Holiday Treats - Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Chocolate covered pretzels are probably the easiest thing to make. All you need is some chocolate, some pretzels, a pan, and a little bit of time.

Holiday Treats - Red Velvet Cupcakes

This is my all-time favorite recipe for red velvet cake. I got it from the blog, Mac & Cheese, and haven't had to change a single thing about it. It's fluffy, and moist, and perfect every time.

Holiday Treats - Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

It's almost Christmas, which at my house means it's time to start making holiday goodies! For years my family has been making holiday treats ranging from chocolate peanut butter cups, toffee, and chocolate covered pretzels,  to bread, cinnamon rolls, sugar cookies, and so on. Once these treats are made we pass them out to neighbors, friends, family, and basically anyone who comes by the house.

This is the first Christmas that I haven't lived with my family and haven't been a part of the craziness that goes into making these goodies, but that didn't mean I was just going to sit at home and not do anything. Now I have my own neighbors, friends, and people coming over to my house, so I'm carrying on the tradition...on a smaller scale, but I'm carrying it on nonetheless.

This vegan chocolate peanut butter cup recipe is just the first in a series of posts on holiday treat-making. It's a big crowd pleaser, and the best part is, it's not hard to make at all...although, I will admit, it's a little time consuming...but it's worth it!

Egg Substitute

To make the recipes a little less ingredient intense, I edited the vegan pumpkin pancakes and vegan corn bread recipes to include instructions to add an egg substitute rather than all the starches and guar gum and all that. That way, if you don't want to go hunt down guar gum and potato starch to make my recipes, you don't have to, you can simply use something like Ener-G Egg Replacer. However, if you are feeling ambitious and want to save a bit of money, you can use the following recipe:

Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think this recipe started out as something from Better Homes and Gardens or Betty Crocker, but it has gone through many modifications since then to make these vegan treats. They are pretty tasty and definitely a favorite around these parts.

Comfort Food

When I was sad as a kid, my parents, or rather, mostly my dad, would use food to help cheer me up. If it wasn't a 7-Eleven slurpee, then it was a candy bar, or some sort of fruit...yeah, I was a weird kid and liked fruit, but no matter what, it always seemed to help. For better or for worse I continue to use food to help cheer myself up, and as I've gotten older I've started to realize that I don't limit this practice to just making myself feel better. For example, when my boyfriend was down from a really awful beginning of the week this week, my initial reaction was to make him food, and not just any food, all his favorite comfort food! So the meal for tonight was vegan barbecue ribs, vegan macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

The green beans were just from a can, so not really much to tell there.

The macaroni and cheese I made with original soy milk (not vanilla), Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cheddar Cheese, Earth Balance soy butter, and pasta (shells of course). After 1/2 lb pasta was cooked to al dente and drained, I added about 1/4 cup soy milk, about 1 TBSP soy butter, and 2 TBSP soy cheese. You can add more or less of any of the previous ingredients depending on your tastes. It's not an exact science by any means. Then just add salt and pepper to taste.

For the mashed potatoes I boiled 3 peeled russet potates until I could stick a fork all the way through each one.  Once done, I drained the water and then added a bit of original soy milk to the potatoes, as well as about 1-2 tablespoons of Earth Balance soy butter, and some salt and pepper to taste. Then I just mashed away until I got the right consistency of the potatoes.

The ribz, I made some modifications to a combination of The Vegan Chef's recipe and FatFree Vegan's recipe, see below.

Anyway, I think the meal was a success, just like my childhood slurpee trips!