December 2021! It’s been a challenging year for the world in so many ways, but we made it! Since it’s always healing to focus on the positives, here are a few delicious ways to bring joy and create a little magic! The holiday season brings so many opportunities to make warm memories with family and friends! It is especially wonderful for sharing some delicious kitchen crafting! Let the kids get hands on and creative with some tasty vegan treats! Some of my favourite memories of the holidays revolve around a kitchen warm with laughter and messy with bowls of coloured icing, candies, and multi-coloured sprinkles to decorate crispy sugar cookies, gingerbread creatures, or graham cracker houses stuck together with heaps of royal icing. With a few mindful choices and some small adjustments, the sweet traditions can carry on!
When the kids are young, simple ideas, fun-shaped cookies and brightly coloured icing and candies are all you need! Just be sure to check the ingredients when purchasing candies; many contain hidden animal products. Icing is easy to make with vegan butter and, of course, there are lots of wonderful mindful cookie recipes!
Try some of our veganized family favourites, such as Grandma’s Brown Sugar Cookies or Crispy Sugar Cookies
Rainy, cold days are perfect for fun in the kitchen! Making treats for sharing with friends and family helps create warm memories. Creating homemade gifts is a joy for the makers and the receivers! It is also a great time to role model and encourage generosity and kindness! Just tailor the activity to the children’s ages and capabilities and everyone will feel successful! At the easy end, you can microwave some vegan chocolate chips, (I use Kirkland’s) dip a bamboo spoon into the chocolate, dip again in sparkles or crushed candy cane and tie it up with a little ribbon! This versatile gift will be appreciated by adults who can stir it into their coffee or kids who can stir it into a vegan hot chocolate!
This Roasted Almond Bark or its easy option, Candy Cane Bark, are both super simple and the kids will be proud of their skills!
This Kinder Caramel Corn needs some careful adult supervision, but the kids can help pop the corn to make this healthier version of an old favourite. A jar of this makes a lovely gift for friends or teachers!
A little fancier but still easy, these Melting Snowmen are quite adorable to give as gifts! Just make sure to find some vegan marshmallows, as regular marshmallows do contain animal products. I used Dandies brand. Use the Crispy Sugar Cookie recipe for the base.
One of our favourite treats around the holidays is the traditionally Canadian Butter Tart! I really love the rich flavour of these and I love knowing that I didn’t need dairy to make these Buttery Pecan Tarts perfectly luscious!
Christmas morning was traditionally started with fresh cheese biscuits, cut into holiday shapes! Magically, they always tasted better that way! Now we make Cheezy Biscuits!
They are especially good with easy-to-make Quick Fresh Raspberry Preserves.
The Quick Fresh Raspberry Preserves also are great for making these easy Thumbprint Cookies!
Knowing that we can each make a positive difference every day with our food choices is a gift we give ourselves and our children. It is full of hope and promise!
Take full advantage of every opportunity to make warm and delicious memories. Time goes by so quickly…let’s fill our lives and our world with love and kindness every chance we get!
So much love and gratitude always to our two amazing daughters, Laura and Erin, for making our lives so full of magic and joy!
