Hey readers! I hope you’re all keeping safe, healthy, and warm, and feeling as invigorated by the cold and general end-of-year excitement as I am. For my part, I spent most of this snowy weekend making cookies and candies to give to friends and family. If you need a visual, just think about being elbow-deep in powdered sugar with Wham! on repeat in the background. Anyway, I thought some of you might be looking for last-minute gift ideas, so I’ve gathered together some of my favorite gift-worthy cookie and candy recipes for your easy reference. And in the spirit of the season, I have a giveaway for you, too!
Wrapped up with care, homemade cookies and candy make an easy, inexpensive gift guaranteed to cheer up just about anybody. All nine of these special occasion recipes can be made in an hour or less. Plus, you get to show off to everyone you know how totally fun and spectacular vegan food can be! Not that lentil soup and broccoli slaw aren’t awesome, but you just tend to make more friends with sugar than Brussels sprouts.
Not to mention that it would be weird to hand someone a pile of cashew ricotta manicotti in box neatly tied up with ribbon.
Hmmmm. Now I’m getting ideas….
Mexican Wedding Cakes
?
Homemade “Butterfinger”
Homemade “Cracker Jack”
Peanut Butter Fudge
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Chocolate Mint Thumbprint Cookies
Peanut Brittle
Peanut Butter Cups
Puppy Chow/Muddy Buddies
?
And now for the giveaway!
Are y’all already well-acquainted with the antics of Whole Foods Co-CEO John Mackey? No joke: the guy is fall-out-of-your-chair funny. He’s like the Energizer Bunny of megalomaniacal and just plain maniacal commentary. When he isn’t opining about his hairdo in the third person, Mackey’s got thoughts on unions (they’re just like herpes, y’all!); he wants to tell you all about the “baggage” of fascism; he has incredibly bizarre ideas about climate change; and he even quotes Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher, you guys! Why doesn’t this guy have his own meme yet?
Anyway, however you feel about Whole Foods, I think we can all agree on one thing: free food is awesome. Whole Foods has generously offered a $25 gift card to me and one of my readers.
If you’re a sucker for seasonal treats like I am, you could use your gift card to sample the latest vegan seasonal items (like Earth Balance’s ridiculously-priced-but-tasty ‘Tis the Season Popps, Califia Farms’ Holiday Nog, which should really be renamed Bubblegum Beverage, or The Greatest Nog of All Time: coconut milk Nog made by So Delicious). You could use it to make a down payment on that $32 16-ounce jar of almond butter I saw at my local Whole Foods (which, peculiarly, was not grown on a farm fueled entirely by the positive energy of healing crystals). Or you could just, y’know, buy vegetables and whatever other delicious vegan fuel you need to live for the next couple of weeks. It’s up to you!
To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment here about your favorite holiday-related food. I’ll pick a winner on Friday, 12/20 at 12PM EST!
