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 book looks amazing I’ve been going back on forth whether to become a vegan, really if I can give up cheese, and it would be an awesome help!
The cereal bars look very yummy!
Would love a cookbook. I have a serious addiction to cookbooks & would love to add this one! lol
Oh, I must make that “cheese” dip! I’ve recently become addicted to nutritional yeast so I looove the idea of melting the nut. yeast sauce over top. Oh boy…it’s only 10:20 am and now I’m starving…come on lunch!
Wow this looks like a great book and some delicious game day food!! I became a vegetarian this past year and have recently been steering more toward the vegan lifestyle. Your blog has been such an incredible inspiration, its helped me understand that being a vegan is not only do-able but can be super delicious and creative as well. I also have lost about 60lbs so far and am hoping to get off the next 30 or 40 by early next year. It’s amazing how eating right and enjoying food can be liberating and make such a huge difference! When i tried to loose weight previously it was stressful and disappointing. Now, it’s enjoyable and my focus has shifted from calorie counting to embracing life and choosing things that will feed my body well and make me feel good at the end of the day. I don’t usually comment on blogs but I wanted to share my story. Thanks for being your inspiring creative self and sharing it with the world!
Lindsay’s book looks great! I’ve been following her blog and would love a copy of the book to play with.
Love all the ‘manly’ food snack ideas. Thanks!
Theres really not much better than melted cheese with tortilla chips. Well maybe Angela’s peanut butter blizzard. Maybe.
I’d love to have that cookbook! The recipes sound amazing.
I’m always on the lookout for new fat-free and low-fat recipes that taste good (and your site is a great source), so I would love to win a copy of this new cookbook!
I love how creative and inspiring you are. This is proof how one single person can create real, beautiful, positive change and growth around her. God bless my friend. xx
yay! I wanna win :D
This looks like an amazing book, so now seems like a good time to let you know that I’ve been following you for a while and am LOVING the blog. We now eat a whole range of vegan meals every week, and some of your recipes have become staples in our weekly menus. Thanks for the inspiration, as it got us well and truly out of a food rut.
Oh, and thanks to you I no longer buy ready-prepared salad. Curly lettuce?! LOVE it, and totally worth the prep time!
I would LOVE to win this! My partner hates most of my vegan cooking so having something that tastes fatty but is actually good and vegan would be awesome!
Pick me! Pick me! My husband’s comment to most of the vegan dishes I make is, “This is ok, but it needs sausage.” I need some recipes where he won’t even know the difference!
I’d love a copy of this book!
Your bean dip looks delicious, and I’d love a copy of this book to try it out.
Hey Angela,
My first time at your website and love it!!! Can’t wait to try your recipes and look forward to coming back over and over! Thank you for taking the time to make such an awesome site!
Jodi
Just got this book from the library and it looks AWESOME! Haven’t made any recipes yet, but I’m dying to try the black bean brownies…
Just recently discovered your blog and fell in love. I’m an intern for a whole foods/vegan blogger myself, and this cookbook would be great to teach me some new tricks! Thanks for the post!