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Simple Giving

• December 2010
• Simple Living Vegan

Frankly, I really dislike shopping. It’s necessary to purchase things like food and gear, of course, but my goal is usually to spend as little time possible doing this task. I do love giving things to people, and I get all excited when I happen on something that I know a loved one will like. But that can happen anytime, and a big part of the fun of it is surprising people with completely random gifts.

Another big do-not-like for me is enforced, large-scale shopping with arbitrary calendar deadlines. I chafe at feeling pressed into scheduled, mass consumerism in order to make sure my loved ones notice I love them. And on top of all that, I would truly rather give presents than get them, because getting presents often kind of makes me uncomfortable. So like most people, I have complicated feelings about the custom of holiday gifts.

There are 3 Christmas presents I received in the last several years that really lit me up, all of them simple and really useful. One was a copy of The Gluten-Free Vegan cookbook by Susan O’Brien.

The other was a handful of heirloom seed packets: tomatoes, eggplants and melons (some of which I planted last season, and a few I still have for this year).

But perhaps my all-time favorite Xmas gift ever was a climbing hold, green and semi-conifer shaped, decorated like a Christmas tree with Sharpies, and marked “Xmas 2002” on the side. I immediately went out and bolted it on my wall and have been enjoying it ever since, and I still marvel at what a great and truly unexpected little present it was. All of these, my most favorite presents, cost less than $15, and I think that’s another reason I liked them the best. (Some likely candidates…)

When it comes down to it, the whole idea of holiday gift giving is really just to get together with your family and friends and say “hey, I love you and I thought about you” through actions. The excessive, overblown modern style is really just that–a style. Taking a stand and not giving or receiving gifts would obviously be the best way to deal with holidays, but at the same time we are all products of our culture and emotion, despite the best philosophical intentions. So we don’t have to boycott holiday gift giving, or be a slave to it either. I think the best holiday gifts are small, simple, practical and thoughtful, because the simpler and more practical the gift, the better it is.

This year I chose some simple gifts like that for my family, and I’m also going to use my favorite Christmas present from last year…. I wrapped some small cardboard boxes in holiday paper, and on Friday I’ll bake for about an hour and fill the boxes with chocolate bites (very rich and delicious, from the Gluten-Free Vegan cookbook, though modified a bit) and almond cookies (also vegan, gluten-free and sugar free, from chow.com), in layers of wax paper.

I’ll also print out the ingredients and tape them inside the box tops, so everyone will feel good about eating as many as they want…these are both delicious and healthful, which is very nice at holiday time!

In case you’d like to do this too, here are the recipes:

“Awesome No-Bake Chocolate Cookies”
(though they are more like candy, in my opinion)
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup vegan chocolate chips (original recipe calls for 2, but it is crazy rich!)
1/2 pitted, finely chopped Medjool dates (I have also used raisins)
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
1/4 almond butter (or cashew)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
flax seeds (just a spoonful or so, if you want)
sesame seeds (for rolling them in)
(the original recipe also calls for 2 Tablespoons brown rice syrup or agave, but I think these are already really sweet and rich, even with cutting the chocolate in half!!)

-line a tray with wax paper or baking parchment
-toast the coconut in a skillet, then set it aside
-melt the chocolate in a double boiler, then put it in a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients including coconut.
-make small balls and roll them in the sesame seeds (that’s what I do), or just drop little spoonfuls on the sheet and refrigerate until cooled

Almond Cookies
2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour (unblanched is much cheaper, I usually mix them)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
5 Tablespoons maple syrup or agave nectar
1 Tablespoon vanilla

-mix the dry ingredients
-mix the coconut oil, sweetener and vanilla
-mix everything together and put it in the fridge for an hour
-roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper or wax paper
-remove the top piece of paper and cut out cookies with whatever you have (use a small glass for round shapes, slice with a bread knife for squares or triangles, or use a cookie cutter if you have one) I like to make these into very small squares, especially to go together with the chocolate balls in a gift box.
-put cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet (or just oiled)
if you have sliced almonds, you can put one on top of each cookie
-bake at 350 til brown on the edges.