Vegan Easter

For vegans, some holidays can be a challenge. On the one hand, you want to savor the tastes of the season,  but you still want to maintain your commitment to cruelty-free living. For me, easter wouldn't be the same without a basket of chocolate on easter morning, but I was not about to go out and buy snickers eggs, milk chocolate peanut butter cups, and marshmallow peeps. Instead, I spent last weekend doing something that I have always loved: making candy. I boxed up some of these treats and distributed them to friends, both vegan and non, and saved some for myself. I've dutifully kept said candy stored in the freezer so that I would be able to enjoy a basket on easter morning.
The chocolate eggs pictured are just dark chocolate chips melted with a tiny bit of earth balance and then poured into candy molds. I also made delicious haystacks, peanut butter truffles, and vegan cream cheese mints. Everything came out really nicely. I found the cream cheese mint recipe here, and substituted tofutti vegan cream cheese instead. The peanut butter truffles and haystacks, however, were all my doing. They came out great, and I am pleased to be able to share both recipes after the jump.

You Can't Go Wrong With Chocolate and Fruit

I stumbled onto an absolutely sinful recipe on about.com for dark chocolate fondue. It's not healthy or good for you by any means, except in the sense that it uses animal-free ingredients. Chocolate on its own has a lot of calories. When you add earth balance, corn syrup, and liquor into the mix, you end up with a dessert that is really delicious fattening.
However, there are certain times in a woman's life when she just needs chocolate. These can include: after a breakup, Valentine's Day, certain times of the month, or whenever Breakfast at Tiffany's or Steel Magnolias is on.
This fondue is perfect for those special times. I usually serve mine with quartered strawberries, apples, and orange slices. The last time that I made it, I also included some graham crackers for dipping.
I'm all about multi-purposing recipes. In addition to being great for those days when all a girl wants to do is wear sweatpants, this recipe is also great for a romantic date. The original recipe calls for Kahlua, but I had amaretto on hand anyway and decided to try it instead. I've been meaning to see how this would turn out with a ribbon of peanut butter instead of the liquor. If anyone out there is brave enough to try it, I would certainly like to hear about the results.

Sometimes you have to show a little skin. This reminds boys of being naked, and then they think of sex.

Alicia Silverstone graced the silver screen in Clueless, a movie that spoke to the mid-90's zeitgeist. Alicia is one of my favorite vegans, and I really do need to get out there and buy her new book, The Kind Diet. Alicia touts the benefits of veganism, including weight loss, improved health, and general good karma. I think that it's great that she is using her notoriety to promote a plant-based lifestyle, especially when there are so many celebrities who are happy to plug fast food restaurants and soft drinks.  I could gush for days about Alicia, but this is my blog (her's is here).