What’s your New Year’s Resolution?
It always seems to take at least 2 months before I stop writing the wrong date. Although I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions, I do like to have fun with New Year traditions, such as eating lucky foods. Lucky foods such as a bowl of Candy Cane Cream:
I don’t like candy canes, but I do like cream… and peppermint.
What’s so lucky about this bowl? It’s not the cream, and it’s not the peppermint. It’s not even the chocolate (although anyone who has chocolate is pretty lucky in my book). No, the lucky food is the pomegranate. According to New Year lore, pomegranate is revered as a symbol of fertility, regeneration, and prosperity. It’s commonly eaten on New Year’s Eve in Greece and Turkey… and now at CCK’s house too.
Candy Cane “Whipped Cream” Pudding
(Makes 1 1/2 cups: one Katie-sized serving!)
- sweetener of choice
- 1/16th tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tbsp water (20g)
- 1/2 serving agar base (linked below)
- 5 drops pure peppermint extract
- optional: cocoa or fruit (for flavored cream)
Instructions: First, make up the agar base. When it’s cooled, put half of it in a blender (or Magic Bullet) with all the other ingredients and blend away. Whip very well. I like to put it in the freezer for a few minutes prior to eating, so it’s super-cold. Optional: add fruit, cacao nibs, cocoa powder, or other add-ins.
Nutritional Info: (for the entire bowl) Calories: 60, Fat: 3g, Protein: 2g, Carbohydrates: 3g
Other Lucky New Year’s Foods:
- In Spain and parts of South America, they eat twelve grapes—one to symbolize each month of the coming year. Sweet grapes stand for good months, and sour grapes foreshadow bad months.
- In Japan, they eat soba. The long noodles symbolize a long life.
- Sauerkraut is eaten in Germany, and in Brazil and Italy, lentils are considered lucky.
- In the southern US, they eat cooked greens (green = money) and black-eyed peas, which stand for coins.
Aside from eating pomegranates on New Year’s, I’m also planning to fill the menu with other lucky foods, such as my southern CCK Collard Greens as well as this black-eyed pea dish:
What’re your New Year’s resolutions?
And are you going to eat any lucky foods?
That cream looks nice! id have to leave out the peppermint tho, i have a weird version to ANYTHING mint flavoured, i just cant do it! i plan on getting healthier and happier in 2011, its about time. xx
Yum that looks delish! My new years resolutions include running my second half (March 26th!) faster than my first, and becoming Lifetime with Weight Watchers!
Okay, I never knew you made vegan cream! I must try it!
PS – Pork (although not vegan) symbolizes luck for the New Year too! 🙂
Woo! How gorgeous are those photos? I want to dive right in :).
Oh my goodness, that whipped cream looks so delicious!
I need to get some pom in for New Year’s 🙂
Even though my family is all from the North, growing up in the South I have definitely partook (partaken?) in the black eyed peas and greens reality!
That looks so delicious, Katie. I am a HUGE fan of peppermint ANYTHING, so I’ll be writing this recipe down!
I haven’t touched my Twitter account in months but I followed you 🙂 Maybe I’ll actually log on more now!
I put crushed vegan, organic (much more flavor and less sweet than conventional) candy cane on top of a batch of brownies before I baked them for Christmas and they came out wonderfully! I don’t usually like candy canes but the slightly melty peppermint and bits of crunch were awesome.
Also, candy canes make everything SO colorful. Even photos hehe :). (Plus, they make chocolate-mint candy canes. I didn’t have any this year, but a few years ago I tried one. Much better than the regular version.)
OH i heard about that. Good thing I love pomegranate! I also have black eyed peas on New Years. They are suppose to be lucky too! Happy New year friend.
LC
HAHahahahah… when I saw the post title for today I thought “But Katie doesn’t even LIKE candy canes?” lol… Ah but I see, you DO like peppermint! So, um, what’s the difference then? Just don’t like the sugar in the cane? I hate candy canes too but I also hate all other things peppermint 🙂
Without adding the peppermint oil, though, that looks REALLY good! I didn’t know we were supposed to eat a lucky food for New Years either… I don’t think I’ll try the grapes thing – I couldn’t handle it if they turned out to be all sour! Ack! 🙂
OH! And I already know where you are on Twitter, so I’m lookin foward to the coupon AND to this hearltfelt tweet that’s coming…!
I think I like mint, but not peppermint? Dunno, really… I’ve always loved mint cc ice cream, but hated yorks and Andes mints. And Wild bars are my favorite things in the whole world. Go figure :-?.
I don’t know what the difference is… it’s strange!
That gumbo looks painful and delicious! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such huge chunks of jalapeno with the seeds still in – YUM!
Hehe it’s actually okra 🙂
Oooh I love this idea! But, you know,in Greece we don’t really eat pomegranates in new year’s eve, though we do use them for decoration sometimes. I think we ought to start a new tradition this year,Katie’s whipped cream!! 😉
LOL really? I found my info here: http://livingingreece.gr/2007/12/31/new-years-greece/
But I’ve only been to Greece once, and that was in the summer. I’d love to go back! 🙂
That cream looks tasty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A blogroll would be cool, I think! =D
I’ve never made any resolutions before, but I might try. I just don’t know what I would do them on – I like my life how it is (most days anyway 😉 ).
For the lucky foods, I might have to try the grape thing – that sounds like fun! And I might make some black-eyed peas. I’ve never had black-eyed peas before and New Year’s seems to be the perfect excuse! 🙂
I always put the wrong year for a few months too!
One of my new year resolutions is to eat a vegan diet one day a week. Hopefully your blog can help me do that.
I think you should do a blogroll because I enjoy seeing what other blogs people read
Now that I know pomegranate seeds are eaten on New Year’s, I’ll be sure to eat them!
I always do the wrong year, too! 😉