This week we'll explore pomegranate recipes and a fun way to use Thanksgiving leftovers. We'll also delve into a crazy critter with a lot of eyes, an intriguing book, and some holiday gift ideas focused on wellness.

Eat Colorfully

Seasonal Ingredient Spotlight

Looking to add some color to a gray December week? The best treat of late fall is the abundance of juicy, ruby-red pomegranates. There are many ways to integrate them into seasonal dishes, so there's no reason not to be savoring this special fruit again and again throughout the next month.

Here's a rundown of all the fabulous things you can do with pomegranate:

1.) Add it to seasonal salads, like this Fall Harvest Salad with Apple Cider Dressing.

2.) Add it to seasonal dips. Both this Maple Sea Salt Hummus and this Holiday Guacamole are total show-stoppers (bookmark them for holiday parties!).

3.) Use it to garnish holiday main courses. This Wild Rice Stuffed Delicata Squash is my favorite centerpiece dish and this Roasted Vegetable Harvest Pasta is an easy and flexible crowd pleaser.

4.) Use the juice in cocktails, like in this festive Spiced Pomegranate Daiquiri.

5.) Use it on top of vanilla or chocolate ice cream or yogurt for a pretty seasonal dessert.

What I'm Loving Right Now

Do you still have Thanksgving leftovers? I certainly hope so, because I can't wait for you to try this idea: take all your leftovers and stuff them into a taco!

These Thanksgiving Leftovers Taco are easy, fun, and infinitely variable. Make sure to check out the blog post for a few tips and tricks, including ideas about how to make everything stick together (hint: leftover sweet potatoes are the key). It's such a unique way to repurpose leftovers, avoid food waste, and allow everyone to make their own creations if you still have visitors.

If you decide to give this non-traditional taco a try, please feel free to send a photo my way. I'd love to share your creations on my Instagram stories.

Live Colorfully

In the Natural World

Did you know that the horseshoe crab has 9 eyes?? That's a LOT of eyes. Horseshoe crabs are phenomenally cool critters that will blow your mind with all their oddities.

We've been down south all week visiting family and managed a couple-day getaway on the South Carolina coast. We always love seeing the horseshoe crabs when we're there. They're prehistoric monsters; their close relatives date back to about 440 million years ago, which is actually a couple hundred million years OLDER than the dinosaurs. They were almost harvested to extinction, but have been working their way back slowly in certain areas. Despite their name, they're not crabs; they're actually most closely related to spiders.

Among other oddities (in addition to having 9 eyes...), they have an impressive number and variety of legs. The males even have an extra appendage for holding onto the females during mating (which, coincidentally, only occurs on the full moon). They're impressively large and can reach a couple feet in diameter. If you're ever fortunate enough to spot one of these living fossils, keep in mind that they've been roaming Earth's oceans for about 200 times as long as even the earliest human ancestors and about 40,000 times as long as modern(ish) farming humans.

What I'm Reading

I just finished a really different and interesting book that I wanted to pass along: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. It's a story about an indigenous family that spends summers in Maine working as berry pickers in the 1970's. One of their young children disappears. I don't want to give too much away, but she ends up in a very unexpected place.

This is a relatively short book and it has a good (and quite different) plot line. It deals with some challenging topics (treatment and rights of native people, racial dynamics, complicated family relationships, miscarriages and loss of children), but it's not a book that sits too heavily.

As the days get shorter, it's definitely time to get yourself a good book! Remember that you can always browse my list of favorite books if you need some inspiration.

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HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

Do you give gifts over the holidays? Over the next few newsletter issues, I'll be sharing lots of ideas for homemade gifts (of the edible variety!) that are great to make for friends and family. Generally speaking, I much prefer to give things that I've made myself and I'm excited to share some of my favorites with you. Stay tuned for those recipes coming in the next three newsletter issues.

YOUR TURN: Do YOU have any favorite non-traditional holiday gifts? If so, please reply to this email and share yours. I'd love to compile some fun ideas from this creative, thoughtful community to publish in newsletters over the coming weeks.

I also wanted to suggest a couple non-homemade gifts that I think might be a good fit. Here are my top three picks for unique gifts that are related to food and health:

1.) The "everyone on my list": premium matcha. Why not share some good health with your friends and family this year by gifting nourishing, antioxidant-rich, low-caffeine matcha? I'm a huge fan of Matcha Nude and drink it every day. They have bags of a few different sizes as well as matcha whisks, beautiful handmade matcha bowls, travel mugs, etc. If you use the code ROGUE at check-out, you'll save 15% on all matcha and accessories, plus you'll support a small, female-owned business that was hurt in the Asheville North Carolina flooding this fall.

2.) The mid-range: tropical fruit. Nothing brightens up a gray winter day like beautiful, colorful, juicy tropical fruit. There are some great services online that curate and send exotic goodies. I've received a few from Tropical Fruit Box and they're a blast. I'm also a huge fan of Maui Gold Pineapple, stunning "Pinkglow" pineapples, and any other gift of fruit.

3.) The big splurge: a juicer. Being able to make nutrient-rich, fresh juices at home is an incredible treat. If you have someone special on your list (or if you're looking for present for yourself!), I've become a huge fan of the Nama juicers. I have the J2 which I recommend highly; they also have a juicer/blender combo C2. Their biggest sale of the year is for Cyber Monday, which includes $80 off the J2 and $120 off the C2; if you see this email before the end of the day Monday, use the code BRUSSELSPROUTBFCM to get the special holiday deals. If you see this email after Monday, the code BRUSSELSPROUT10 will always save you 10% on any of these juicers and accessories (like the sorbet attachment).

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Thanks for joining me for this issue of Eat Colorfully, Live Colorfully! I'd love to hear from you, so please feel free to reply with questions, thoughts, or requests. If you missed a previous issue, you can view all my newsletters here. Have a great week!