Accidentally Vegan: Junk Food

My vegan son came home from school and told me when they did a good job and answered questions right in front of the class, they would get rewarded with a treat. He said "I did a good job and answered a question right, but I didn't take a treat because it wasn't vegan". I felt proud that he showed self controle and didn't eat a treat that he had earned, but felt bad that he missed out and stood out as being different or weird to his fellow 1st graders. So I searched the snack aisle for some vegan treats I could send to school with him, I was looking for something sealed, small proportions, and something that would show his classmates and teachers that vegans don't only snack on carrots and celery. 

I found this Nabisco multi pack of cookies. The animal crackers weren't much of a surprise, but chocolate grahams that didn't contain honey or milk? Well that was surprise, as was the mini shortbread cookies which are traditionally made with a ton of butter. Are they healthy? No, but that's why I titled this post "junk food" because my kids eat pounds of fresh fruits and veggies every week, and deserve little treats every now and then, especially when everyone else in their class or soccer team is enjoying a snack.

Swedish Fish are one of the rare gummy treats that are vegan (along with sour patch kids and Dots). I get the kids a bag after they've tolerated a day long trip to my favorite maze, Ikea.

Skittles weren't always vegan in the US, but have recently adopted a new, gelatin free recipe. I still check the bags for the clearly marked "no gelatin" label on them incase any old bags remained in storage and found their way to the shelf.

Oreos are the more well known vegan treats, I tend to get the much cheaper store brand cookies that also tend to be vegan (always check your labels) but knowing Oreos are vegan is always nice when you're on a road trip and only have gas stations and vending machines at your disposal.

I saved the best for last, the most amazing thing I've discovered to be vegan is not only very tasty, a rare find, but super inexpensive, it's a

VEGAN CHOCOLATE BAR!!!

This is the dark chocolate bar from Ikea, and it's only $.99 (although it's always been on sale when we shop). I don't even like dark chocolate but these are delicious. I even have a non-vegan friend who uses this chocolate over others to melt into molds and make chocolate pops out of.

Bake Sale

Son #1 goes to a really great, small school. The teachers and faculty are all really nice and have never said anything negative about Son #1 being vegan, but in my head I always feel like people think vegans only eat salad and seeds and my poor son can't eat any of the sweet treats all the "normal" kids get to eat. So when I heard that our school was having a bake sale, I just HAD to show that I could make vegan treats that weren't just good for being vegan, but just good. My dilemma was baking a large quantity of something then packaging them in an appealing way, all while on a budget. I decided to make 160 (4 batches) of my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. Except for two runs to the grocery store to re-up on some brown sugar, I had everything I needed for 160 cookies already stocked in my pantry.

I went back and forth about weither or not to label the cookies as "vegan". I would have loved for people to try them and maybe change their minds about vegan food, but on the other hand I worried the word "vegan" might scare people away from buying them. In the end, the bake sale was all about raising money for the school, and that's what was most important.

Here's how I did it:

Labels- I found free label templates online and changed the color and font to what I wanted. I'm fortunate enough to have a husband who works in printing, so I just emailed him the file. My husband printed business card sized labels on a heavy paper stock. I cut the cards out at home, some companies charge extra to make cuts.

Bags- I have a free Michaels app on my phone which gives me 50% off coupons that I used to purchase a pack of 50 bags for about $1.50 after the discount.

Ribbon- Michaels has thin ribbon for $.99 so I purchased one in the robins egg blue I used in the cards, and brown to match the cookies and font. I took the length of the ribbon (printed on the box) and divided it by 50 (the amount of bags I would be making) the resulting number was how much ribbon I had to work with for each package.

Assembly- I put 2 cookies in each bag, then I folded the top of the bags down twice and stapled them closed. I used a hole punch to make a hole through the card and bag, then tied the label in place with a few knots in the ribbon, I made sure to place the staples in such a way that the card would cover them up.

In the end, all the cookies sold half way through the bake sale and everyone seemed to enjoy them :)

I Can Make it Vegan: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I used to be able to find inexpensive store brand chocolate chips that just so happened to be vegan, but they changed their recipe and now my only options make chocolate chip cookies a little too expensive with a house full of cookie monsters. So I was really excited when I found this cookie recipe that was easily converted to vegan, and the best part, it makes about 40 cookies per batch!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup shortening ( original Crisco is vegan)

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

3 TB soy milk

1 TB vanilla

1 egg substitute (I use 1ts flax meal dissolved in 3TB hot water)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa

3/4 ts salt

3/4 ts baking soda

Preheat oven to 375º degrees F.

Combine shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. 

Add egg replacer and beat just until blended.

Combine flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet (I line it with parchment paper). Flatten slightly in crisscross pattern with tines of fork.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove cookies to racks to cool completely.

These are way better than plain ol' peanut butter cookies and stay nice and chewy. I use chunky peanut butter which gives the cookies a nice contrast, my kids say the cookies have peanut seeds in them :)