If you are hosting a get-together or attending one over the New Year’s weekend, here are a few appetizer ideas that are simple but elegant. Make one or several kinds for a variety platter. Have a Happy New Year!

Toast Topper Recipes

Salmon Toast Toppers
Serves 15-20 guests

1 pkg. of cream cheese
1 pkg. lox-salmon
1 pkg. fresh dill
1 New French Bakery Baguette

Spread the cream cheese on your prepared toasts, cut lox into ½ inch pieces and top each toast with a piece of lox. Place a small sprig of dill on the top for an elegant and simple appetizer. Enjoy.

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Quick & Easy Guacamole Toast Toppers
Serves 15-20 guests

3 ripe avocados
1 pkg. Simply Organic Guacamole Dip Mix
½ C. Garden Fresh Salsa
1 New French Bakery Baguette

Slice baguette into ¼-inch thick rounds and brush with melted butter or olive oil. Bake on a flat sheet at 350 degrees until crisp and lightly golden brown (approximately 15 minutes). Remove pits and mash avocados. Stir in contents of dry mix and the salsa. Chill 20 minutes before topping on toasted rounds. Enjoy.

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BBQ Toast Toppers
Serves 15-20 guests

1 rotisserie chicken
1 jar of your favorite BBQ sauce such as Daddy Sam’s
4 oz Carr Valley Cheddar Cheese
1 New French Bakery Baguette

Slice baguette into ¼-inch thick rounds and brush with melted butter or olive oil. Bake on a flat sheet at 350 degrees until crisp and lightly golden brown (approximately 15 minutes). Shred chicken, mix with barbeque sauce and place a spoonful on each toasted round. Top with a piece of Carr Valley Cheddar. Enjoy.

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Honey Butter and Cranberry Toast Toppers
Serves 15-20 guests

1 lb. Honey Butter (recipe follows)
1 C. Cranberry Sauce
1 New French Bakery Baguette or other brand

Slice baguette into ¼-inch thick rounds and brush with melted butter or olive oil. Bake on a flat sheet at 350 degrees until crisp and lightly golden brown (approximately 15 minutes). Spread prepared toasts with honey butter and a spoonful of cranberry sauce. Enjoy.

Honey Butter
1 lb. butter
¼ C. honey
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. vanilla extract

Cut the butter into chunks. Place butter into the mixing bowl and beat at low speed, using the whisk attachment to loosen the butter.  Increase the speed to medium and add the honey, cinnamon, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove butter from bowl and spoon onto parchment paper or plastic wrap. Roll into a log and refrigerate for 2 hours.

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Tuscan Turkey Toast Toppers
Serves 15-20 guests

½ lb.of Boars Head brand Tuscan turkey, sliced medium thick
1 container of deli smoky ranch dip
1 red onion, sliced thin
1 New French Bakery Baguette

Slice the red onion to get small rings, spread your prepared toasts with smoky ranch dip and top it with a curled 1 inch piece of turkey and make pretty with a red onion ring. Enjoy.

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Citrus fruits have filled the produce department and our favorites, Minneola Tangelos, have just arrived. With all these fruits it can be challenging to know what’s what.

Can you match the citrus fruit with it’s juicy fact? (Answers below)

Answers: Clementine E; Satsuma Mandarin A ; Valencia Orange D ; Cara Cara Navel Orange C ; Tangelo B

 Cereal Killer, a controversial book written by Minnesota author Alan L. Watson, challenges the thinking that a low-fat diet is a healthy one. Valley Natural Foods’ first shipment of this book sold-out quickly but we have re-stocked it by popular request.

To learn more about what this book offers, please visit the official website for Cereal Killer at http://www.cerealkillerbook.com/Home.html  

or the publishing website at http://www.dietheartpublishing.com/

When you purchase any book from the shelves at Valley Natural Foods, you automatically receive a 15% discount off the cover price. While browsing our shelves, take a look at other books we offer by local authors. You can see previous blog postings about these books at:

great gift idea for kids from a local author

and

 how about a nostalgic gift idea

Valley Natural Foods has well-established relationships with several community organizations that support our troops. Member-owner and former board member Barb Adams-Johnson, who helped us secure the color guard for our flagpole dedication this past summer returned to us in November with an interesting request: would Valley Natural Foods help bless the team of chaplains and priests who minister to the Red Bulls 34th ID?

Barb explains: "The Red Bulls are stationed in Basra, Iraq and are making history leading the command in over half of Iraq. The clergy are ministering to a large number of troops across a vast territory in not the most ideal conditions so it would be such a nice token of our appreciation to surprise them with a genuine ‘Health and Wellness’ gift package."

Barb suggested to Valley Natural Foods about what kinds of items could be donated for the wellness bags and came up with a specific list.  The wellness staff got very excited about helping and went to task requesting support from various vendors. We were met with an over-flowing cart load of donated items that not only matched the list, but surpassed it in abundance!

Generous donations included Energy Meals, Granola Bars, Lotions, Lip Balms, Soaps, Toothpaste and a variety of other health and wellness products. The following companies contributed those products: Nature’s Plus, Alacer Corp., Cascadian Farm, Alba Botanica, Tom’s of Maine, Dr. Bronner’s, SunLeaf Naturals and Badger Products.

Recently, Barb and her friends Wendy Wornson and Kristy Wornson worked together as a delightful team assembling these items and filling over 45 gift bags. The bags will be boxed up and shipped directly to Iraq.

A special thank you goes to our local sales representatives who coordinated the vendor contributions. Valley Natural Foods values having great relationships with our sales reps and vendors.

You can learn more about the Red Bulls and read their blogs on their website: www.theredbulls.org.

First Line Therapy – Now is the time to create a healthy lifestyle!

First Line Therapy was developed as a “Therapeutic Lifestyle Change” program to help people make lifestyle changes that can assist them in achieving their health goals. Participants will learn to choose natural foods and moderate supplementation, pick from exercise alternatives, and use stress relief practices to achieve their body composition goals and increase energy. This 12 week educational program features individual attention, support group participation and use of Bioimpedence assessment to help you achieve consistent progress toward your own health goal.

The next First Line Therapy 12-week group-session will begin in January. An informational meeting is set for Tuesday, January 19 at 7:00 p.m. Weekly classes will begin on the following Tuesday evenings at 6:00 p.m. Classes will be held right here at Valley Natural Foods.

People who want to register or have questions, please contact Eileen Johnson, RN, at ejohnson@valleynaturalfoods.com

You too can achieve a healthy lifestyle!

Burnsville resident and author Frances Iverson has published a fantastic children’s book which can be found on the shelves here at Valley Natural Foods! This delightful little book is colorfully illustrated by her daughter, Daria Tavoularis.

The Weaving Adventures of Edgar and Rita  is a children’s picture book about the creative process. Edgar, the golden retriever is suprised to learn that his owner Rita can find inspiration for her weavings everywhere, sketching them in her little book. As Rita gathers ideas from her environment, Edgar learns how something that seems ordinary can stimulate the imagination. Together Edgar and Rita discover shapes, colors and textures all around them.

 Francis Iverson is a weaver and educator. Inspired by her students’ sense of wonder and their excitement when encouraged to be creative, she hopes this book will stimulate children to see the endless possibilities in their world. Please visit  www.niddynoddypress.blogspot.com for more information.

Daria Tavoularis received her MFA in Studio Art from the University of British Columbia and her BFA from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, The People’s Republic of China and Across the U.S.  Please visit www.dariatavoularis.com to learn more.

The next time you’re shopping at Valley Natural Foods, take a moment to look through The Weaving Adventures of Edgar and Rita. Copies sold here have been signed by the author. Hint: This book makes a great stocking stuffer!

Books purchased at Valley Natural Foods are always priced at 15% less than the cover price.

For a unique gift item, check out the Historical Depression Era Cookbooks now on the shelves at Valley Natural Foods. Stories & Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930’s by local author Rita Van Amber, are available in four 300-page volumes. This delightful collection contains dozens of fascinating and heartwarming nostalgic stories, sayings, philosophies and of course thrifty tasty recipes from the era.

Valley Natural Foods’ book buyer Sue Burdi was introduced to the books by her neighbor Joe who is a relative of the author. According to Sue, “customers would find these books interesting because they contain more than just recipes. To me, they offer a glimpse into how families coped during ‘hard’ times similar to today.”

Sue suggests bringing these books to family gatherings this winter and see how they open interesting conversations between young and old. The books are engrossing and make a wonderful gift item for all ages!

Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change continues.

Our friends at SES are making the most of this opportunity to travel to Europe. Not only did they fundraise their own travel expenses and are staying with host families, they are also reporting back detailed outlines of their experiences to our community. Here are a few highlights:

December 7th marked the beginning of an annual event called Fossil of the Day awards, held by Climate Action Network. They present awards to different countries based on the poor solutions they’ve suggested during climate talks that day. One of our student bloggers was shocked to hear that on the first day of the awards, a train-loving bicycle-doting health conscious Sweden was amongst one of the winners of this sarcastic award.

Land scarcity and land use was the topic of a meeting another student, blogged about. His attention was caught by Dr. Fredrik Hedenus, who suggests a tax on meat to mitigate methane output, which is a leading green house gas.

“Hedenus noted that Methane sources are non-point emission sources and, as stated earlier, this makes it difficult to control and regulate than CO2. Our best option then, is to begin with the strongest most defined known source, livestock. Hedenus suggested that, because these are non-point emission sources, we must implement output based policies. The C.C.C. estimates that benefit-cost ratios could reach approximately 2 through a beef meat tax in OECD countries. This tax would reduce global emissions by 30-70 million CO2 ton equivalents per year by GWP calculations over the next 100 years.”

Read ses-climate.blogspot.com for more about the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cophenhagen, Denmark from Apple Valley high school students from SES.

Valley Natural Foods member-owner #10 is not only one of our long-time members, but also a long-time cashier here at the store. Sheila suggests that giving a co-op membership to someone on your Christmas list is a great gift that will keep on giving for a lifetime. A co-op membership has a one-time fee of $100 (fully refundable at anytime). Benefits members enjoy are:

• Monthly Member Discount
• Case Discounts for Members
• Member-Only Coupon Books
• Monthly Member Specials
• Patronage Refunds
• Ownership of a Community-Based Business

If a gift membership is too high for the budget, why not consider a co-op gift card which can be issued in any desired amount. Co-op gift cards can be purchased at the customer service counter, and can be used at Valley Natural Foods or other Twin City Co-ops.

Next time you see Sheila, ask her to tell you why she has enjoyed membership over the years!

In the past, when manufacturers started selling 100% whole wheat pastas so consumers could have a healthier, higher fiber option, the  pasta was often criticized as being too gritty, gummy, or mushy in texture and having a cardboard-like taste.

Today’s varieties however have come a long way! A Valley Natural Foods member-owner recently pointed out to us that according to Cooks Illustrated (January & February 2010  issue), Bionaturae Organic 100% Whole Wheat Spaghetti was rated the top choice for whole wheat pastas. Comments  included “earthy,” “nutty,” “pleasantly chewy,” among other positive comments. Check out Cooks Illustrated Web site to search for their article on whole-wheat pasta at http://www.cooksillustrated.com/.

Valley Natural Foods communications specialist Josie Biocca uses Bionaturae 100% whole wheat pastas regularly and offered the following comments: ” I like this particular brand of whole wheat pasta because it’s substantial and filling, is healthy, has great flavor and I like the thicker more chewy texture.” Josie says it marries well with a variety of tomato sauces, homemade or store-bought.

 The best part of this blog-post is to let you know that Bionaturae Organic 100% Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Lasagna Noodles & Elbow Pasta are on sale for the remainder of December! The spaghetti and elbow pasta are selling for $1.99, and the lasagne noodles for $3.19.

Try before you buy! There will be an upcoming opportunity to taste Bionaturae Whole Wheat Spaghetti at our demo kiosk on December 20, from 12:00-3:00 p.m. Our demo team will be cooking up Skillet Asian Chicken served over Pasta. You can take home the recipe too!