Belated Fat Bombs

This post is so late, I'm tempted to lie and tell you that I made this crazy indulgent appetizer for President's Day.  Because who doesn't celebrate President's Day with spicy, cream cheese stuffed fat bombs?

But the truth is that this was one of my Superbowl snacks.  I'm just belated in sharing it with you by about 2 weeks.  Just think of it this way, I'm 50 weeks early for Superbowl 2012!

I wanted to do this recipe after drooling over our co-op's cheese buyer's recipe for cream cheese stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon.  Sounds crazy good, right?!  As you can guess, they weren't vegan.

This version is, though.  Even those these are vegan, they aren't in any way healthy.  I can't in good conscience recommend consuming them more than once a year.  Here's how to make them.

Most of this recipe is just vegan versions of the ingredients  from the original recipe-- nothing too creative. I thought that the Tofutti might be lacking in a bit of flavor (or rather that it has a bit of its own weird flavor), so I added some Veganaise to make it a little more spreadable and flavorful.  I don't recommend doing this.  It made the final product taste TOO fatty and rich.  I did add in a dash of tamari and 3-4 minced green onions.  I think this was fantastic.

One change I'd like to try is to brush the bacon with coconut oil before baking.  I think it'll help it crisp up some since it's baked instead of fried up in a skillet.

Vegan Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeños Wrapped in Bacon

6-8 jalapeños, halved lengthwise and seeded
1/2 tub Tofutti cream cheeze, room temperature
3-4 green onions, minced
Dash of tamari or soy sauce
1 package LightLife Smart Bacon
16 toothpicks

Preheat oven to 350F.  Make sure all seeds and most of the inner membranes are removed from the jalapeños, unless you like things pretty spicy.  Stir together cream cheeze, onions and tamari.  Using a spoon or knife, stuff jalapeño halves with cream cheeze mixture, just until level with the top, not overflowing too much.  Carefully separate the pieces of bacon from each other.  Wrap bacon around each jalapeño half and secure with a toothpick.  Place jalapeños on a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until bacon is crisped slightly and cheeze is bubbly and hot.

Serve immediately... or enjoy cold the next day, straight out of the tupperware, while standing in front of the fridge.  I think they're best cold.