Many Americans start the day with a bowl of granola or a yogurt-granola combination, or carry bags of granola for a healthy snack on-the-go.

With all the brands on the grocer’s shelf, what constitutes the best granola cereal?

The best granola is a healthy granola. As with all foods, choose a brand that starts with the highest-quality natural ingredients, and scan the nutrition label for:

Many pre-made granolas have unnecessary added ingredients, such as preservatives, and too much added sugar. Making a healthier granola at home is easy and cost effective: Most ingredients can be bought for significantly less in the bulk foods aisle of your grocery store. If you want to limit your gluten intake, you can find gluten-free oats. You can even give containers of your special blend as house gifts, special treats and stocking stuffers.

 
Why Are Whole Grains So Important?
Check out this article on whole grains. It may change your eating habits. It certainly changed ours!

Find more of our favorite cereal brands, plus recipes.

Get a tiered stand and do it at home!
Photo courtesy Russian Tea Room.

How about a tea party?

Every day in New York City, children arrive, dressed in their best, at the famed Russian Tea Room for afternoon tea. The tea, served from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m, is a special occasion providing a peek into a world of elegance.

The tiered tea tray is filled with kid-friendly treats: PB&J on a blini (you can serve yours on bread with the crusts cut off), pig-in-a-blanket and a selection of grilled cheese sandwiches and tea sandwiches: BLT, cucumber with chive cream cheese, tuna salad and egg salad.

The second course, the pastry tray, includes chocolate mousse with mixed berries, a red velvet cupcake, a traditional warm scone and fresh apple slices with creamy caramel.

And there’s tea, of course. The six decaffeinated tea choices are chamomile, ginger tea, green tea, mint verbena, raspberry hibiscus and rooibos chai.

Another treat: chocolate tea—teas made with real chocolate, yet are virtually calorie-free. Find a delicious sampler at The Nibble Gourmet Market.

Don’t like tea? Have some hot chocolate with whipped cream.

With a porcelain tea pot and a tiered serving dish, you can recreate the experience in your dining room (here’s another tea stand in white).

You’ll find other uses for the tiered stand: from breakfast (use it to present croissants, danishes, muffins, scones and toast) to desserts. For lunch, make a few different types of sandwiches, cut them in diagonal halves or quarters and serve them on the stand.

You can adapt the Russian Tea Room menu, add your favorite tartlets and even make the sandwiches a bit more special—like the classic watercress and sweet butter or cream cheese and smoked salmon.

For more inspiration, treat yourself to a book on tea parties.
 
Learn everything about tea in our Gourmet Tea Section.
  

Send a box of cakes. Burnt caramel-filled chocolates decorated with cakes, that is.

For years, San Francisco chocolatier Michael Recchiuti has featured the work of local artists on his acclaimed chocolate-covered burnt caramels (the caramel has a smokier flavor than conventional gourmet caramels).

This special edition of caramels is even guilt-free: For each box sold, $2 is donated to Creativity Explored, a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit and sell their art. How can you not want to help out?

The gift box of caramels—eight pieces, 3.5 ounces—is $21.00. Buy the chocolates online at Recchiuti.com. If you miss the special edition period, the burnt caramel chocolates without the art are available year-round (they’re one of Recchiuti’s most popular confections).

Want something other than chocolate?

Check out The Nibble Gourmet Market: THE NIBBLE Editors’ favorite gift foods and personal treats, conveniently organized in one location.

We don’t recommend everything: Just the best!

Use different spices to add excitement to
your favorite dishes, like these Cinnamon-
Jerk Pork Chops. Photo and recipe
courtesy McCormick.com.

These recipes are popular for a reason: They’re tasty and easy to make. Take pork chops, for example. You can quickly season them with salt, pepper and maybe some garlic or onion salt, then broil and serve.

Or, you could make them more special with a mix of seasonings that includes allspice, chipotle, cinnamon, grated lime peel and thyme: the delicious recipe in the photo above.

Low In Calories, High In Antioxidants

In addition to flavor, there are two important reasons to season your food with spices instead of fat-laden sauces, grated cheese, salt and other less-good-for-you options:

1. Low Calories. Herbs and spices have a negligible amount of calories. An entire teaspoon of most spices and herbs contains fewer than 10 calories. An entire cup of fresh parsley has 22 calories.

2. High Antioxidants. Herbs and spices also add an antioxidant bonus to your recipes. We hasten to add that it’s a small bonus, since the amount of herb or spice consumed is rather small. But the benefit builds up with frequent use.

See the seven highest-antioxidant spices and the highest-antioxidant foods overall.

If you’re planning a party, how much wine do you need? Wine quantities will vary depending on the type of party you’re having.

Gary Sitton, winemaker at California’s Clos du Bois winery, offers these general rules of thumb:

A standard bottle of wine (750ml, or 25.3 ounces) provides five five-ounce glasses of wine.

 
Now that you’ve got a handle on the wine, here’s how to calculate the amount of hors d’oeuvre.*

*In French, the singular and plural word forms are the same: hors d’oeuvre.