Unusual Edible Gifts

Deciding on what gift you should buy for your friends and family is never easy. Especially since the occasions are numerous – all the holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, new job, new baby, etc. – and tastes varied. Finding something that people will like and use and at the same time, will reflect how much you value their love and friendship can a tough task. It is not surprising then, that one popular trend that has been emerging in the recent times is to get or make edible gifts for your loved ones. You can be sure of their food likes and dislikes, you can repeat the same gift for many people and you can be sure that your gift will be ‘used’, i.e., eaten!
Here are some unusual edible gifts that you could present to your friends and family whenever occasion demands –

• For Italian food lovers and for health conscious people, get baskets filled with a variety of salsa. Especially those, that are high in phytochemicals and fat-free.
• You could avoid all the sugary, sweet edible gifts that are typically made and pick up a loaf of artisan whole grain bread – it tastes heavenly. Tie a beautiful satin ribbon on to the loaf and present it to your friend.
• For tea lovers, the healthiest gift would be green tea bags. Green tea is full of healthy antioxidants. Else pack a basket or a nice tea mug with a variety of gourmet tea bags. It will let them enjoy their tea even at short notice.
• Try your hand at different kinds of fruit arrangements. The most colorful ones will be oranges, tangerines and grapefruit. You could also try some fresh strawberry and pineapple. Cut them in various kinds of flowers and make a flower-vase kind of arrangement. Your guests can eat directly from the arrangement. And of course, the vitamin C and fiber they provide will keep their cardiovascular system going strong.
• Many of your friends may love cooking and one of the things they may yearn for the most would be the easy availability of fresh herbs to add to their cooking. With just a bit of effort, you could create small pots with culinary herbs that will thrive on a nice, sunny windowsill. Grow some of the more popular herbs like basil, parsley, thyme and rosemary; enquire casually about your friend’s preferences and try growing them too.
• You could fill a pretty or unusual looking glass jar with a number of colorful legumes and then include recipes for making soups with them. Not only will the jar look colorful with kidney beans going on top of black-eyed peas and so on, the recipient will love the healthy taste of soup.
• You could either make your own flavored oils or look around for small bottles of flavored oils and vinegar. Gift a basket with these oils.
• And while not quite edible, you could always give gift certificates from your friend’s favorite health store that will give them the choice of picking up the edible gifts that they want for themselves.