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 love that!
Vegan Food is just code for awesome food.
Omg that nacho dip looks amazing!!! My hubby is slowly cutting out dairy but he totally misses cheese, that dip would be a great replacement!
I would love to have a copy!!
I’m definitely in need of a new vegan cookbook! I’ve exhausted all the recipes from my old ones :-)
Thanks for your generous giveaways!
I would love to try out the recipes in this book. I hope I win! The pictures are yummy!
Congrats to you for breaking up the image of vegan food as “weird” or health-but food. It can be delicious, decadent, and dare I say still good for you. I would love a copy of The Happy Herbivore, sounds like it’s full of recipes I can use to open up my family to idea of “normal” vegan food
I would love this cookbook. I just found out this week that my cholesterol is up so I need to cut back on fatty meats so I need to eat more vegeterian meals and this would help alot. The dip looks fantastic.
Those fruity cereal bars look so good! Yes, I see people all the time in my morning classes eating stuff like Nutrigrain or Special K or those toast pastry tart thingies all the time. :\ Definitely nothing good in those things… Though, all of your bars are already fabulous enough. I would like a copy of the cookbook, true – but I would LOVE a copy of your future cookbook. Because there will be one. Right?
No pressure. :P
Forget the book – can you send me the nachos and cheese????
;)
I am seriously contemplating the transition from vegetarian to vegan… I would love a cookbook like that to help inspire me!
Hey
I love your blog and recipes! I am in university and for the first time ever cooking all my own meals. I have decided to go vegan for the health reasons but am finding it hard to find yummy recipes. Your blog has really helped me.
Thank you so much
hilary
I’ve just discovered Lindsay’s blog and I love it (2nd only to OH She Glows!) I love how she does shopping lists for “theme weeks” I’m doing “Indian Week” right now. Love to win the book!
If all the recipes are that amazing, I NEED this cookbook! Happy eating :)
This cookbook looks like the perfect thing for me right now. I was just having a conversation about hockey vs food. I’d use the recipes right away, especially since the hockey lover is showing more interest in vegan/vegetarian foods.
“Now they think vegan is just some weird code for really awesome food.” <– Haha I love this! If anyone can make beer-and-wing-loving men like vegan food, it would be you. ;)
I would LOVE a copy……..can never have too many veggie cookbooks!!
Such a great idea the chips and dips is a winner
I’d love to win a book full of yummy new recipes featuring veggies!!!
I would love this book! I am trying to eat vegan as much as possible but its difficult because my fiance thinks he cannot get full from a dinner without meat. However, we recently watched a documentary about the food industry and he has agreed to try some vegan recipes – as long as they are good! This cookbook seems like a great place to start!
Hey! cool post…I wish that would happen in my house lol
Question….after you personally cut out diary, what were the changes in your body (or mind) that you noticed immediately?