Trick or treat! Halloween is right around the corner, and there can be some creepy-ass stuff lurking in our precious sweet treats. Most of it is obvious, but one tricky li’l ingredient is gelatin. It’s found in foods like marshmallows, pudding, candies, and others. Are you familiar with it? Well, you’re about to be …
Gelatin is made by boiling the skin, tendons, ligaments, and, yes, BONES of animals—usually, dead cows or pigs.
Um, disgusting.
But now for the TREATS! No need to fear gelatin, ’cause here’s a list of the yummiest, bestest gelatin-free sweet treats out there! Stock up on these, and you’ll never need to eat a single boiled animal bone, ligament, or tendon ever again. 😀
1. Dandies Vegan Marshmallows
If you have the will power to refrain from eating all these straight out of the bag, then definitely roast ’em over a campfire (or, you know, your stove top) and s’mores it up, or toss one (or five?) into a cup of hot cocoa!
2. JELL-O Instant Pudding (some flavors)
Although traditional Jell-O contains gelatin (yuck), some of the instant pudding flavors are vegan! Try vanilla, banana cream, pistachio, and lemon. Just follow the directions, but use coconut, rice, or almond milk instead of cow’s milk (not soy, though—for some reason it won’t come out as thick). Pour the pudding into an accidentally vegan pie crust and freeze it for an easy-peasy pudding pie!
3. Sour Patch Kids
Vegan gummy bears ARE out there for the taking, y’all, but we really don’t need them when we can get our anthropomorphic gummy candy fix on with Sour Patch Kids! You can also try the less cannibalistic Sour Patch Watermelons, which are maybe my favorite candy of all time.
4. Simply Delish Jel Dessert
Remember JELL-O “jigglers”? Or for our more mature readers, Jell-O shooters? 😉 Well, Simply Delish has come to our rescue with four different flavors of vegan gelatin-free desserts! Looks like grandma’s JELL-O mold might come in handy, after all.
5. Skittles
Once upon a time, these rainbowlicious candies contained yucky gelatin. Then, one day, Skittles wised up and decided to ditch it! And surprise–THEY TASTE JUST AS GOOD. Taste that rainbow and rejoice!
6. Kellogg’s Unfrosted Pop-Tarts (some flavors)
Sad news: The icing on most Pop-Tarts contains—you guessed it—boiled animal parts. Awesome news: We can still get down with some flavors of the unfrosted version! Try strawberry, blueberry, or brown sugar cinnamon.
7. Dots Gumdrops
The cuter the candy, the more likely I am to eat it—which means the probability of my downing a box of Dots is reeeeeally high! They’re like li’l raindrops of colorful, gummy, gelatin-free happiness.
8. Suzanne’s Ricemellow Creme
Oh, this. This crazy, beautiful tub of love. I don’t think I need to explain how to use this, as it truly tastes perfect, no matter what the heck you do with it.
9. Airheads
The “White Mystery” flavor has been haunting me with delicious mysteriousness since my childhood. Can someone please weigh in with a hypothesis on that one? In any case, these yummy, chewy treats are totally cruelty-free!
Ready to ditch gelatin forever? Yeah, we thought so. 🙂 Pick up some of these yummy vegan treats and share this info with your friends to make sure THEY’RE not eating bones this Halloween, either!
