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.
All of these things, I just love love love. And I totally thought I’d have to give up on nachos when going on a plant-based diet. Thank you Angela! This post truly looks amazing!
Wow, that dip sounds amazing! Now I’m tempted to just eat dips + chips for dinner (I’m thinking black bean dip, your spinach artichoke dip, and of course, HUMMUS!). I’ve always been a fan of HH, but I often find myself avoiding most of the soy and gluten. Either way, Lindsey’s recipes are delicious :).
Hockey and nacho cheese dip…..I can’t think of a better combination!
Both of those look so yummy! Always looking for new ideas, especially when it comes to my husband’s veg-fearful family (usually if I ask if I can bring anything to a dinner, it’s a resounding no – but only since I went vegan!) Stuff like that would be perfect to just throw out on the table and see how it goes…
I love that you wrote this post just after I was asking about how to deal with the “vegan stereotypes” out there. AWESOME! It’s so great you were able to entertain and please a bunch of omnivorous men for a game night. I’d call that the ultimate success in your vegan cooking skills, lady. :)
I’d LOVE a copy of the book– I will have to check out more reviews and info about it! Thanks as always for sharing!
Yay! I am looking forward to an evening with some movies, mi amor, the fireplace and some yummy food. Thanks so much for this post. Those nachos will be on my menu along with your mac & cheese. I made the ‘cheeze’ enchiladas last night and they were fabulous. My husband and daughter are carnivores and so far everything on your menu has tickled their fancy. Thanks again, I love reading your positive post <3
oh yes and I would love to win the cookbook.
T.Neater
gluten free, vegan foodie <3
That nacho dip looks amazing! I would love to have this cookbook, I have heard of so many delicious recipes from it.
Yum, This could really change our football night party spread!
This cookbook sounds fantastic – kind of reminds me of the Dolce Vegan cookbook in style? I’m always looking for granola and exercise bar-esque recipes, as well as “guy-friendly” vegan stuff. My partner and I are both pretty active, so we’re pretty much always on the hunt!
I’d love to win a copy of Happy Herbivore’s cookbook!! It’s on my wish list for Christmas! :)
I would love a copy of The Happy Herbivore! The recipes look delicious!
Oh, I love this everyone-anywhere opened give away!!! I’m Italian, I love healthy food and I enjoy cooking traditional Italian meals in a vegetarian-vegan style, so… This cookbook would be definitely the right one to find some new ideas. My creativity needs some help! Angela, thanks for you awesome blog and sorry everybody for my week English!
This sounds like a PERFECT cookbook…filled with recipes to REALLY convince my friends that vegan isn’t synonymous with crazy? I’d love to win!
Mmm, I love dips!! I would love to win this book!
Happy weekend!!
I try to make a vegan or vegetarian dinner at least once a week. This gets complicated as my boyfriend is disgusted with all but maybe 3 vegetables. His mom must have scarred him for life with the “eat your vegetables or you can’t leave the table” and now I’m left with the consequences! lol I definitely needed something like your nacho and beer fries to entice him.. I’ll just leave out the vegan word when announcing the dish ;-)
YUMMMM! I’m drooling!
I agree, feeding vegan (or even vegetarian) food to men/boys is quite difficult. I often have to wait until they taste it and like it before I’ll admit that it doesn’t have any meat or animal products in it. Thanks to your recipes and tips, I’ve managed to show them a little bit about how tasty it really can be!
I would love to win this book. These recipes would be fantastic to make in my apt since I live with two guys who are huge sport fans!
OMG that dip looks amazing! Maybe I’ll make that for my next party! This book also looks really good, I’ve been adding to my vegan cookbook selection and I think this might be the next addition to my Amazon wishlist :)
these look delicious! i’ll definitely have to try and check this cookbook out if I’m not the lucky one!