1 cup walnuts
1 cup cashews
1/3 cup coconut oil 
1 tbsp tamari 
1/2 cup cane sugar
1 tbsp cumin 
2 tsp cinnamon 
1/4 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1) Turn all nuts into a big mixing bowl.

2) Whisk together the coconut oil and tamari. Pour over nuts and toss with hands to mix thoroughly.

3) Add sugar, cumin, cinnamon and cayenne to the nuts. Toss well to combine thoroughly. Add more sugar if you have a sweet(er) tooth! And if you need a little more moisture, add a tbsp of maple syrup or agave.

4) Bake at 250 degrees for about 30 minutes, until nuts are nicely toasted and glazed. Check on them often to make sure they’re not burning. At the 30 minute mark, reduce oven to 200 degrees and cook for another 15 minutes.

5) Remove from oven and break nuts apart gently with a spoon or tongs. Allow to cool completely before serving!!

This isn’t a super-healthy recipe by any means, but it is a perfect recipe for a holiday treat—one you give yourself, or one you give to others. And you can’t beat the buttery tasting, spicy sweet glaze:

This is one you’ll want to bookmark!

Hope I’m managing to give you all inspiration for some economical and tasty holiday gifts. Usually, I do a big holiday gift guide with vegan appliances, culinary specialties, and apparel. This year, as a student on a budget that truly only allows for edible giving, I thought I’d stay true to my own constraints and show you exactly what I plan to give to the people I love. I always say that food is the best kind of gift—nourishment for body and soul—and I hope you all agree

xo

Ladies and gentleman, I’m in love. Beauty has a name, and its name is Lulu’s Raw Chocolate.

“Chocoholic” is a big word, but let’s just say that chocolate and I have a special relationship. It is my favorite dessert by far: I’ll take a great piece of high quality dark chocolate over a cookie or cake any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. It’s often my favorite snack (a little sugar, a little caffeine, and a boost of antioxidants pair very nicely with mid-afternoon energy slumps). It is my favorite flavoring for smoothies and puddings (check out my chocomole and my chocolate & zucchini smoothie). And, when I’m tethered to my desk for a long night of studying, hot almond milk cocoa is my favorite thing to sip.

Since I started Choosing Raw, I’ve reviewed a few raw chocolate brands for the blog. First was Fine and Raw, which I really loved. Then was Gnosis, a raw chocolate company that is founded and run by my lovely friend Vanessa Barg. I’ve also mentioned a number of my favorite chocolate bars that aren’t raw: Green & Black (read labels carefully, as not all are vegan), Endangered Species Chocolate, Rapunzel, and Salazon (which is especially yummy).

Now I’ll tell you about my newest chocolate obsession, Lulu’s Raw Chocolate. Organic, raw, and vegan, Lulu’s chocolate is not only heavenly tasting, but also sourced through fair trade practices from Pacari farms in Ecuador, and packaged using compostable materials. 1% of the company’s annual profits are donated to charity.

Today, my friends over at Vegan Cuts are offering a specially priced pack of Lulu’s chocolate bars, which is precisely the pack I got to sample (thanks, Jill!!). If you haven’t checked out Vegan Cuts yet, you should: it’s essentially a Groupon/LivingSocial-type site for vegan deals and steals, and it’s fantastic! Today’s deal is only one example of the kinds of fabulous discounts you can make away with when you shop on the site. And what a delicious example it is.

The sampler pack offers 6 flavors: Sedona Spice, Raw Love, Maca Love, Chocolate Maca Chunk, Aztec Crunch, and Smoked Sea Salt Almond. Of these, Sedona Spice and Smoked Sea Salt Almond were my favorites, along with Raw Love, which had hints of vanilla (yum). You know they were my favorite because they did not last long enough to be photographed. I did get a photo of the Aztec Crunch (which is covered in cacao nibs):

Rich, crunchy, and satisfying!!! And look how beautiful the inscribed backs of these bars are:

The only flavors I didn’t really love were the maca ones. I have sort of a complicated relationship with maca—I’ve warmed up to it, but only in small doses and in certain recipes. These bars are a great value in that they offer you a LOT of maca along with a LOT of delicious cacao, but a LOT was ultimately too much maca for me. Even so, I crumbled some bits of the bar into granola and cereals and over smoothies, and that worked well. More importantly, I was so head-over-heels for the other Lulu’s falvors that I didn’t much care about the fact that a few of them were maca-heavy.

Note that all Lulu’s bars feature coconut sugar, which is lower on the glycemic index than some other sweeteners. And all are 100% gluten free.

Would I purchase a pack of Lulu’s chocolate on my own? I absolutely would. This is some of the best raw chocolate I’ve tried. Interestingly, it’s also the raw chocolate that tastes most (to me) like regular chocolate. Which means it’s a good “intro,” if you will, into raw chocolate. With the holidays upon us, I can’t recommend this brand highly enough for some vegan edible giving. Head on over to Vegan Cuts and check the deal out!

With that, it’s back to work I go. Funnily, the link to my Gnosis post, above, made me nostalgic for my old desk lunches at the office; I ate at home today, but there was a “lemons out of lemonade” charm to the effort I used to put into my office meals.

Till tmw,

xo

Thanks so much for your positive responses to the raw Caesar dressing, and to my frustratingly vague allusions to “seismic life change.” I look forward to writing more soon! In the meantime, and before we share any more food talk, I thought I’d put up my official holiday gift guide for 2010. This comes a little late this year, but let’s be honest: have any of us actually done our holiday shopping yet? No. We plan on doing it online, this weekend, and praying that stuff arrives on time.

Last year, my holiday gift guide was fairly comprehensive. This year, I’m giving it some focus: wardrobe and accessories. I’ve included some stocking stuffers, but for the most part I wanted to highlight apparel for the compassionate men and women in your lives. Why? Because veganizing my own wardrobe, as you all know, is a project I’ve been hard at work on. Food and diet are the obvious entrances into a vegan life, but as one’s veganism deepens, it’s only natural to start thinking a lot harder about clothing, skincare, bags, and shoes. I’ve found that the process can be a little scary, so I’d love to share with you some of the vegan items that have caught my own eye—both because they’re cute, and also because they’re “cruelty free.”

Note that I’ve tried to keep most everything on the list below $100. I recently checked out a bunch of major green websites and was a little shocked at just how “green” the pricetags on their holiday gift guides were—and by that I mean lots of cash, not eco-friendly. I don’t personally have the money for a $500 water filtration system or a pair of Olsen Haus boots, so—with the exception of the Vaute Couture coat and the Matt and Natt laptop bag, which I included for those of you who do feel like splurging on a special someone—most of this stuff should be (relatively) budget friendly. If not, I have a few ideas at the end for edible giving. Enjoy!

For the Vegan Lady in Your Life:

Toggery Dress from Ecolissa:

Nancy Faux Wool Coat from B.B. Dakota:

Madden Girl Pleather Ankle Boot:

Slouchy Cacoon Cardigan:

Hunch Brown Pleather Boots:

Faux Cashmere Scarf:

Playing Cardigan:

Vaute Couture Pea Coat:

Christy Robinson Pendant:

Corduroy Purse (a great deal on Etsy!)

For the Vegan Gentleman in Your Life:

Men’s Carport Bison Brown Vegan Sneaker:

Vegan Collection Men’s Wallet:

Laptop Bag from Matt and Nat:

Vegan Belt from Ethical Wares:

Shawl-Collar Cotton Sweater:

Skinny Ties from The Ethical Man:

Patagonia Synchilla Jacket:

Ultrasoft Hemp Shirt from Orvis:

Skinstinct Jeans:

Swiss Hunter Watch:

Stocking Stuffers for Him and for Her:

Vegan Chocolate set from Endangered Species Chocolate:

Soy Candles from Beanpod:

Sweet and Sara Marshmellows:

Vegan Soaps from Ethically Engineered:

Primal Strips Jerky (this is kind of a dude gift, but still):

VegNews Subscription:

Lifefactory Water Bottle:

Go Vegan! 2011 Calendar:

Crazy Rumors Lip Balm:

Max & Ruffy’s Vegan Dog Treats:

Edible Giving:

OSG Snickerdoodles:

Jenna’s Vegan Sugar Cookies:

Maple Pumpkin Butter from Vegan Visitor:

Chocolate Candy Cane Cupcakes from Manifest Vegan:

Almond Cherry Macaroons from Rawmazing:

May you share these gifts with all of the plant-loving people in your life, be they vegans or omnis. Tis the season!

xo

Hi all,

Hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was filled with snow (all hail the great Blizzard of ’09!), with some cooking, with holiday parties (including a very nice gathering at a friend’s place last night, as the winds raged around us), and with some live performances (a culture vulture friend was visiting).

Thanks to Michelle and Lori, it was also filled with raw treats!

The holidays are wonderful, but they can also be difficult. I know I’ve struggled to purchase all of my last minute gifts this weekend, to bake some last minute goodies for my colleagues, and to keep my head straight as I sort through Christmas plans (being a child of divorce makes the holiday schedule slightly complex). But there are some folks who manage to make time to do kind, thoughtful things for others, even as the holidays test their patience and energy. And the Pure2Raw twins are most definitely such people.

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to recieve the following package:

It was assortment of raw breads (including such scrumptious varieties as swiss chard and black sesame seed flatbread), crackers (some of which I scarfed up immediately, including a kale and pumpkin seed cracker), and sweets (like fudgy chocolate ginger coconut bites):

Lucky, lucky me!

The Twins, as you know, are the geniuses behind Twin Cakes, where they offer catering services, baked goods, and raw cooking class. Their amazing un-baked goods are not only highly delicious, but cruelty free and supremely health-conscious! The Twins, unlike other raw un-bakers, take care not to overdo it on nuts, and they even use a combination of stevia and dates/agave in some of their recipes so that the sugar content is moderate. Good stuff!

The best news for you all is that you can order packages of their excellent products online at the Twin Cakes website, or you can find out more about the opportunity to learn directly from the ladies themselves! The Twins are also offering a special January package of scrumptious, yet all natural and healthy goodies to help you begin the year off right. Paired with participation in the Choosing Raw + Spark! Wellness January Cleanse, I think it’s the best kind of start to a new year!!

Lori and Michelle are some of the warmest, kindest, and most devoted raw folks I’ve met. They believe deeply in good health through raw and vegan nutrition, and they’re 100% committed to the lifestyle. What you see on their blog (that is, kindness, intelligence, and determination) is most certainly what you get in person. I thank the twins for sharing their culinary wizardry with me at Christmas!

I also thank them for bestowing the Beautiful Blogger Award on me! I’m a little late in sharing it, but I was so flattered to recieve it from them.

This award asks me to share seven random things about myself with you all. Here they are, a mix of intimate and trivial, food related miscelleny, in no particular order:

1) I’ve lived my whole block in the same forty block radius of Manhattan. I know I’ve told you this before, but quite honestly, it’s so peculiar to me sometimes that I often repeat it.

2) I’ve wanted to be an editor since I was a kid. Most editors–who are writers who had a change of heart, or academics-to-be who got dissilusioned, or people who couldn’t decide what to do with an English degree–think it’s freakish that I knew so early, and also strange that I never nursed dreams of being a writer myself (which I didn’t, and don’t; editing is my forte!).

3) I was not popular in high school. At all. In fact, I was nerdy and bookish and quiet and often the brunt of teasing; on the other hand, I was a little snooty about my book smarts. I like to think I’ve grown out of the snootiness, and grown into more of a social butterfly.

4) The only vegetables I do not like are radishes and onions. And cooked spinach; I love raw spinach, but cooked spinach gives me the creeps.

5) Though I’m half Greek, I don’t identify with my Greek heritage very much at all; I’m an Episcopalian, not orthodox, and don’t speak a word of the language, save some curse words. It’s neither a good or bad thing, but given how overwhelming Greek culture can be, it’s odd.

6) I went to an all girls’ school in NYC. And we had uniforms. Contrary to what people assume, though, it was about as far from Gossip Girl as can be: I was actually very sheltered growing up, and very well behaved (painfully so), and didn’t even think about dating till my senior year of high school. Far cry from the New York City kid stereotype!

7) I hate watermelon. Like, a lot. I’m not much of a fruit lover in general, but watermelon really sinks to the bottom of my list. I know most people like it, but not me!

And now, seven people to whom I pass the torch!

1) Melissa

2) Jessica

3) Katherine

4) Aletheia

5) Diana

6) Tasha (who’s having a giveaway right now!)

7) LC

Love to you all!

It’s another busy week, but I promise to return with some pre-Christmas recipe posting. Get excited.

xo

Hey guys!

Keep your awesome responses to the Choosing Raw and Spark! Wellness Cleanse coming! I’m so excited that many of you have expressed interest in it.

I know that I’m a little late on this (just like me — saving holiday shopping for the last moment), but I’m here with my official Choosing Raw holiday gift guide. I began this baby a few weeks ago, and it seems to have gotten longer and longer as the days of holiday shipping grow fewer and fewer. There are so many wonderful things to give a vegan, a raw foodie, or anyone who takes an interest in health and wellness!

What you don’t see here are my very favorite gifts: handmade ones. I didn’t include those because they’re best when they’re personal and unique, but some great ideas include knit scarves and hats (for a great post on vegan knitting, click here), homemade vegan peppermint donut holes, candied nuts, pickled vegetables or homemade sauerkraut, or homemade kombucha (what a lineup of lovely raw ladies that was!).

If you’re short on time, or you’d like to invest in a gift, though, here are my top picks for everyone on your list! Hope they give you some last minute inspiration.

For a major splurge:

1) VitaMix, Blendtec or Dehydrator

2) Infrared Sauna

3) Rebounder

4) Water Filtration System

5) Trip to an eco-friendly resort

For the Fashionista

1) Kate’s Design eco-friendly bracelets

2) Beau Soleil Groove Dress

3) 7 For All Mankind Organic Slouchy Jeans

4) Non-leather bag from The Sak

5) Stella McCartney shoes

For the Foodie

1) Bamboo knife set from Target

2) Membership to an Organic Wine Club

3) Bell Canning Jar Set

4) Slow Food Apron from MotherTongues

4) New Salad Spinner

5) Indoor Pot Herbs

For the Yogi

1) Jade Yoga Mat (because you can never have too many)

2) Bendie Yoga Bags

3) Lululemon Gift Certificate

4) Yoga Is Yummy yoga DVDs!

5) Sigg Water Bottles

For the Eco-Fanatic

1) Indoor Compost Keeper

2) Donation to The Conservation Fund

3) Voltaic Solar Backpack

4) Buy Carbon Offsets

5) A Rain Barrel

For the Book Lover

1) The China Study

2) Eating Animals

3) Living Raw Food

4) Eat, Drink and Be Vegan

5) Food For Life

Stocking Stuffers

1) Priti Nail Polish

2) Lululemon headband

3) One Lucky Duck Macaroons or Cookies

4) Whole Foods Gift Certificates

5) Food Tee

6) Fine and Raw Chocolate Bon Bons

7) Dry Brush

8  ) Oracle Organics Soap

9) Pacifica Soy Candle

10) Set of Five Reusable, Eco-Friendly Tote Bags

You can also check out TreeHugger for a great eco-friendly gift guide, Melissa‘s blog for a fitness-savvy run down, and Bitt’s blog for more raw ideas.

Happy Holidays!

xo