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.
Yum Yum!
LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! I have a carnivore at home that I try to convince(push) ;) vegetarian and vegan food on. I think, he thinks, I’m crazy. But I think I could change his mind with a few of these recipes! Thanks Angela!
Oh my – that dip does look fantastic! I’d love to win a new cookbook – I’m crossing my fingers…. Thanks for the giveaway!
Hi! You have helped me plan my pre and post thanksgiving recipes in addition to Thanksgiving (US) itself! Thanks and I would love and delight in this cookbook!
These recipes look amazing. I am transitioning to a vegan lifestyle, this cookbook would be such a perfect resource for me!
sounds pretty good!
YES!!!
xo
cortnie
Oooh, I would love to win this! Thanks so much for doing the giveaway.
If you are willing to ship to London, England I would love a copy of the cookbook! I live in the land of Sunday Roasts (lots of meat) and I definitely need some help with vegetarian and vegan recipe ideas!
Love it!
I’m not lucky, but maybe I will break the leg this time! ;)
I’d love a chance to make some of the very creative concoctions in the cook book! Whomever receives it, have fun! :D
I would love a copy of this cookbook! I am trying to slowly convert to being vegetarian, and vegan would be even better as I cheese and me aren’t on good terms lately! Also, a ton of recipes that are tasty and vegetarian would be a great thing to have in my house to help convince the hubby that it can be done!
Taking my chance! :)
My husband loves football and has to eat a vegan diet for health reasons so I’ve been looking for good game food. I HAVE to get these recipes!!! I’m loving your blog! Its been so helpful to us!
That dip looks amazing! I’ve been trying to find something on the cheesier side, like queso dip, that doesn’t rely too much on the fake cheeses.
I love chips and dip! I always have a chip and dip recipe a couple of days per week to eat with my salad for lunch. And I love vegan cookbooks. Thank you for the tip!
I’d like to make sneaky vegan recipes for my husband. Hahaha!
sign me up! i have been trying each day to eat less meat and become more healthy. My family is needing a bit of a push but this would help me encourage them!
Seeing as my comment is the 1671st one, I probably don’t have much of a chance but I’m giving it a go anyways.
I have recently discovered your website & have become rather inspired by all your wonderful recipes & beautiful photographs. I’m a student from the Netherlands, and while I’ve always enjoyed cooking it’s been a little hard to find good (and vegan) ingredients. However, your blog has given me tons of inspiration & renewed my energy to search for good ingredients in special stores and at biological markets. I also started a spices&herbs ‘garden’ in my student-house-kitchens windowsill (although I’m not sure they’ll survive the Dutch winter!). I’m not a dedicated vegan myself and I’m not really the recipe-following kind, but I still love playing around with your recipes and they have brought many smiles upon my friends faces. Thank you for that, and keep up the great blog, wonderful cooking & photography, and mostly the happiness that shines through your pictures. Dankjewel!
Maartje