Food is a way that we share love, strength and nourishment with one another, and Mother's Day is a special holiday when you can share love (and food) with the woman who fed you all those years! These dairy-free recipes will give you some dairy-free recipe ideas for your Mother's Day celebration, whether you're planning to serve your mom breakfast in bed, a light lunch or an elegant dinner. For more dairy-free recipes for Mother's Day, check out my Dairy Free Mother's Day Recipes.
1. Pancakes

© 2008 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc. Pancakes are easy to make but so comforting and sweet, which makes them perfect for "surprise" breakfasts and breakfasts in bed. For holidays like Mother's Day, I like to shape my pancakes into hearts by using a small ladle when pouring the batter in the pan and serve them with maple syrup, powdered sugar, fruit, and sometimes even
Chocolate Sauce.
Here are a few of my favorite Dairy-Free Pancake Recipes:
Eggs are nice for special brunches and breakfasts as they cook quickly and are really easy to make. (And, if you're planning a surprise breakfast, they usually don't look "suspicious" in the refrigerator!) Here are a few of my favorite
Dairy-Free Egg Recipes:

© 2008 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc. Muffins are sweet, easy to prepare and quick to bake. Not only are they incredibly versatile (you can pretty much put ANYTHING in a muffin), but they are simple enough for very young children and they make the whole house smell wonderful while they bake. Whether your mother is a
Carrot Apple Muffin
and
Healthy Cinnamon Raisin Muffins
kind of mom or more of a
Mocha Muffin Mama, check out some of these
Dairy-Free Muffin Recipes for some sweet Mother's Day morning ideas.

© 2008 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc. Whether you serve it on its own, in a soy-yogurt parfait or with fruit,
Homemade Granola
is always a welcome surprise and it smells absolutely wonderful while it bakes. If your mother loves granola, why not make a batch of one of these
Homemade Granola Recipes, put it in a nice bag with a ribbon and give it to her as a gift?

© 2008 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.Goddess dressing for the goddess in your life! This
dairy-free Goddess Dressing is significantly lower in fat and calories than traditional recipes that use mayonnaise and sour cream as a base, and it is also much lighter than the popular storebought variety that has a whopping 13 grams of fat in every 2 tablespoon serving! Over a fresh mixed greens salad, cold pasta or fish, this
Goddess Dressing will make a lovely and light Mother's Day lunch or dinner dish.
6. Spring Fruit Desserts

© 2008 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com By the second week of May, a whole slew of wonderful spring fruits have arrived, which means that they are both easy to find in local groceries and markets and less expensive than at any other time of year. Some of spring's delicious bounty include strawberries, raspberries and lemons, all three of which are wonderful to use in a variety of bright Mother's Day desserts. Here are a few of my favorite dairy-free spring dessert recipes:
7. Chocolate Desserts

© 2008 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc. I have met very few people who don't love chocolate, and it seems that regardless of the time of year or time of day, for that matter, chocolate just about always suits the occassion. Here are just a few of my favorite dairy-free chocolate dessert recipes that have "celebration" written all over them:

© 2008 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, INc. Cupcakes are light and fun, and they can be decorated any way you like, which is why, like chocolate, they can suit so many occasions. Here are a few of my
Dairy-free Cupcake Recipes that you can dress up with some homemade
Dairy-free Frosting:
9. Dairy-Free Mother's Day Gifts

© 2008 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc. Giving others food is a way that we share love with them, and giving the ones we love food that we have prepared ourselves is a way that we let them know how special they are to us. Mother's Day is quite fitting on this account, because we
couldn't have made food for our mothers if they hadn't first made us and prepared food for us!
I like to buy special clear food bags for my homemade gifts for holidays like Mother's Day, tie them with ribbon and attach a small card that says something special.Here are a few of my dairy-free recipes that make great Mother's Day Gifts: