It’s Hockey Season and that means I’m feeding snacks to a bunch of hungry guys during our weekly game night.
Impressing the male species with vegan food is one of the biggest challenges of all. It’s not so much the taste of the food that I’m worried about; it’s more the stereotype of what vegan means to them. Often, the word vegan doesn’t evoke warm and fuzzy feelings like….beer or pizza….or nachos.
So I make nachos, spiced bar nuts, pizza, and beer fries.
Now they think vegan is just some weird code for really awesome food.
Score.
The other night I was trying to think of some “guy-friendly” snacks (oh, now I’m stereotyping!) and I came across some delicious looking snack recipes in The Happy Herbivore Cookbook by Lindsay Nixon. The publisher sent me this cookbook to check out and I’ve been meaning to try it for a while now. There are all kinds of dips and appetizer recipes to choose from, in addition to breakfast, sides, entrees, appetizers, sauces/dressings, and dessert recipes. Most recipes also have a full colour photograph which is always a nice feature if you are a visual person like myself.
Lindsay specializes in fat-free and low-fat vegan recipes and you can find over 175 recipes in her cookbook. There are also a lot of tofu, tempeh, and seitan based recipes such as her Seitan Pot Roast and Fettuccine Alfredo. If you are a soy fan, you will find a lot of unique options.
For game night, I made Lindsay’s Spicy Mexican Dip (above) made up of cannellini & black beans, nutritional yeast, spices & seasonings, and a hint of lime. I was feeling feisty so I made the Nacho Cheese Sauce and swirled it into the dip before baking it for about 35-40 minutes. Amazing. The only thing I regret was not putting a layer of Daiya Cheese on top!
I served the dip with Lindsay’s Chili-Lime Corn Chips. They are very easy to make and the flavours went perfectly with the dip.
First things first, the boys thought it was actually a real cheese dip.
Secondly, the dip was gone in 10 minutes.
I forgot all about the fact that the Leafs were losing.
I also made the Fruity Cereal Bars (it’s a good thing because the dip didn’t last long) which are fat-free knock offs of those commercial cereal breakfast bars that we all know and love. I wasn’t expecting much from a fat-free cereal bar, but these were good. The oatmeal base is soft and light (a common outcome when using applesauce as a fat replacer) and the gooey jam topping made me want to eat the entire pan.
Sadly, I had to share.
I even thought about trying the the, ‘You don’t want this, trust me! It’s healthy, it’s VEGAN!’ line, but it didn’t work. My cover was already blown.
Vegan food is just a code for really awesome food, remember?
The Happy Herbivore Giveaway!
[Giveaway Finished]
If you’d like a chance to win The Happy Herbivore Cookbook leave a comment below. I’ll pick the winner on Monday and ship you a copy of this book. Open to anyone, anywhere.
Yummy! I could use some cozy sporty recipes. Just started following you on twitter. love your site.
Ivwould absolutely love to win a copy! Introducing my family to a healthier lifestyle and so far so good. I need to keep the idea fresh! BTW we love 99% of you VOO recipes
“First things first, the boys thought it was actually a real cheese dip.” Haha! This definitely makes me want to try this. And you’re so right, people are so skeptical about vegan (and even vegetarian) foods! My boyfriend is always “where’s the meat?” but I’m definitely trying to show him that it doesn’t have to be the focus of every meal!
These recipes sound delicious–I’d love to take a look at the cookbook!
Sounds like a fantastic cookbook :)
I would absolutely LOVE this cookbook!!!
As a native Californian, Ice Hockey was never on my radar too much (yes, there’s the Sharks, but I was always more of a football girl myself). This weekend I’m going to see my first game, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I hope I like it it, but as I like most sporting events, I have high hopes. As long as I see someone getting slammed into the glass, I’ll take it as a win! PS I think I need that book so I can make that dip pretty much immediately!
I follow Lindsay on Twitter and FB. She is very inspiring! I would love to win her cookbook!
I have been wanting to get my hands on this book! Thanks for the opportunity!
i am already eagerly awaiting my herbie elephant necklace from lindsay, my joy would be increased tenfold if i had her cookbook as well!!!
The only vegan nacho recipe I’ve tried so far is the wonderful one from “The Kind Diet.” I would love to try another!
Glad to hear you guys are Leaf fans too! The snacks look amazing as does the book. Happy weekend.
I would love this book please — I am a vegan living with my rugby-prop-220lbs brother and marathon runner father who eat steak for breakfast lunch and dinner and wash that down with snacks of barbecued chicken and full fat milk! I need to show them that vegan does not mean sacrificing taste, but I don’t have any recipes to go by for “man-proof” hearty meals!! Please help! Thank you Angela :) xxx
Thank you for the nachos idea – scrummy in my tummy!
You would have been so proud the other day – I fed two of your vegan salads to staunch meat eating farmers and they loved every mouthful – no complaints about lack of meat at all! Vegans 1 Carnivores 0!
Hows that for a result!
Have a great day :)
Im a new reader and I’m loving your recipes! I have already made your cream pasta and I have the ingredients to make your butternut squash Mac and cheese :) this cookbook looks awesome! Thanks for the recipes!
I would love to have a healthy cookbook around the kitchen for once!
Those look delicious. We just tried Daiya cheese and I am pretty sure it makes everything better!
We watch A LOT of games at my house, so this book would be great! My boyfriend and friends are all Ottawa fans, but secretly I’m routing for Toronto!
Happy Herbivore!!! I’ve always wanted to buy it, but as a teenager, don’t really have the money to buy all I want. . . I would really love to win this cookbook! :)
Everything looks great! I’ve made your bar nuts before and they were fantastic.
I’d love to win that cookbook. Thanks!