Homemade Christmas: Healthy (*AND* Decadent) Holiday Truffles

If you're still looking for a great food gift you can whip up at the last minute, this recipe should fit the bill. Not only is it quick and easy, the basic recipe can be adjusted to accommodate a wide range of dietary needs (it's naturally dairy- and egg-free, and can be made nut- or gluten-free, too).

One of our favourite new treats this year is the Chocolate Powerball recipe I created back in the spring. They taste very sinful but are packed full of nutritious ingredients! They're so good I decided they are gift-worthy, so I took my original recipe and gilded the lily a bit to make them extra-special for the holidays. I added dried cranberries and some extra spices to make them more festive.

I love this recipe for many reasons, not the least of which is the many ways you can customize it to suit your own tastes. You could add some orange extract (or even some rum extract if it's intended more for adult tastes). You can use just about any type of nut butter in these; cashew or almond butter would make them extra decadent! Also, you could substitute ground nuts for some or all of the rolled oats or quinoa.

I doubled the quantities in this version of the recipe so you have enough to share around (plus a few for yourself!) Also, I tried rolling these in cocoa for a more traditional truffle look, but it didn't work out too well, so I'd recommend either the coconut or ground nuts for coating them. 

Ingredients:
1 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup peanut butter or sunflower seed butter (or any nut butter of choice)
1 cup coconut
1 cup *uncooked* rolled oats or *cooked* quinoa
1/3 cup finely chopped dried apricots
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
coconut for coating

Instructions:
In a medium saucepan, combine the honey, coconut oil, cocoa powder and sunflower seed or peanut butter.

Heat over medium-low heat just until mixture blends together well.

Remove from heat  and add coconut, oats, apricots, cranberries, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and cloves.

Chill for about 45 minutes or until mixture firms up enough to roll into balls (I just stick a wooden cutting board under the saucepan and put it in the fridge).

Shape teaspoon-sized amounts of mixture into balls; roll in coconut. Store in refrigerator.

Makes about 4-5 dozen balls. 

If you missed the earlier installments of my Homemade Christmas series, check out Create Your Own Tea Blends, this super-luxurious Chocolate Orange Whipped Body Butter, a lovely Lavender & Calendula Face Scrub, and for the menfolk, a Bay Rum Aftershave Balm. For even more holiday ideas, you can find my whole Christmas on a Dime series HERE. 

This may end up being the last time I post before Christmas, so I want to wish you all a wonderful holiday.  I appreciate each and every one of you and I'm glad you stop by every once in a while to read my ramblings :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

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Homemade Christmas: Bay Rum Aftershave Balm

Homemade personal care products are so much fun to make and give, but usually it's the women on your gift list who benefit from your efforts. So I'm pretty excited that I've finally made something that the men in my life should appreciate!

Quite a few years back I had bought my hubby a Bay Rum gift set from Burt's Bees and I really loved the smell of it. Unfortunately, they stopped making this line a few years ago - but maybe that ended up being a good thing in the end, since it forced me to get creative and see what I could come up with on my own. Joe has taken to using my hard lotion bars on his skin after shaving, and I thought it would be nice to make him something that's a bit easier to apply with a special masculine scent to it.

While it's probably not even close to an exact match for the Burt's Bees products, I did manage to create a satisfyingly manly scent, nice and spicy and fresh smelling with a hint of orange. Best of all, there's nothing too exotic in this balm, so you should be able to find nearly everything you need to make it (except for the beeswax and essential oil) at the grocery store!

Here's what you'll need:
11 oz coconut oil
3 tbsp olive oil
4 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves
zest of 1 orange
1 oz beeswax
10 drops sweet orange essential oil
1/2 tsp rum extract

In a small saucepan, melt the coconut oil and olive oil together over low heat (you can do this over a double boiler if you've got one). Add the bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cloves and orange zest. Leave the spices infusing in the oil over low heat for 1-2 hours (check periodically to make sure that the oil is not boiling).

Once the spices are done infusing, strain the oil through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth into a heatproof bowl or another small saucepan. Add the beeswax and heat over low heat (if using a saucepan) or set the bowl over a pot of boiling water (you can also pour into a Mason jar and set it on top of a washcloth in a pot of simmering water). Stir occasionally until beeswax is completely melted.

Once beeswax is melted, remove from heat and add essential oil and rum extract. Place bowl in fridge for about half an hour, then transfer to freezer for about 10 minutes. There should be some solid areas starting to form around the edges (if not, just give it a few more minutes). Beat the balm with an electric mixer for a minute or two so the solids are broken up and it has a uniform texture. Return to the freezer for another 5 minutes or so, then beat with mixer again (if the solids are really stuck to the sides, use a knife to scrape them off before beating). Return to the freezer for about 5 more minutes and beat one final time (at this point it should be light and fluffy and look like the balm in the photo).

Transfer the balm to clean jars (try not to touch it with your fingers as it will melt on body contact - I used a spatula/spoon combo to get the job done).

This recipe will make about 2 cups of balm, enough to fill 4 jars as shown in the photo.

Do you have a homemade gift you love to make for the menfolk?

If you missed the earlier installments of my Homemade Christmas series, check out Create Your Own Tea Blends, this super-luxurious Chocolate Orange Whipped Body Butter and a lovely Lavender & Calendula Face Scrub. For even more holiday ideas, you can find my whole Christmas on a Dime series HERE. 

 

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Our Christmas Gift Plan for 2013

Photo courtesy of Grant Cochrane/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It's now a few days into December, and about time I did a quick check through my gift list to make sure I have everything I need for this holiday season! For the last few years I have shared my Christmas gift plans with you here on the blog, and hopefully it has given you some inspiration to help round out your own gift-giving strategy for the season.

WARNING: GIFT SPOILERS AHEAD! 
If you're on my gift list, please stop reading NOW :)

This year there will be very few surprises under our tree, because our "big" gifts are going to be shared and family gifts.

Since we desperately need new winter bedding, hubby and I decided to splurge a bit on an L.L. Bean flannel sheet set and duvet cover. As it's been close to a decade since we last purchased new bedding, we feel justified in spending a bit more and getting a good quality set!

We have also decided to get a family gift this year - tickets to a Walk Off the Earth concert in January. With the boys now both in their teen years, it's getting more and more difficult to find things to do as a family that we will all enjoy (other than our annual camping trip!) and we want to start taking the boys to see more live music. The tickets for this show are very reasonably priced and I think we will all enjoy seeing this band. Walk Off the Earth are a creative and fun bunch so I'm hoping they will capture the boys' interest! (Check out their new Little Drummer Boy video HERE).

We'll still give the boys an individual gift each as well: 

My 16 year old son doesn't have anything in particular he'd like this holiday, so we might just end up giving him some cash as he and his brother are saving up money to build their own computer.

My 14 year old son will be getting new Nine-O sports base layer top & bottoms to replace the ones he's outgrown - both my husband and son have worn these for years under their hockey gear, and we love that they are made by a local company that is owned by a family in our neighbourhood! 

Stockings: 

Stockings have always been one of my favourite parts of Christmas! One year when things were really tight, my hubby and I decided not to do stockings for each other. I don't know what we were thinking - we *really* missed them and I don't think we'll ever try skipping them again :)

Stocking stuffers for teenagers are a lot harder to do on a budget than they are during the little-kid years There is a great list of 97 Stocking Stuffers for Teens or Tweens over at Frugal Upstate that is handy for browsing through if you're in need of some ideas.

For the boys: $5 gift cards for Tim Hortons (we have one in our neighbourhood and they love to go there with their friends), a box of Gingerbread Spice tea (one of the holiday teas by Celestial Seasonings and a favourite with both of them), assorted candy (mostly homemade), some "natural" pepperettes (bought on sale and stashed away) and a can or two of Blue Sky natural soda (These were on sale for 6 cans for $3 and I used a $1.00-off-when-you-buy-6 online printable coupon from The Healthy Shopper and got 6 cans for $2 plus tax). It's a tradition in our family that an apple and a couple of clementines go in the very bottom of the stocking, so that should just about fill them! 

I will probably add in a couple of small personalized items for each of them as well. My 16 year old is always in need of painting and art supplies so I might throw in a few new brushes for him. Not sure about what to put in for my 14 year old yet but I guess I better hurry up and think of something :)

For hubby: He will also receive homemade candies in his stocking, plus a homemade Bay Rum Aftershave Balm that I'll be sharing the recipe for here on the blog. I've also got him some Camino chocolate covered coffee beans (Fair Trade, organic, and yummy, purchased through ONFC) and a
Camino Chile and Spice chocolate bar. And of course he will find fruit at the bottom of his stocking, too.

My dad and his partner, and my grandmother will be receiving gift baskets of baked goodies and canned goods which I have been giving them for years and years, so this year will be no different in that regard. The contents vary somewhat from year to year to keep things interesting; this year's baskets - which are usually repurposed clementine orange crates - will include Cran-Raspberry Jam, Pear Chutney, Candied Peanuts, Coconut Neapolitan Candy and Christmas Granola as well as the Floral Tea Blend I shared here earlier this month. I'm hoping I might also get around to this Chai Chocolate Chip Biscotti, which I planned to make last year but didn't get around to as we were busy dealing with a nasty virus :( In addition to the food gifts, I also have Chocolate Orange Body Butter, Vanilla Bath Bombs and Lavender & Calendula Lip Balm for the ladies, and my dad will be getting some of the Bay Rum Aftershave Balm as well. Everyone will also be receiving some of my first-ever batch of homemade soap! It's got a lot of great fats in it, including shea butter, avocado oil, castor oil, coconut oil and olive oil. I just tried a bar myself a couple of days ago (it was still curing up until now) and it has a nice rich creamy lather.

I'm sure there will probably be a few last-minute additions to this list, as there usually are, but that gives you a good idea of what Christmas gifts will look like around here this year.

 Are you "ready" for Christmas? What's going under your tree this year?

 For even more holiday ideas, you can find my whole Christmas on a Dime series HERE. 

 

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Homemade Christmas: Whipped Body Butters, Two Ways

It's official: body butter is my new favourite "anyone can do this" DIY personal care product. Especially the delicious Chocolate Orange version I just cooked up (must.not.eat.body.butter).

Today I'm going to share two different ways to make body butter. The first one is the more extravagant Chocolate Orange version and then I'll fill you in on my friend Kerry's easy Whipped Coconut Oil Body Butter.

Chocolate Orange Body Butter
I made a batch of this earlier today so I could photograph it for this post and I'm having trouble not sneaking back into the kitchen to continuously slather myself with this (or at least give it a good sniff and admire its fluffy rich texture).  While the chocolate orange scent smells delicious, the sweet orange essential oil is also known to have a number of health benefits, including boosting your mood (and who couldn't use a bit of that in the middle of winter?). Below is the recipe I used and then I'll tell you how you can adapt it to suit your own tastes. Using an unrefined cocoa butter will give the final product a more intense chocolatey scent.

Ingredients:
4 oz jojoba oil
4 oz cocoa butter (unrefined if you can get it)
4 oz mango butter
4 oz coconut oil
20-25 drops sweet orange essential oil

In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine all of the ingredients and cook over low heat until totally melted (give it a good stir at the end to make sure the oils are thoroughly blended).

Place the pot in the fridge on a trivet or cork mat to cool for about half an hour. Add the essential oil, then transfer to the freezer and let cool for another 15-20 minutes or until it is starting to solidify on top but NOT all the way through.

Remove from the freezer and beat on medium-high speed with an electric mixer until it changes to a light, fluffy consistency. Return to freezer for about 5 minutes or until it is fairly firm but not rock-solid (i.e. it will still yield slightly if you give it a poke). Beat the butter again to a smooth consistency then transfer to storage containers (try not to touch it while transferring it, or it will melt under the heat of your fingers - I used a combination of spoon and spatula to get it all packed into jars).

This recipe will make 3 to 3 1/2 cups of body butter. When I costed it out with the ingredients I used, it came to around $27.50 for the batch. That's fairly pricey in my world, but it will yield you 6 half-cup jars to give as gifts with a little bit extra to keep for yourself. That's about $4.60 per gift, which is really reasonable even for a frugalista like me. If you want a more extravagant gift, you could add some homemade scented bath salts or a sugar scrub, hard lotion bars or lip balm, face scrub or a personalized tea blend, all of which are very inexpensive to make!

You could lower the cost of this recipe by using another oil in place of the jojoba, like grapeseed or olive. You could also use any combination of solid fats you like, as long as the ratio of solid to liquid fats is 3:1. If you don't want a chocolate scented body butter, you could use shea butter in place of the cocoa butter or use twice as much each of the mango butter and coconut oil (6 oz of each rather than 4).

If this (admittedly fabulous, but somewhat pricey) body butter isn't in your budget, here's another quick and easy option that only uses two easy-to-find ingredients.
 
Kerry's Easy Whipped Coconut Oil Body Butter
My friend Kerry Turcotte shared this recipe with me. She is a whiz at DIY personal care products, and runs workshops on how to make everything from sugar scrubs to cold process soaps - check out her events HERE if you're in the Hamilton area!

Ingredients:
7 oz coconut oil
3/4 oz beeswax
essential oils, if desired (about 10-15 drops)

Melt the beeswax and the coconut oil together in a small saucepan (or in a glass dish in the microwave).

Place in the fridge for half an hour to cool, then transfer to freezer until it starts to firm up but is not rock solid. Beat with an electric mixer until it has a light and fluffy consistency. Transfer to storage jars.

This recipe should only cost you about $3.00 or so, depending on the coconut oil you use (even less if you use cosmetic grade rather than food grade coconut oil). It doesn't make quite as much body butter, either (I'd say less than 2 cups), so you might want to double it if you want to have enough to give to several people.

Where to get the ingredients to make body butters:
I bought my mango and cocoa butters from Mountain Rose Herbs, but as I mentioned before, their shipping rates to Canada are pretty steep. So, if you're in the U.S., I'd definely recommend Mountain Rose, but if you're in Canada,  a better option may be Saffire Blue, especially if you're in Ontario. They have a FANTASTIC deal on cosmetic grade coconut oil and you'll find all the other butters and oils you need to make these recipes as well.

You can usually buy beeswax from a local honey producer (or, failing that, the health food store). Mountain Rose sells it as well, although you should be able to find some locally for the same (or even lower) price.

I buy most of my essential oils from Well.ca - I find the Aura Cacia brand reasonably priced and good quality)

 If you missed the earlier installments of my Homemade Christmas series, check out Create Your Own Tea Blends and a lovely Lavender & Calendula Face Scrub. For even more holiday ideas, you can find my whole Christmas on a Dime series HERE. 

Note: The links to Mountain Rose are affiliate links and I will receive a commission from them (at no cost to you) for any purchases you make after clicking these links.

 

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Homemade Christmas: Create Your Own Tea Blends

I'm finding it hard to believe, but Christmas is just 6 weeks away!

Even thought I feel like I haven't planned for the big day as well as I usually do (largely because I didn't hit all that many yard sales this year, one of my main sources for great gifts at super low prices) I do feel like I have things pretty well under control and I already have everyone on my list covered except my immediate family members.

That's mainly because I have some great DIY gifts up my sleeve. I'm going to share a bunch of them with you over the next few weeks so you can make them, too! These are all going to be quick and easy to make (as well as being easy on the budget). And those of you that are on my gift list, no peeking on these posts unless you don't want any surprises under the tree!

I'm kicking things off with this post on how to create your own custom tea blends. You can make your own herbal teas using high quality organic herbs for *much* less than it costs to buy the boxed varieties! For example, you can buy 4 oz of organic peppermint leaf from Mountain Rose Herbs for just $3.25 (that amount is enough to almost fill a quart jar and lasts me for months!)

I think an herbal tea blend is a perfect gift for the holidays for many reasons:

• it's easily customizable to the recipient

• it takes literally minutes to mix together

• just about everyone will appreciate a hot cup of tea in the middle of winter!

• unlike many other food gifts, instead of contributing empty calories, it's likely to have health benefits (depending on what herbs you use in your blends)

As noted above, the actual act of blending a few herbs together doesn't take long at all. The more time-consuming part of preparing this gift will be researching what herbs you want to include (if you don't want to use any of my suggestions!) I think good blends for winter are those that include warming spices (such as chai teas), those that include a floral element such as rose, hibiscus or lavender (hints of beautifully coloured flower petals in the middle of winter will boost anyone's spirits!) and those that contain mint (a flavour we already associate with the holidays, and a helpful digestive aid as well as a general pick-me-up).

Here is the floral tea blend I will be making for gifts this year (pictured above). It's from the Book of Herbal Teas by Sara Perry and is very similar to the Hibiscus High Tea blend offered by Mountain Rose Herbs.

Floral tea blend:
1 part hibiscus flowers
1 part lemon verbena
1 part dried orange peel
1 part rosehips
1 part peppermint

Many recipes for herbal blends call for "parts" instead of specific measurements. This means it's really easy to customize the amounts to suit whatever quantity you want to make. I used one cup of each herb to make a large batch for multiple gifts, but you could use 1/4 cup of each or even 1 tbsp of each to make a much smaller amount.

Some other ideas to get you started:

Relaxing blend: lemon balm, chamomile and oatstraw

Lemon Lovers: lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon grass and dried lemon peel

Lavender mint: 1 part lavender to 4 parts mint

Chocolate mint: 1 part cacao nibs to 4 parts peppermint

Beat the Winter Blues herbal tea from Frugally Sustainable

New Moon Tea (raspberry leaf, chamomile and lavender) from At Home Om

Calming Herbal Tea from Country Living Magazine

Lemony Chamomile Spearmint Tea from Fiskars

Tea Blending Guide from Mountain Rose Herbs

To brew a cup of tea, use 1 tsp of herbal tea blend to 8 oz boiling water.

If you create a particularly pleasing blend, I'd love to hear about it!

Where to find dried herbs for making teas:
If you have a local health food store with a bulk section, check there first!

I buy most of my herbs for tea making from Mountain Rose Herbs. They have great prices on high quality organic herbs (as well as culinary herbs and spices, tea blends and many other wonderful things!) Their shipping costs to Canada are fairly steep, but their prices are so good that the overall cost is still lower than anywhere else I've found for comparable quality products.

Note: The links to Mountain Rose are affiliate links and I will receive a commission from them (at no cost to you) for any purchases you make after clicking these links.
 

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Our Frugal Stocking Stuffer Plan

Last week I shared our frugal gifting plans for this Christmas, and I promised to come back and share our stocking stuffer plans this week.

(BTW, if you're a member of my immediate family, you better not be reading this post or you won't be very surprised on Christmas morning ::grin::)

There's no doubt about it, you can rip right through your entire holiday gift budget on stocking stuffers alone if you're not careful. Our stockings are by no means extravagantly filled, but I'd rather have a smaller amount of good quality items than a large amount of crap! Since we are all foodies around here, you'll notice most of the items are of an edible nature :)

I actually happen to (mostly) know what's going in my own stocking this year, too, which is fine with me. I think hubby also has a couple of small surprises up his sleeve to add to the goodies I already know about.

What goes in ALL of our stockings:

-Homemade candies (cracker toffee, candied peanuts)

-Chai-Chocolate Chip Biscotti
-An apple and a clementine or two (traditional for the very bottom of the stocking!)

What's going in the boys' stockings:

-Mint Meltaway chocolates (from Walker's Chocolates, a local business)
-Gift cards for Subway and Tim Hortons (These will cost us nothing out of pocket as my husband received them as gifts. There are locations of each right in our neighbourhood, and since the boys are now teenagers they enjoy going there with friends)
-Glee Gum (an all-natural chewing gum)
-Gingerbread Spice tea (a favourite with both of them)
-a can of Blue Sky natural soda (These were on sale for 69 cents each at Fortinos. I used a $1.00-off-when-you-buy-2 online printable coupon from The Healthy Shopper and got both cans for 59 cents total, including tax!)
-Assorted pens, pencils and erasers (they've almost used up their stash from the fall)

What's going in hubby's stocking:

-Camino chocolate covered coffee beans (Fair Trade, organic, and yummy, purchased through ONFC)
-Camino Dark Mint chocolate bar (purchased on sale at Fortino's)
-A homemade citrus-spice herbal tea blend
-A bar of the manly-scented "His" glycerin bar soap from The Guelph Soap Company (locally produced)

What's going in MY stocking:

-Camino raw cacao nibs (Fair Trade, organic and kind of addictive - purchased through ONFC)
-Vanilla Body Butter from The All Natural Face (I received a $5.00 gift code from this company, no minimum purchase. I ended up paying only $3.00 *with* shipping for this product. This contains both mango butter and jojoba oil, neither of which I've tried before, so I look forward to giving it a whirl).
-A bar of Honey, Goat's Milk and Oatmeal soap from The Guelph Soap Company

There may be some other last-minute additions to this list, but these items will make up the bulk of our stockings. I don't have an exact total spent because I still have to buy a few of these items, but my rough estimate is that we will come in under $30 to fill 4 stockings! The cost for the homemade food items comes out of our grocery budget so I'm not counting them in the total, but that would probably add only another $5-$10 even if you did add those expenses in. I'm pleased that we were able to include a variety of locally and/or ethically produced items, while staying within our modest budget!

What are you filling stockings with this year?

Our Frugal Christmas Gift Plan for 2012

  Photo: Dream Designs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Our Christmas plans for this year look a lot different than last year's did. Our gift budget is MUCH smaller this year and basically we are aiming for another Hundred Dollar Holiday, more or less (well, hopefully not much more!)

(If you're on my gift list, please stop reading NOW as there are major gift spoilers ahead!)

Hubby and I have agreed that we are going to be very modest with gifts for each other this year. In fact, there are not really going to be any surprises for either of us as we have made specific requests of what we would like. I don't really mind this at all as I know I'll receive things I want and/or need and that no money or effort's been wasted on something I will eventually consign to the "donate" bin.

I've asked Joe to get two things fixed for me this year: my sports watch, which needs both a new battery and band, and the Lagostina Dutch oven I bought at a yard sale for $4 on the Victoria Day weekend. Although the Dutch oven appeared to be in very good condition when I gave it a quick inspection pre-purchase, as it turns out a tiny part of the bottom is coming away from the main part of the pot. It looks like it should be fixable with a small solder, and Joe knows someone who should be able to do this repair. I'm also getting one new item, the Celestial Tea Strainer from Mountain Rose Herbs (more about them later in this post). I'm experimenting more and more with loose blends of herbs for teas, so this is both a functional and beautiful addition to my tea making supplies.

Joe has requested new flannel pajama pants and boxers, both of which he definitely needs! We may also end up doing a quick thrift store shopping trip and picking out a small item each that we both want, depending on how much gets spent on other gifts.

Christmas gifts on a budget for teenage boys can be pretty tricky, I have to admit! I have come up with what I believe to be a decent plan, though: NEW BIKES! Both boys really need new bikes and have been riding bikes that were a bit too small for them for the last year or so. They are now both adult size (both taller than me!) and need adult-sized bikes. We are hoping to put together two suitable bikes for under $50. Thankfully Joe has a lot of experience rebuilding bikes so hopefully we can make this happen. We already have the bike for my older son, a good quality Peugeot that Joe trash-picked a couple years back (it's appallingly easy to trash-pick decent bikes when you live close to a university). It's been patiently awaiting some TLC and repair. Thankfully it doesn't need too many parts replaced - just a few broken spokes and some elbow (and bike) grease! My younger son really wants a road bike rather than a mountain bike, so we're hoping to track something down at Recycle Cycles or New Hope Bikes. Kijiji is another possibility; however I'd rather purchase from one of the bike organizations as it will help support cycling promotion in our city. We definitely need to get a move on this to get things done before Christmas!

For my 15 year old, a passionate climber, we're also going to purchase this Knots & Ropes for Climbers book from Mountain Equipment Co-op. For my 13 year old, (my artistic kid) I'm planning on buying some decent quality markers from the Canadian-owned chain Curry's Art Store (and the local store is conveniently located within walking distance of home, too!)

Of course there will be stockings, too - I'll discuss what we're filling those with next week, so stay tuned :)

As far as friends and family go, I am keeping it simple this year and everyone is basically getting a combination of books, homemade salve and a food basket.

The books are from two sources: my gift cupboard stash (yard-saled for under a dollar apiece) and an unexpected but gratefully received recent windfall of free books passed on to me by a friend - about 4 dozen books! I divided these into 3 categories: books someone in our house would like to read, books in brand-new giftable condition, and books that we didn't need and were too worn out for gifting. The final category got passed on to a new home through Freecycle, and quite miraculously, there is something to suit nearly everyone on my list in the "giftable" book pile (thank goodness my friends and family are all avid readers!)

The homemade salve I am making is a variation of this Simple Lavender Salve from A Delightful Home - I am going to double the recipe and use half lavender, half calendula to provide a truly skin-soothing salve for our harsh Canadian winters!

Food baskets are something everyone on our Christmas list has come to expect from us; we've been doing them for years and I think if we ever stopped there would be some very disappointed people in our gift-giving circle :)

This year we'll be doing the "standard" items we always include like pickles and Cran-Raspberry Jam (I have some Ontario-grown cranberries stashed in the freezer for this recipe), herb vinegar, homemade candies (Cracker Toffee, Chocolate Barks and Candied Peanuts), Granola and Chocolate-Peanut Granola,  I'm also going to be trying my hand at something new: creating my own herbal tea blends using herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs. I'm anxiously awaiting my first order from them right now and hoping it arrives early this week! I usually include some type of quick bread in my gift baskets too, but I haven't made up my mind what I'm making this year (although I guess I better do that soon, huh?)

Want more ideas for creating a great holiday on a small budget? Find all of my Christmas on a Dime posts here, and check out my Homemade Christmas board on Pinterest - I'm always adding new ideas to it!

What are your plans for frugal gift-giving this year?

(P.S. If there's someone on your gift list with a tight grocery budget, please consider giving them a copy of my book. It's successfully helped lots of people reduce their food bill by 40-60% while still eating well (no extreme couponing required!). You could even make a gift basket with some of the staple items necessary for the recipes. YOU can help make a family's life a little easier this Christmas with this thoughtful gift).

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I'm Dreaming of a Waste-Free Christmas

Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net/James Barker

I know, I know - it's not even Halloween and here I am talking about Christmas! Actually, I'm a bit late getting around to Christmas-oriented discussions this year (just like I've been behind in most everything else these last few months.)

For the last couple of weeks I've been intending to write a "getting prepared for Christmas" type of post but as I've been mulling things over it's sort of transformed itself from my original intent. As so often happens in life (well, at least in my life!), a particular issue suddenly comes to the forefront of our attention and grabs us in a way that takes over our focus.

For me, it's been the non-sexy topic of waste. When I was writing my book, I ended up thinking about and researching food waste far beyond my original intent and it's an issue about which I've become passionate. I'll have a lot more to say about that in the coming weeks. Food waste issues led me to thinking more about packaging waste and garbage, recycling, and plastic...it's snowballed and taken on a life of its own!

Although I consider myself someone who doesn't waste much (buying a lot of items secondhand and often finding second uses for things most people would toss), I've realized I could be doing even better than I am at avoiding waste of all kinds, and that it's time for me to take on some new challenges in this department. While there are many small changes that I plan on writing more about over the coming weeks, I wanted to start thinking NOW about ways I can reduce waste over the holiday season, since being prepared is half of the battle!

As I sat here and contemplated further, I realized not only do I want to avoid material waste, but wasted time, energy and money, too (well, that last one goes without saying around here!)

Here are some of my current ideas about how to reduce ALL of these kinds of waste this holiday season:

Just say NO: Well, that does sound a bit Scrooge-like, but I think you know what I'm getting at :) Your family's holiday time and resources are precious so don't overcommit to social activities or gift giving. Pick the few activities that are meaningful and politely decline the rest. More and more people seem to be open to discussions about toning down or eliminating gift-giving and now is a good time to start those conversations before people start shopping.

Favour experience-type gifts, food gifts, and other simple homemade items: These types of gifts are very well received in my experience, and generate little waste. I'm aiming for totally reusable packaging this year, with any "adornments" to the packaging from recycled and reused materials. You can find 10 of my favourite quick & easy homemade Christmas gift ideas here. If you do choose to purchase new items, pick ones with minimal packaging that is recyclable or reusable..

Consider giving less gifts: I am a big believer that less can be more when it comes to gift-giving. I've watched as my kids have gone from content and satisfied after opening a couple of well-chosen gifts, to frenzied and overwhelmed after opening a large pile more. When it comes right down to it, most of us don't really need much in the way of "stuff" these days. Taking the time to mindfully choose that one special gift ensures that the gift-giving experience will be satisfying for both the giver and the receiver.

Choose reusable wrapping options: Gift bags can be reused many times and most of us frugal folks have a big stash we've saved from previous years. Cloth bags or furoshiki are an even better option as they will last much longer than paper gift bags. I've recently become infatuated with the latter and plan to see if I can make some furoshiki squares from scrap fabrics I have lying around the house. Some extra-large T-shirts would be great to cut up for this purpose as T-shirt material doesn't fray so you won't have to hem them. I still have some wrapping paper in my stash and I want to challenge myself to have that be the last wrapping paper I buy!

Switch to a digital holiday greeting tradition: Christmas cards generate an astounding amount of waste. I know they are fun to receive, but where do they all end up when the season is over? We do save ours to recycle into gift tags, etc, but we already have more than we can use for the next decade or so! We stopped sending holiday cards a few years ago - both for environmental reasons and because neither of us particularly enjoyed the task of assembling and mailing (not to mention the cost of the postage). Also, with Facebook and email, we're in more regular touch with most people these days anyway, so the holiday greeting doesn't seem as necessary as it did when you didn't hear from friends and family all that often. One thing we neglected to do, however, was actually tell the people on our list that we no longer send out cards. I think some of them may think that we just don't love them anymore (oops!) This year I plan to send out a holiday email with photos and updates on our year. That way everyone will know that we're thinking of them, they'll get to see what we've been up to (if they don't already know), and there won't be any waste generated.

Tone down the decorating: Now, don't get me wrong - I love making the house all festive at Christmas time. I just think buying a lot of (usually way overpackaged) stuff to decorate with is unnecessary. I don't need more "trimmings or trappings" at my house. I can make good use of what I already have, and if I want to add something new I can probably create it with things I already have around the house or by gathering some natural materials from around the neighbourhood. Garlands can be made with cranberry or popcorn strings (both of which can be composted when you're done with them). If you really do need some "new" Christmas decorations, check Freecycle, thrift stores and yard sales - there are always tons of holiday items available! We do get a real tree every year (this is important to all 4 of us) and luckily our city recycles the trees for a variety of uses in the community.

Plan your feast carefully: I know this is the one time of year where it's easy for me to get carried away with all those special holiday foods. But you all know that food waste makes me crazy! So, yes, make sure your favourite foods are all represented at your festive meals, just try to be realistic about how much will get eaten and have a plan in place for dealing with any leftovers. For any leftover items that are highly perishable, consider sending extras home with guests (in reusable containers, please!) Also, if you're hosting a party, use regular dishes instead of disposables. If you happen to have a really cool group of friends, you could make it a BYOD party (bring your own dishes) where all the guests bring their plates and flatware, thus reducing the dish-doing strain on the hosts.

I'm feeling pretty optimistic that we can pull off a (nearly) waste-free Christmas this year!

Do you have any additional tips to add to my list?

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Two Easy Things to Do with Fresh Herbs (Before the Frost Sets In)

Aside from a few straggling tomatoes that I'll leave on the vine until we officially get a chance of frost in the forecast, I've harvested just about everything from the garden that I'm going to this year. One exception to that is my herbs, most of which are still growing enthusiastically.

Knowing that I don't have much of a window left before the frost hits, I got myself outside to pick a pile of assorted herbs. Aren't they pretty?

I promptly did two things with them:

1. Packed a couple of clean quart jars with a mix of garlic chives, purple and green basil and oregano. I then poured white vinegar over them and will let them sit for several weeks.

2. Packed a smaller glass jar about half full of lemon thyme to make a honey infusion. I added honey (local, unpasteurized stuff from Dutchman's Gold) to cover the herbs completely, stirring it around a bit to mix. It's now sitting on my kitchen windowsill, where I'll let it brew for a couple of weeks before straining out the herbs. This infused honey will be saved for use as a cough syrup this winter (both honey and thyme are know to help calm a cough).

 

With only a few minutes of effort on my part, in a few weeks I'll have a Christmas gift (herbal vinegar) and a natural cough remedy all ready to go!

What are your favourite end-of-season uses for fresh herbs?

Local readers: If you're reading this in your email or feed reader, I'd like to make sure that you know about my next upcoming "Cheap Appétit" presentation. OPIRG McMaster has kindly sponsored me to speak on the university campus on Wednesday October 10th from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in MUSC 230. Once again I'll have books for sale for $15 each. Please join me if you can!

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A Thrifty Gifting Extravaganza

These past few weeks have been full of gift-giving occasions (Father's Day plus a plethora of birthdays) at a time when our budget has been more stretched than it has in a long time. Thank goodness for my gift cupboard and my culinary prowess! I managed to assemble some pretty decent gifts with a minimum outlay of cash and they all seemed to be quite well received.

#1: Father's Day

My dad is not much into cooking himself and really appreciates homemade goodies. I made a batch of these Chocolate Ginger Biscotti:

I have no idea where the recipe came from - I ripped it out of some magazine or other years ago. Half the batch got wrapped up for my hubby and half went to my dad, along with some of our canned goodies (strawberry jam and sweet mixed pickles).

 Here's what my dad's gift looked like all ready to go:
 

 The basket was a yard sale find (I might have paid a dollar for it, I can't remember!), all the rest of the wrapping materials were from my stash of recycled/reused wrapping supplies, and I used my basic pantry supplies to make the biscotti.

#2: Birthday gift for a three-year-old boy

This was a present for one of my closest friend's kids. I had a lot of fun putting this one together, as I have vivid memories of my boys at this age. I know they both went through a dinosaur-loving phase around the ages of 2-4 or so, and in fact I'd been keeping an eye out for dinosaur-related items over the past couple of years as I knew eventually I would be putting together a dinosaur-themed gift for a small boy :)

 What's inside:

 A couple of hardcover dinosaur books, a dinosaur dot-to-dot book, a multi-sided dinosaur cube puzzle set, and a few random dinosaur stationery type items (dinosaur shaped pad of paper, erasers, stencils). All of these items were gradually collected at various yard sales, and I estimate I spent less than $3.00 total on all of the above items (which, if I had bought retail, I'm guessing would have cost somewhere in the area of $30 or more). Once again, all the wrapping supplies came from my stash. 

#3: 40th Birthday gift for a close friend

I don't have a photo of this one, because I was a bit (okay, a lot) disorganized about getting it put together and ended up doing most of it just before we were racing out the door to get to her birthday party! This is the same friend whose little boy received gift #2 above, and we've known each other since we were ten and eleven year old kids (she's a year younger than me).

I made a batch of raisin-oatmeal scones and paired that with a jar of my homemade strawberry jam for the first part of her gift. The second part of her gift was a gift certificate for a day of "mind-body pampering", something she really doesn't take enough time for in her busy schedule. It's to include a hot yoga class at my studio, a home-cooked meal, plus some other surprises (we probably won't schedule this until the fall, as both of us are pretty busy all summer!). My yoga studio offers a deal to new students where you get 10 days of unlimited yoga for $10, so this gift isn't going to cost me much out-of-pocket either, and hopefully it will be a very restorative day for my friend who has a tendency to forget that taking some time for yourself once in a while is a good idea.

#4: Birthday gift for my 4-year-old niece

This was for my youngest niece, one of my brother's three girls. We have always done pretty modest gifts for each other's kids, as they all seem to have plenty of "stuff" already.

Inside:

This was the only gift of the four where I had to run out and buy something new to fill it out a bit. The story book and the paint with water book were both yard sale finds, and the "funny faces" book in the middle I ended up buying new. It was surprisingly reasonably priced at $3.99, so I still managed to put this one together for about $5 or so. (If I hadn't already given her an assortment of homemade fruit-scented playdoughs last year, I would have made those to add to this gift instead of buying the new book - they are always a big hit!)

While I do enjoy the challenge of putting together a good gift on a small budget, I'm going to be happy to take a bit of a break from gift assembly for a while, and hopefully I'll be able to restock my gift cupboard a bit during the rest of the yard sale season! 

Are you a "thrifty gifter"? What are some of your favourite frugal gift-giving strategies?

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Seven Kitchen Gifts for Newlyweds & New Grads

Image by Salvatore Vuono/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It's that time of year again when most of us will be inundated with invitations to attend graduation and wedding ceremonies - and of course that means that, in addition to helping our family members and friends celebrate their "big days", we need to come up with some thoughtful gifts, too!

I happen to believe that one of the best things you can do for a young adult is to encourage them to spend more time in the kitchen. Food skills are more valuable than ever in these uncertain economic times, and the earlier in life a person gets into the habit of cooking their meals from scratch, the better. Knowing how to get the most value for your dollar when food shopping, and how to cook simple meals from scratch using minimally-processed foods, means you'll always be able to eat well, even when your budget is tight.

So, if you're helping a young person celebrate their graduation or wedding this month, why not give them a gift that will make cooking easier and more enjoyable?

Here are some kitchen-related gifts that would be perfect for anyone just starting out on their own:

1. An assortment of kitchen utensils. 

Two of the most-used items in my kitchen are my wire whisk and my silicone spatulas. I usually reach for these several times a day. Surprisingly, I've found that you can get decent quality silicone spatulas at the dollar store - mine have performed at least as well as the much-more-expensive one I bought years ago at a fancy kitchen store. Wooden cooking utensils, which can safely be used in nonstick pans, make an elegant and eco-friendly addition to this type of gift (if you know someone in your area who does wood carving, you can  support a local business while you're at it!) If you're a knitter, you can add some knitted dishclothes to the mix for a personal touch.

2. A basic, all-purpose cookbook.

While it's fun to have a wide variety of cookbooks, the ones I've turned to again and again over the years are those tried-and-true tomes that have recipes for all the basics, from cakes to salads to soups to yeast breads, plus instructions on how to perform a wide variety of cooking-related tasks (like how to boil an egg, cook dried beans, or cut up a whole chicken). My personal favourite in this category is The Fannie Farmer Cookbook(of course I love it even more because I scored my hardcover edition for 50 cents at a yard sale). Other good choices are The Joy of Cooking,The Betty Crocker Cookbook: 1500 Recipes for the Way You Cook Today, and Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book . Of course, I'd also highly recommend my book, Cheap Appetit for any young adult who wants to increase their food skills and decrease their food budget!

[Disclaimer: Yes, those are Amazon affiliate links and I will earn a small commission if you purchase a book after clicking through any of them.]

3. A good quality set of knives

If your budget will accommodate a larger gift purchase, I think a good quality set of knives is one of the best gifts you could give a young person or couple just starting out. If my husband hadn't sold knives as a part time job during his college years, I might never have been turned on to just how big of a difference quality knives can make in your life. They make so many kitchen tasks quicker and easier and a good set can last a lifetime! I LOVE my Cutco knives, which have a lifetime guarantee. We actually had to take them up on it a couple years ago, and it was hassle-free getting our broken knife replaced. It was about 17 years old at that time, and a new one was promptly dispatched to us. The top three knives I'd recommend are a chef's knife, a paring knife and a mid-sized serrated knife. With this combination, you can perform a wide variety of kitchen tasks.

4. A set of good quality saucepans

The saucepans I received as a wedding gift are still going strong after nearly 17 years of daily use. Look for sturdy pots with heavy bottoms and firmly-attached handles. A set that includes a small, medium and large saucepan will meet most basic cooking needs.

5. A stockpot

Again, the important thing here is to find a good quality one that will stand up to years of use. A good place to find really rugged stockpots at great prices is a restaurant supply store. Here in Hamilton, Chris's Store Fixtures has been, well a fixture for the two decades I've lived here (in fact, you could probably find most of the items on this list at a restaurant supply store for great prices). A good stockpot is not only handy for making stock, it's perfect for canning as well (especially if you're making a big batch of salsa or pickles!)

6. A cast iron pan

I'm a fairly recent convert to cast iron, but since I bought a cast iron pan at a yard sale last summer, I've fallen in love with it. This is another piece that sees almost daily use in my kitchen. Make sure to include some instructions on how to properly care for and season a cast iron pan as many people aren't familiar with cast iron cookware.

7. Pyrex bakeware

Yet another item that should last for decades, Pyrex bakeware is another hard working staple of my busy kitchen. I think every cook should have 8 x 8", 9 x 13" and 11 x 7" pans, as well as one or more 8 1/2"x 4 1/2" loaf pans.

While there are much fancier and flashier kitchen-related gifts that you could give, these are the items I think are most useful to someone just starting out, that will stand the test of time in even the busiest kitchens. Unless they are specifically requested by the recipient, I don't recommend buying bulky kitchen appliances like bread makers or rice cookers - they take up a lot of storage space and may rarely or never be used (I've survived decades of cooking without either!)

What are your favourite kitchen-themed gifts to give to young adults?

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