Fun & Healthy Gift Ideas

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Written By Judy Doherty, MPS, PCII

Share the gift of health with your friends and loved ones this Christmas by giving gifts that promote healthy eating and an active lifestyle. Here is a list of ideas to get you started:• Fill a basket with a variety of fresh fruit. Oranges, apples, bananas, kiwi, grapes, grapefruit, pineapple, and pears are good choices. Line the basket with a colorful kitchen towel. You can even add a small cutting board and knife.• Choose a festive tin and fill it with flavored popcorn. Include a gift certificate for a movie rental.• Fill a new salad bowl with lowfat salad dressings and flavored vinegars. Include your favorite salad recipes.• Make a homemade salt-free seasoning mix and place it in antique or decorative jars.• Load up a colander with various packaged pastas, and include a pasta cookbook or several of your favorite pasta recipes.• Wrap up a heart-healthy cookbook. Your local hospital may have one that includes recipes with local flavor.• Fill a straw hat with packets of herb seeds, a pair of garden gloves, and a book on cooking with herbs.• Give a gift certificate to a healthy class. Consider lowfat cooking classes as well as yoga, aerobics, or belly dancing classes. Include yourself for this gift too!• Combine several varieties of dry beans and lentils-such as pinto, northern, fava, navy, black-eyed peas, and soybeans. Repackage them in decorative jars or tins.. Supply your favorite recipes as well as a dried herbs and seasonings. You can also add a wooden spoon.• Pack a gym bag with exercise gear such as hand weights, a sweatband, a pedometer, an exercise video, or a jump rope. Include a gift certificate to a store that sells athletic clothing.• Fill a basket with cans of fat free refried beans, whole-wheat tortillas, baked tortilla chips, and a jar of salsa. Add a recipe for a healthy Mexican dish.• Bake up a batch of lowfat muffins or a mini-loaf of your favorite quick bread. Place in an antique mixing bowl with a container of lowfat flavored cream cheese.• Make a batch of hot chocolate mix and place in a basket with two holiday mugs.• Make a basket with assorted herbal teas. You can also include a mug and tea infuser.By: Beth Fontenot, MS, LDN, RD

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Judy Doherty, MPS, PCII

Judy’s passion for cooking began with helping her grandmother make raisin oatmeal for breakfast. From there, she earned her first food service job at 15, was accepted to the world-famous Culinary Institute of America at 18 (where she graduated second in her class), and went on to the Fachschule Richemont in Switzerland, where she focused on pastry arts and baking. After a decade in food service for Hyatt Hotels, Judy launched Food and Health Communications to focus on flavor and health. She graduated with Summa Cum Laude distinction from Johnson and Wales University with a BS in Culinary Arts, holds a master’s degree in Food Business from the Culinary Institute of America, two art certificates from UC Berkeley Extension, and runs a food photography & motion studio where her love is creating fun recipes and content.

Judy received The Culinary Institute of America’s Pro Chef II certification, the American Culinary Federation Bronze Medal, Gold Medal, and ACF Chef of the Year. Her enthusiasm for eating nutritiously and deliciously leads her to constantly innovate and use the latest nutritional science and Dietary Guidelines to guide her creativity, from putting new twists on fajitas to adapting Italian brownies to include ingredients like toasted nuts and cooked honey. Judy’s publishing company, Food and Health Communications, is dedicated to her vision that everyone can make food that tastes as good as it is for you.

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