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.
I’ve been wanting to try some vegan “cheese” recipes for a while, but haven’t got around to it. I can’t eat gluten, so I don’t think I’ll be making this one soon, but it looks yummy! And the cookbook sounds great!
Can’t wait to try the breakfast bar recipe! Looks delish!
I would love to try these dips!
This looks yummy! I love it when I come here to look for some old recipes and find new ones and a giveaway :)!!
What a great cookbook! I’d love to win :)
Looking for some vegan recipes that will satisfy my kids!
Im always cooking for a group of guys myself, so I would love some new fun ideas to keep them on their toes! This book sounds like it would be a great tool in helping me do that :)
I have been wanting this cookbook for a while, but I’m on a prepping-for-grad-school budget!
I’m trying to transition to eating more and more vegan foods, this cookbook would be awesome! Dip looks great too by the way :) Have a great weekend Angela!
I love your blog! I am attending a housewarming party this weekend and was actually just brainstorming vegan recipes I could bring that the menfolk would be sure to eat. Thanks for the wonderful suggestions, as always!
I’m always looking for some “manly” vegan recipes to impress my brothers with. They’e eaten tons of baked goods that were vegan but anything else they still think is “weird” ;)
I love so many of your recipes! Thank you so much for your delicious and creative ideas!
Yummy. I just got married to a “meatetarian”. So each meal I gave to explain why we have to have beans rather than ground beef. It is a true pleasure when I can make a delicious dish for him and he doesn’t even know it is vegan. The best is when he actually says “this is really good. What’s in this?” :)
Oh my gosh that dip looks phenomenal. I would love the book so I can make it for the boys in my life! :)
I would love another copy of this fantastic book to give away as a gift. I use mine all the time.
Yum- this cookbook giveaway sounds awesome! Love your site- please keep up the great work & keep putting out those positive vibes :-)
Wow! I might could even convince my husband to eat some of this stuff! And the fruity bars…dying to try those on my daughter who truly thinks life is completely unfair because I will not buy cereal bars anymore!
So useful! I’m living with 3 guys, 2 of which, my non boyfriend guys, doubt my vegan cooking simply because it is vegan. Slowly they have become jealous of the good food my boyfriend eats every night (not to toot my own horn – OSG you get most of the credit) and would love to make them some food, as they get more and more open minded.
Wow that cookbook sounds amazing! I’m definitely in need of some guy-friendly” vegan recipes to impress my dear husband! :)
That dip looks amazing.