Consider healthy food, cooking ingredients, and utensils for those last minute gifts you need for friends and family this holiday season. There are lots of options. Here are some suggestions from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension to help get you started.
Fruit and vegetable bouquet: Try giving a colorful selection of fruits and vegetables, keeping them at peak quality by putting the basket together shortly before giving it. Examples of items to include are green and red grapes, apples, oranges, peppers, broccoli, cucumber, or zucchini.
Holiday snack jar: Choose a clear, covered container and add healthy snacks such as small boxes of raisins, trail mix, packs of various crackers or snack mixes, dried fruit, baked chips and pretzels. Personalize it further by decorating the lid and/or jar with holiday cheer.
Holiday food or beverage mixes in a Jar: Mixes for soups, cookies, and beverages are popular gift items that are fairly inexpensive to make. The gift recipient will appreciate the attractive and thoughtful gift and will also value the convenience.
Assortment of Herbs and Spices: Buy several small containers of seasonings to add new zest and taste to foods formerly flavored by salt, sugar and fat.
No-Salt Seasonings: Health-conscious cooks, and especially those with high blood pressure, appreciate no-salt seasonings that help in lowering overall sodium intake. Spices and herbs that are effective in replacing the taste of salt include black pepper; minced garlic or garlic powder; minced onion or onion powder; dill seeds; basil; oregano; parsley; cumin; curry powder; ginger and coriander. Avoid garlic salt and onion salt.
Sweet-Tasting Spices: These spices reduce or eliminate the need for sugar in foods: cinnamon; allspice; cloves; anise; nutmeg; ginger; cardamom and mace. Cutting back on dietary sugar benefits everyone, especially diabetics.
Personalized gift certificates or IOUs: Give a “gift certificate” for healthy food from your kitchen. You could promise to cook a meal or provide a casserole or baked product. Be creative. When the recipient “redeems” their gift certificate, be sure to check for any food preferences or allergies.
Extra Cutting Board: Every cook needs several cutting boards to save time that would be spent washing the board before cutting another item. More importantly, having extra boards prevents cross-contamination when cutting different types of foods for the same meal. This is very critical when cutting raw meats, poultry or seafood followed by ready-to-eat foods such as salad items (e.g. raw vegetables and fruits). Select a cutting board that is made of plastic or other non-porous material that won’t dull knives and is dishwasher-safe.
Extra Set of Measuring Spoons: Buy an extra set of measuring spoons, or maybe two extra sets, so the cook on your gift list won’t have to continually wash and rewash that single set of spoons. Onion powder might taste great in the dip, but it doesn’t go as well in the sugar cookies.
Article released 12/20/2021
