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.
Those cereal bars look great! As were the ones we all know and love that are full of sugar and not much else. I swear I used to like off the Apple Cinnamon flavor! Hmmm, I might need to try to recreate those… Thanks for the inspiration :)
P.S. Nachos look amazing, but you don’t need me to tell you that!!
If the recipes in this book are anywhere near as delicious as the ones on your blog I would love the chance to win!! You have been an inspiration and have shown me that food is not the enemy.. its actually quite delicious and really fun to make :)
Vegan bar food? Sign me up! I’d love to learn your nacho recipe, looks sensational. Happy Friday. :-)
This giveaway sounds fantastic. I have been thinking about making more meatless meals and now this is also vegan!! Awesome. I would love to find out more vegan substitutions for everyday meals.
Hi Angela, I’d love to add this book to my collection. I recently decided to take the plunge into veganism, but my friends are skeptical that I’ll have anything to eat. I’d love to prove them wrong with recipes from this book!
your blog has been an inspiration to me since the beginning. I think this is my first comment!
Wow! Nachos! I should try some like these! Would love the book! :)
I’ve been following your blog for a while now and i’m abolutely addicted! You’re really inspiring and has such a positive energy!
The dips/chips and oat bars look amazing :)
Just new to vegan cooking and loving your blog. We also have hockey/football/golf get togethers at our house and I am always looking for new snacks.
This dip looks delicious! I’m going to make it this weekend. Being from Winnipeg we are totally in to the return of our Winnipeg Jets Hockey team! This will make a great snack during games!
Those bars look AMAZING. Yum!
That dip looks amazing!!! I’m not vegan, but would love to learn more about vegan cooking and this seems like a great opportunity!
I’d love to win the cookbook! I’m not vegan, but most of my cooking is. I love the unique ways vegan recipes use ingredients!
This sounds absolutely AMAZING! Angela, you are truly a genius! What ana accomplishment that you got MEN to not only eat vegan food, but BOAST about it :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
(and don’t be surprised if I come knocking on your door net time you host a Hockey Night haha ;D)
Hey! That dip looks incredible! Definitely going to have to try to do something similar this weekend! I live in NW China so my available ingredients are pretty limited (other than what friends mail me from the States) but I think I can do something close. Would love the chance to win the cookbook! Thanks for trying so many gluten free things lately too!
Oh, those all look so tasty! I could really use a new vegan cookbook.
Thanks for sharing!
xo
oooh pick me! pick me!
I would love to win that cookbook! I love the fact that it has loads of photos because I’m also very visual and photos are one of the main things that make for a great cookbook (plus tasty recipes of course) :)
I would love to have this cookbook! :o) Have a great weekend.
Those nachos look incredible. I was looking at the HH cookbook on amazon this morning, thinking about ordering it.