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.
Happy Herbivore sounds amazing! I adore your blog…please keep inspiring me :)
Have been trying to go vegan for a while now im still Vegeterian its not easy but i have to say your recepies have helpes a great deal i love them! there so eay and all ingridients are easy to find. Im gonna try and make the Black Bean and Butternut Squash Burritos. My moth is watering as im reading the recepie :) love your website and your recepies.. Book looks amaxing with a ton of yummy recepies hope i win.. (crossing my fingers)
great giveaway!
Wow. This book sounds like exactly what I need!
Those bars look yummy!
I think even if I don’t win this, I will have to purchase this book! Everything looks amazing!
Yum! This is what I need to get my meat-loving boyfriend on the vegan train! :)
I love your website. Enjoy reading your story/journey anad of course the food and recipes! Yum! I have been playing around with the vegetarain/vegan lifetsyle for a few years, but having just moved from Boston, MA USA to LA, CA, I am ready to dive in further – an experiment if you will. Linsday’s book “The Happy Herbivore” would be an awesome piece to help get me started with exploring more receipes and a my new “eating/food” lifestyle. I was actually checking it out and voila! you were offerring a “giveaway”! Yea! Many thanks for sharing and considering me:-) Be welll – cheers!
I would love to have this book! I started eating vegan about 2 months ago and thought it was going to be extremely challenging to adhere to. However, thanks to your blog I’ve been able to try exciting recipes and never get bored of what I’m eating. Thank you so much!
Always looking for new vegan cookbooks… Although your blog has lessen the need to buy one in a while!
My husband is vegan and I’m always looking for great tasting recipes that we can all enjoy. My son (8) and I try to eat the way he does a few times a week.
I may be too late for the cookbook giveaway but I simply can NOT stop looking at that spicy mexican dip with the nachos. I MUST have that recipe… seriously its amazing creamy goodness is making me jealous and wishing for smell-o-vision already… ;)
I’ve tried her banana muffins with no oil. They were so moist and delicious I never would have guessed they had no oil. I’m glad to have found this blog. Eating vegan is something I’m slowly learning about and love trying the new recipes. What a healthy lifestyle! Your blog looks great – I’m excited to explore it!
Oh, I would love to win a copy of the book. Thanks Angela for your awesome blog!
Looks super yummy!
What a great cookbook! I love Lindsey’s blog, but have yet to get either one of her books.
Happy Herbivore is amazing! I gift it as often as I can :)
Hey there,
First off, your website is awesome. I have never seen such a wide variety of vegan recipes. Usually it’s all the same.. Salads, soups, breads, but you take it above and beyond and that is just fantastic. Anyway, i was wondering if you could point me in the direction of finding that nacho cheese recipe. It looks amazing. Hope to hear from you soon!
Abigayle
Oh I just made her easy pumpkin pasta for dinner last night- I was looking up more recipes & found this giveaway on your blog (which I also love!) I would LOVE the cookbook!
Hi Angela. I really (REALLY) enjoy your blog and check it almost daily :). Aside from your blog and one other that I’ve found, I have one tried and true vegan cookbook that I use,BUT I would definitely love to expand my horizons. Before I became a vegan, I collected cookbooks but now most of them are a moot point :/ so, of course, I too would love to own a copy of this vegan collection of recipes…
~Hollie
Except I see this was an old post, so please disregard! Doh!