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.
Mmmm, this looks incredible! And I’d love to try that cookbook!
I’ve never cooked with seitan before so if I win the cookbook, I’d be excited to try a seitan based recipe.
That dip looks utterly amazing!! I’d love to add this cookbook to my beloved collection of vegan cookbooks!
This book looks awesome as does the dip. I feel like its hard to cook vegan “man-food” somehow they assume vegan will fluff it down and its totally untrue! thanks for the giveaway!
Love experimenting with new cookbooks! Awesome Giveaway :)
That cheesy dip looks delicious! I would love a copy of Happy Herbivore’s cookbook.
I’ve been trying to find some more recipes fitness friendly to add to my site :) I think this cookbook would be a great addition !
OMG I need this book! Those bars look delicious and we often have a bunch of hungry male visitors in our house that I’d like to “trick” into eating vegan food. Oh, and the photos – definitely a must!! :)
Yay! The dip sounds delicious
That looks awesome! love making new vegan recipes!
mmm i could see this on the table at the next family gathering :) I would also love to say its vegan once the bowl is licked clean!
I would love The Happy Herbivore! If I don’t win it here, I may just have to buy my own copy!
I always struggle with what to make my boyfriend and his friends on gameday. I have to say, that dip looks AMAZING and could fool even the pickiest of eaters.
The books looks like a really new fun adventure in healthy cooking!
All of these look so good! I’m not on a 100% vegan diet, but I really try to bake and cook with healthy, whole ingredients so I love vegan recipes. Thanks for the cookbook recommendation!
I just finished breakfast, but those photos make me hungry!!!
Would love to win this book! Haven been slowly making the transition and think this would put me in full gear for the switch! Absolutely LOVE your site!
Love that cookbook and love your blog even more! Great job as always Angela!
This looks amazing. I would love a copy of the book- or at least the recipe :)
That dip looks like something I could use a large bowl of in front of me right now.
Angela, I get on your blog several times a day. I recently became vegan, and I’ve only cooked things from your blog so far! i think they’re delicious meals/treats and there’s lots of variety. I love the no tofu deal you got going on. I read about the soy and I chose to eliminate it from my diet and specially my toddlers. I would love to see some kid friendly snacks or meals too. Will you be having your own book? I would love to see that published. =)