A client said to me last week, it's not what you do between Christmas and New Year. Instead it's what you do between New Year and Christmas which really counts.

 

 

This is very true. While it's tempting to put much of the blame for ill-health, lack of exercise, poor eating habits and inability to lose weight onto the festive season, the problem is actually in our more regular habits.

 

It's the choices you make on a daily and weekly basis which dictate how good or bad your health is. If you want to improve your diet, health and the way you live, then look at your regular habits. Change these and you'll change your energy, vitality and health.

 

 

 

As we approach the end of 2012 I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. It has been a pleasure to write this blog over the past year. Thank you for reading and also for your comments and suggestions.

 

I shall be spending Christmas with my family and will then be away for three weeks, for much of which there will be zero internet access. And I will be spending some of that time at a beach, very similar to the one above.

 

But Everyday Kitchen will continue, with a range of articles cued up for automatic publication while I'm away. So check back here regularly.

 

Have a happy, restful and joyous festive season.

 

 

If you're stuck for last minute Christmas gifts, then here are five suggestions to buy and make:

 

 

As Jamie Oliver says "a flavoured salt is one of the simplest and most basic ways of finishing a dish – it’s so easy and tasty, yet hardly anyone does it”.

 

You can buy flavoured salts from gourmet food shops and delicatessens, but it's also easy to make your own citrus or dried herb salt.

There are some ideas on the Purple Foodie blog.

 

 

Give your friend or family member the gift of an easy, healthy and tasty meal, with this Red Lentil Dal Mix.

 

If you're pushed for time use ground spices, rather than roasting and grinding your own as Lucid Food recommends.

 

This is a lovely gift when packaged in a jar, with some instructions on how to make dal.

 

 

 

I first spotted this on Ruth Reichl's blog and I love the idea of Nudo's Adopt an Olive Tree scheme. 

 

You simply pick a tree, from a range of different Italian olive groves and then enjoy a year's supply of olive oil from your own tree.

 

They have information about the different olive trees and the taste of the olive oil it produces, so you can select the kind of tree you want to adopt. Or you can leave it up to them to pick a tree for you.

 

What a lovely gift this is.

 

 

 

 

I've made David Lebovitz's marinated feta on a number of occasions.

 

You simply pack chunks of feta into a jar, together with fresh herbs like rosemary, bay leaves, black pepper and dried chilli flakes.

 

Then you fill the jar up with olive oil and seal.

 

Present made.

 

The marinated feta is delicious on toast, with fresh tomatoes and rocket. I also like it crumbled on top of a frittata.

 

 

 

Vanilla, lavender and herb sugars also make a lovely gift and are easy to make.

 

The sugar is delicious sprinkled on top of a batch of muffins, just prior to putting them in the oven.

 

You can use it in place of regular sugar in any other baked good, or even just sweeten and flavour a cup of herbal tea.

 

I almost always have vanilla sugar sitting in the back of my cupboard and I've also made lavender sugar in the past.

 

Plus there are som lovely herb and citrus... Read More...

Each year I try to make a lot of my Christmas gifts. However this festive season, for various reasons, my time is pushed. With friends coming over Tuesday evening and nothing made I wanted a fast, easy, but still delicious gift.

 

 

 

 

And these Chocolate, Ginger and Sesame Flatbreads  from Sprouted Kitchen were perfect. I bought a packet of sesame crackers, together with some 70 percent cocoa solids chocolate, crystallised ginger and walnuts, while at home I already had a jar of toasted sesame seeds. It was then simply a matter of melting the chocolate, spreading this over the crackers and then sprinkling over chopped ginger and walnuts, together with some sesame seeds. Twenty minutes in the fridge and the chocolate was set, ready for packaging.

 

Quick, but also delicious. They're crunchy, chocolatey and gingery with just a little hint of toasted flavour from the sesame seeds. I'll be making them again.