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.
that dip is a must-try!! even if I don’t win the draw, sounds like the recipe book makes my ‘to-purchase’ list.
everything looks amazing! i am transitioning from a vegetarian to a vegan diet, and these are recipes that i would love to try and impress my husband with. so far, he has enjoyed all of the vegan recipes i’ve tried, but i’d love to be able to make some “manly” snacks for him. thank you for your website, so much inspiration here!
Those nachos look delicious!!
Vegan nachos!! Must try this, everything looks amazing!
Sounds like a great cookbook. Thanks for the giveaway.
I can’t wait to try this recipe, I am slowly getting my hubby to love tofu and all things veggie so it’s just a matter of time and this cookbook could help in the process of making him just a wee bit healthier as well!
Thanks for the chance
I love being smug when the family gobbles down a recipe and then I announce that it was … gasp, healthy!
I would love to give this cookbook a try. Those nachos look so yummy
Now I crave Nachos with cheese dip really badly!
They look fantastic and so does the whole book.
I’d love to try this cookbook!
That dip looks so tasty! I’d love to win a copy of this book!
I’ve glanced at the cookbook recently and put it on my list. Would love to try the recipes! Thanks for offering it to us!
I would love to win! My husband is less-than-thrilled with my own herbivore ways and I think a professional cookbook with recipes like these might be more convincing than my own ;)
Hi Angela!
I just recently (yesterday!) turned on to your blog by a friend in my nutrition program. Love your blog, recipes and beautiful pictures!!! I think this is a GREAT post – I’ve definitely had my share of “no thank you’s, I’ll stick with my unhealthy (insert nutritionally devoid synthetic food here)” from many friends of the male persuasion. Looking forward to spreading the love with really awesome food!
It is SO true! Every time I cook Vegan and/or Gluten-Free, people get a sudden fear of the food I spent so long in the Kitchen making for them. The stigma must be broken! Of course, whenever I cook your recipes for my manly man-friend, he completely forgets the Vegan label attached :). You are a miracle worker!
While I love to bring your spinach and artichoke dip to gathering (everyone knows if I’m attending that’s what I bring), it would be nice to have something else to make too…..and the cookbook would help with that. Speaking of cookbook……any more thoughts of your own?!? Hmmmm…… :)
i would absolutely LOVE to win this cookbook. my husband and i have only been vegans for a few months, and so far i’ve been surviving off internet recipes. it’s working like a charm (thanks to you!) but a book would be AWESOME.
Oooo! That sounds and looks like a fabulous cookbook. My boyfriend and I have been cooking together a lot lately, and though we love using the recipes from your blog, I would also love to have the book!
Those snacks look delicious, I’d love to try them out!
Wow. Those recipes look awesome. Haven’t seen that cookbook before. If I’m not lucky enough to win it, I’ll have to go look for it at my local bookstore. Delic looking.