It's easy to justify stuffing your face with chocolate when you know that you're harming no-one with your choices. Not only is dairy-free chocolate better for you, but it's better for animals too! What's more, it comes in shiny, colourful packaging, just like all good Easter treats should! Here's my top 7 recommends for dairy-free goodies to satisfy your sweet tooth this weekend:

1. The old fave -- Lindt dark choc bunnies.

Look for the brown ribbon and you're golden! Get them at Woolies/Safeway and Coles.

2. Choices Easter egg and choc-orange discs.

Yum. Choc + orange = yum. Get these at Aldi for cheap!

3. Alpha chocolate eggs.

Alpha have a range of dairy-free chocolates including large and small eggs. Get them online at the Cruelty Free Shop.

4. Sweet William Easter bunnies.

All Sweet William products are dairy-free and delicious and you can get them at Woolies/Safeway and Coles. They also do yummy white chocolate things if that's your preference :)

5. Bonvita rice milk eggs.

Rice milk chocolate is sooo good. If you haven't tried it, you need to get your hands on some Bonvita. Get their Easter eggs at the Cruelty Free shop or get their regular range from the Unleashed online shop.

6. Chocolate spiders.

This is a D.I.Y treat but it's my actual favourite chocolate-y thing ever and it's so so easy. It has 3 ingredients:

• 1 packet Chang's original fried noodles
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
• 200 grams dairy-free chocolate. (I use Sweet William Original.)

And 4 steps:

• Put the chocolate and peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl and zap for 30 seconds. Mix.
• Add the crunchy noodles and coat them in chocolatey mixture.
• Put spoon sized portions on to a tray covered in baking paper and chuck them in the fridge.
• Wait patiently until they're set and then eat them.

How easy is that? And to make it even easier, the recipe is on the back of the Chang's noodle packet!

7. Nestar chocolate macadamias.

These are little balls of bliss and you can get them from our online shop. There's quite a few other yummy sweets to choose from too.

Great. Now I'm going to be thinking about chocolate for the rest of the day. And there's loads more at the Cruelty Free Shop, Vegan Online and The Green Edge. I hope you're as excited for a dairy-free Easter as I am :) If you know of any other yummy vegan sweets, pop them in the comments below so that myself and others can try them. And on behalf of mother cows and their babies, thank you for choosing dairy-free.

Happy holidays!

It's an exciting time here at Animals Australia because we have just launched our biggest puppy factory campaign EVER! Dogs in puppy factories will finally have a voice on national TV and on bus stops in Melbourne and Sydney.

Watch the 1 minute TV ad: [There's some sad footage of dogs in puppy factories in this vid so please don't watch if you think it will upset you.]

I can remember the very first time I learnt that most dogs sold online and in pet shops come from places where their mothers may spend their whole lives locked up and never know what it feels like to be loved. I was shocked. And saddened. The most shocking part -- it's actually legal to force dogs to live like this. 

I swore that I would never ever support puppy factories.

The best thing you can do to help end puppy factories is to adopt your future dog from a shelter. That way you not only give a dog in need the love he or she deserves, but you also help reduce the demand for puppies to be bred (which is what puppy factories thrive on).

To find out more about puppy factories and how you can help end them check out Knowyourbestfriend.com. And keep your eye out for the TV ad and bus stop posters :)

No seaweed salads here! Not a kale and quinoa patty to be seen. (Not that I don't love those too!) These 5 mind-blowing recipes will change how you see vegan food and prove that there ain't no thang that can't be made deliciously cruelty-free :) (Click on the pics for recipes.)

[PLUS: Win a cookbook from Bed and Broccoli! See bottom of this blog for how to enter.]

I had to start with this one because holy moley. Vegan crème brûlée -- who knew?

Poached eggs? And again ...

Yesssss.

Zomg. Yum.

This made me chuckle a little. Well played vegetables.

All of these recipes are completely free from animal products. The proof is in the crème brûlée that not a single animal has to suffer for us to be able to make crazy good food. The choice to protect pigs, cows, chickens and fish from harm is in your hands. To find out more about the benefits of leaving animals off your plate please click here.

All of the food above was made by the amazing Nikki Medwell who runs a little sanctuary/bed and breakfast called Bed and Broccoli in rural Victoria. Aaand she's recently released a cookbook, which is also amazing. Along with more mind-blowing recipes, the book is full of beautiful pictures of the animals who share her home near Shepparton.

Thanks to Nikki and JoJo Publishing, I've got TWO Bed and Broccoli cookbooks to giveaway (worth $49.99 each) and I'm going to give them to two people who can make my brain explode with an amazing vegan recipe. Post a link to a recipe or photo of amazing vegan goodness in the comments below for your chance to win one of these -->

Comp closes 30/04/15. Cant wait to see your entries :)

[Images thanks to Bed and Broccoli's Facebook page.] [Thanks to JoJo Publishing for providing the books.] 

P.S. Can't wait to get your hands on the Bed and Broccoli cookbook? Click here to buy a copy online. Would make a great Mother's Day present :)

UPDATE: This comp has now closed. Congratulations to our winners Amanda G. and MichSmith.