Vegan Food Gifts: Spread the Vegan Love DIY-Style with 100 Inspired Recipes for Homemade Baked Goods, Preserves, and Other Edible Gifts Everyone Will Love

by Joni Marie Newman, Celine Steen, Kurt Halsey (Illustrator)

Impress your family, friends, neighbors, guests—anyone!—with homemade gifts that you can feel good about and others will love. From mouthwatering vegan baking mixes you can create, package, and label yourself, to DIY gift baskets, preserves, liquors, and more, you’ll find that perfect something for everyone, no matter what their views or inclinations. (No one can say no to a chocolate chip cookie after all—vegan or otherwise!)

Vegan Food Gifts shows you how easy it is to create great homemade gifts that are not only kind and eco-conscious, but delicious too. So whether you are an expert chef or a beginner cook, a crafty genius or someone without an artistic bone in your body, you’ll find projects that not only suit your skills, but your budget too.

Be the hit of the bake sale, the darling of the holidays, the hostess with the most-est, and more with Vegan Food Gifts.

Genres: Cookbooks, Vegan, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference, Crafts

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Joni is just a regular gal who loves to cook...ESPECIALLY for friends and family. Self taught, and always learning, she spends most of her spare time in the kitchen.

When she is not in the kitchen, she really enjoys knitting, painting, wasting endless hours on the internet (reading the comments), walking with her husband and the baby girl, traveling, reading, swimming, and most of the other stuff regular gals enjoy.

A California native, she is currently residing in North Long Beach, with her four legged baby girl, Annie, and her extremely delicious husband, Dan.

It is in this home that she creates delicious and animal free delicacies for the world to enjoy. Through her food, she hopes to help people to understand that it is not necessary to murder or torture another living creature in order to have a tasty supper.

Visit her website for tasty recipes and other helpful information at www.justthefood.com and follow her on instagram @JoniMarieNewman

Joni can be contacted at joni@justthefood.com.

Reviews

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now, I haven't made any of the recipes in this book yet, so this review is based entirely on reading it; reading cookbooks is one of my favorite pastimes, and having bought and eventually given away so many it takes a lot to really excite me these days. This one is absolutely wonderful; the photography, the layout, everything about it is appealing and makes you want to delve into the recipes and give gifts to everyone you know whether herbivore or omnivore.

The gifts are thoughtful and practical, and the book gives you both packaging ideas and patterns for making your own bags, boxes, and tags. There are food gifts to give like cookies and candies, those mixes in jars that are so popular, themed gift baskets, preserves, liqueurs...and an emphasis on DIY and recycling containers that anyone can appreciate.

If you read the back cover and inside front pages you'll see recommendations from all sorts of vegan luminaries - trust their advice.

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sister is vegan and constantly left out of holidays, birthdays, etc. "Everybody deserves a present!" Exclaims the back cover. Yes! I am constantly brushing up on my vegan baking skills specifically to give my sister a dessert option on Thanksgiving or a treat for Christmas Eve. Thanks to this book, I have another resource for gifts--and what lovely treats they are! From the handy container folding guides to the classic 'just add water and oil' recipes in a jar; "Vegan Food Gifts" is a well rounded guide. Hats off to the author for writing a comprehensive, thoughtful, and unapologetic vegan cookbook. Veganos vivas largos!

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has some great ideas in it, but the one recipe I tried was really off. I followed the recipe exactly and was left with an inedible mess. I do feel like I should have known better because I thought the ratios were off but I decided to trust the recipe. There is a nice chapter on how to package food gifts.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an inspiring book for handmade gifts for sure.
What I liked about the book:
- A whole chapter about packaging, folding your own boxes, labels etc.
- Ever recipe comes with an idea on how to turn it into a gift.
- Some recipes contain extra recipes on how to use it.
- There are foods which look tempting for your own pantry, like instant mac&cheese, or hot sauce.

2 reasons why I didn't give this a higher rating:
- Most recipes don't have pics. There are pics included and they look wonderful, I only hoped there would be more of them so I could know how the gift looks like.
- Some recipes don't have an expiration date, so you can't tell how long it will keep. Other recipes you need to use within a week. Not something I would make as a gift, it's not really fun to tell a person they need to use their gift asap.

[S.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 2024, twelve years after this was published, there are tons of better vegan recipes out there that aren't chock full of vegetable/shortening/seed oils and sugar, although I understand their role in keeping something shelf stable. I'd be hesitant to eat some of this stuff, but that's just me. There were some decent ideas in this book, but unless you don't have a single creative bone in your body there's no real need to consult it (I will try that Bloody Mary mix recipe however). All in all it was okay.

[Stefanie Girard · Rating 5 out of 5]

So pretty!
recipe for Vegan minty dog biscuits
http://craftside.typepad.com/craftsid...
and a double pocket gift bag folding tutorial
http://craftside.typepad.com/craftsid...

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice ideas. Best was the chapter on easy peasy packaging. Worst mashed potato ( as in dried flakes) candy.

[Katey · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with many of my cookbook reviews, this is based on only reading through the book and the quality level of the recipes and ideas contained therein. And it seems quite solid. Nothing super fancy, but classic, easily repeatable recipes you can make as gifts or package together as a DIY gift basket. Great ideas, with some expounded upon further to make more complicated presents.

[Katie Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book great ideas.

I really enjoyed this book. I would give it 5 stars but because I am an avid canner I feel some of the canning recipes are not safe. So try them at your own risk. But really like this book. Great ideas that I will be using for gifts.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very beautifully produced book. I am excited about trying some of the recipes and giving some yummy vegan gifts this holiday season.

[Miss M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent selection of gifts for a variety of occasions.