A Dip-Night Dinner In A Vegan House
January 19, 2010 by Sheri
Filed under Feature, Feeding Vegan Kids, Green Kids, In A Vegan House, What Do We Feed All These Vegan Kids?
On Sunday night we had…Dip Night!
Dip-night is a favorite around here.
We love dips.
In fact, we’re a pretty dippy bunch.
This is my plate. It was high-Raw and high-Yum!
Clockwise from top:
- sharing a section in the section plate, there is homemade (Raw) organic kale chips (OM MY WORD I COULD EAT THESE ALL DAY) alongside a handful of Guiltless Gourmet Unsalted Baked Organic Tortilla Chips
- sliced organic cucumber
- my hubby’s homemade organic (Raw) Chipotle Pineapple Salsa
- my hubby’s homemade organic (Raw) chunky guacamole
- my hubby’s homemade organic olive tapenade (methinks ‘tapenade’ is just a fancy-schmancy word for ‘dip’)
- a few slices of Bubbie’s pickles
My hubby makes GREAT dips.
He’s the Resident Dip-Dude.
That’s my plate in the picture above — my 5 kids all ate the exact same meal as mine, only they all went back for seconds (and thirds even!) of the olive tapenade and also the guacamole. Good healthy fats in those dips. The kids also had extra handfuls of the unsalted Guiltless Gourmet tortilla chips. While they used the Guiltless Gourmet for their dippin’ needs, I was busy gobbling up the kale chips.
Kale chips = OOH LA LA.
There was a whole lotta dippin’ goin’ on!
We eat dinner together every single night. Such a nice way to wrap up the day!
After dinner, we each had a slice of dessert. I made a quickie version of a lime ice cream pie. Raw and vegan, it hit the spot and was the perfect sweet ending to our dippy-dinner.
it tasted like lime-heaven
I did not follow a recipe for this — I made it up as I went along (and thankfully, it turned out rather well!). I was in the mood for a lime pie so my older daughter and I got to work. She whipped up a raw crust of equal parts dates and almonds, while I went to work creating the filling. I combined soaked organic cashews with some agave, filtered water, lemon juice, coconut shreds, whole limes, and coconut oil. I placed all the ingredients in the Blendtec and gave it a good blending. Then I poured the limey mixture into my daughter’s beautiful raw crust and put the pie in the freezer to harden.
This was super-easy and super-fast to make. I was glad it came together so fast — I needed to be quick because I had kids chasing each other wildly through the kitchen while the baby fussed in the Ergo strapped to mama’s back. All together, it took 10 minutes to come together and made for one gorgeous quickie dessert. It wasn’t fancy (as you can see by the pictures) but it sure was good! I threw two entire organic limes in the Blendtec — adding whole limes with peel on just made the lime flavor absolutely burst in our mouths.
One of the best parts about Dip Night is the leftovers! There was plenty of dip-leftovers to serve to all my little homeschooled dips for lunch the next day.
- fresh organic salad: romaine, spinach, carrots, pecans, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, topped with homemade balsamic dressing
- leftover olive tapenade
- slices of Bubbie’s pickles
- little dish of homemade organic kimchi (fermented, raw) and a bunch of steamed brussel sprouts
- leftover guacamole
- a stack of mama-made organic raw kale chips
- DESSERT (not pictured) — big slices of leftover raw lime pie!
Hope you’re having a good week so far! Had any good dips lately?
Sheri
looks great as always! i really need to try a new kale chip recipe – i tried one that was horrible. sadly, i am surrounded by limp, pathetic kale.
also, a few slices of bubbies = not enough!! 1 whole one at a time, at least. maybe 2.
You and Lauren…such Bubbie-lovers
This makes me want to make kale chips tonight.
And I don’t even like limes, but I want to try making that lime pie. However, you never post your recipes, so I don’t even know where to begin.
I’m still waiting for the berry uncheesecake you made for Thanksgiving. 
Yumma licious on the pie! Yur so creative
Oh yum! I am totally in a dippy mood now!
Don’t ya LOVE kale chips! They are like popcorn–but better!
Guacamole is-by far-one of my favorite foods!
I had like 3 Bubbies today, you only had a few slices.. crazy lady!
Pie looks so good!
I used a
after every sentence because that is how happy your blog makes me! 
Lauren, these smilies just made me…SMILE!!!
What a great idea! Dip dinners, this is just great
The guacamole looks fantastic!
I love dips! We haven’t tried making kale chips yet, though I’m hearing lots about them in the vegan world. =) Guess we’d better get on that!
Looks fantastic!
Dip night? AWESOME!!! You are sooo sooo sooo sooo amazing. I love your family. Yum on those foods! Especially fermented foods – so healthy!
I have been on a cabbage pico de gallo kick lately! mmmmm soo good. spicy has been wonderful and i am on day 18 of my raw foodie month. Quick question….Raw diet and pregnancy? I just found out…..like 3 hours ago and am considering going down to like 70/80% but wondering if there are HIGH RAW preggos out there and how it works. SOrry to steal you blog comments sheri.
Hi Kaisha! In fact, the comment right above yours here is from a lovely high-raw vegan pregnant lady! Check her out, she has an informative and fun blog: http://www.kristensraw.blogspot.com
Congrats on the pregnancy, by the way! So wonderful
What a great idea- thanks so much for sharing!
Sherri, when I tried to access this entry earlier, another page kept popping up. It said the site had been hacked. Have you experienced any problems lately? Did anyone else see this?
yeaa… I saw it too…
Thankfully the page seems ok now
Ann
I saw it too!
me too!
I saw it too. eyes and a black page
I also saw it! Very glad everything is ok again.
Yes! I was hacked! I could not believe it!
My Facebook was hacked at the exact same time. It was a bit upsetting — I was unable to access this site for a while (which explains my absence).
All seems to be okay now ** knock on wood **
Kaisha, Congratulations!!! check Kristen’s Raw blog! She’s in her second trimester now.
Sheri, the pie looks absolutely delicious! You are a big example on how to live raw on a day to day basis. Unlike some of the cookbooks that I recently bought. Thanks, you’re an inspriation.
tHANKS!
Thank for the kind words! What cookbooks have you purchased? there are some fantastic raw books out there.
All those dips look delicious! My fav dip is homemade guacamole. Have to get busy working on that lime pie, thanks for the inspiration.
I know what we are having tonight!! I got the “you’ve been hacked ” page also when I checked your blog last night-it was a scary picture!!
I LOVE kale chips. Mine aren’t raw, but yummy!
Lovely! How do you store your leftover guacamole so it doesn’t turn brown???
IF we have leftover guacamole (not often!) we store it in a glass pyrex bowl and plop the avocado pit in the middle of the leftover guac, snap the lid on the glass dish, and pop it in the fridge. The pit keeps it from browning, for the most part. I read this online ages ago and it does work!
Ahhh, of course! Thank you!
Ooh ooh, your kimchi recipe? Pretty please?
I will!
Your dip night looks FANTASTIC! I’m totally dippy, too, I usually eat some sort of dip every day. Isn’t it the most fun way to eat? It makes a simple meal feel like a party. Your pie looks YUM!
this looks so delicious! i made a lovely salsa dip a while ago – fresh strawberries, apples, tomatoes all chopped small and tossed with some honey and a pinch of crushed dried red pepper. it goes fabulously with tortillas.
i was wondering – i’m in the market for raw hemp seeds: where do you get yours in bulk? thanks!
I buy Nutiva Raw Organic Shelled Hempseeds in the 5 lb bag. I buy either through my bulk food co-op or through Amazon. LOVE this brand!
Ooh la la indeed! I don’t know how that pie made it to leftovers.
I love looking at your food photos. I get ideas. I get hungry too.
Tapenade comes from the word tapeno, “caper” in an archaic Provencal dialect. French tapenade recipes usually include caper berries. Most americans don’t use them, in my experience.
On my Backroads trip to Provence we visited an olive producing estate where they make olive oil, of course, and we had a tasting of tapenade “chips” which had just won the owner an award that week in a culinary contest. They were tapenade spread thinly and dehydrated. The chips held together beautifully and had a great rich, salty crunch. There were two kinds, from two different olives, maroon-black ones and green ones.
Thank you for the explanation! I guess what we made wasn’t a tapenade at all, though we may still refer to it as a tapenade because we just love using that word
Your tapenade chips description has inspired me to try making some crunchy olive chips in the dehydrator. Yum! And, thanks!
can you PLEASE Please tell me where in the world I can buy those plate? THey are so so cool.
Hi Jessica, I bought them at little local india grocery stores here in my city.
Hi Sheri,
Everything looks delish as always! Kale chips… I’m jealous! I’m pretty good at cooking/baking, but I’ve tried to make kale chips 3 times now and burnt every single one of the batches! lol.
By the way, I think your facebook has been hacked as well. Someone passing as you tried to chat with me this morning and saying you were stranded in London and asking me for money… I knew it wasent you, but I thought I’d let you know.
Steph xx
That’s been happening all over Facebook! It happened to me and a couple of my friends as well… fortunately it only contacted friends who had my phone number and called my house to see if I was ok.
My Gmail account got hacked around the same time… don’t know if it was related, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.
Hi Stephanie, Hi Kelli,
yes, I got HACKED! Someone posed as me on Facebook trying to do a money transfer scam, and they hacked my blog at the same time. Scary. Kelli, sorry to hear that it happened to you too.
LOL, even the “big people” get to have section plates in your house!
Dip Night…Breakfast Sundaes…Section Plates…Glass Dharma Straws…you do know that I’m planning my Spring Break for Columbus, Ohio, right? See you soon!
Spring Break! See you then!
I just got inspired… I think we’ll be having lemon pie for dessert tonight – I don’t have any limes on hand, but the fridge is stocked with lemons and I just put some cashews in water to soak. I’ve only had kale chips once, and they were fan-tab-ulous!! I’m planning to get a dehydrator this spring, and kale chips are at the top of my list of things to make.
What do you mean whole limes? I hate to sound so crazy but I am envisioning peel and all…surely I cannot be right. Do you mean whole, peeled limes or the juice of the limes and how many?
Thanks! Love your site and I am not even a vegan.
O.K. Sheri, Never mind! I reread your post and yes, whole limes!! Wow, you can do things with that blend-tec that I can only dream of. I did this same sort of thing for breakfast this morning only with frozen raspberries. Yummy.
Yes, WHOLE limes! The peel has so much nutrition and flavor! Try it
so happy you are hacker-free now. phew!
it all looks good. i need to get some kale chippies in the dehydrator RIGHT NOW! that key lime pie looks delish. good idea to throw the whole lime in there. takes forever to squeeze those buggers anyhow.
Bubby’s pickles look exactly like the pickles my husband makes – he calls them “refrigerator pickles” – ’cause that is what his mom called them.
Everything looks delicious as usual! And I, too, saw the scary hacker message. I was very glad to see it was gone this morning!
Oh my god – this looks delicious! I just stumbled onto your website and I’m praying that you post recipes…..
Oh, yum! It all looks good, as always!
I’m very glad the hacker issue is resolved, too.
My house is eagerly anticipating your raw uncheesecake recipes… I’ve got a whole tree full of lemons (and a quart jar of raw cashews) waiting to be made into yumminess!
Wow! Sheri you are amazing – your children are so fortunate… will you adopt me?!
I love dips too – the chipotle pineapple salsa sounds superb!
Mmmm…. yum, yum, yum, mmmm!! We’re huge dippers too! So much fun for the tots!
I heart raw cheesecakes… soooo, delish!!! =) Hope you’ll share some of those awesome recipes you mentioned.
THanks so much for sharing! You have a knack for re-inventing the simple things such as a Dip night!! My four little darlings will love this and have fun eating!!!!! I love meal time, esp themed/fun meals. Thanks again!
Looks so good! I love Kale – it is my favorite. What a great meal.
Those dips look so good! I suppose you need a dehydrater to make those kale chips? And that pie! It looks like cheesecake, but I know you don’t use soya… Cashews, eh? Rather a lot of them, I suspect, but so tasty looking! My mouth is literally watering!
Hi Penny!
I make my kale chips in the dehydrator, but you can easily make them in your oven and they will turn out wonderfully! Lots of recipes for them on good old google
The cheesecake…nope, no soy! Never! I did use cashews as the base, and some sunflower seeds. Yes, nearly 3 cups worth, but it did last 7 people through two servings each, so I got good mileage out of those nuts
That pie looks divine! Perfect for our hot summer weather at the moment here in Australia. Roughly how many cups of cashews would you need to make one of that size?
I used a generous 2.5 cups cashews for a 10 inch tart pan!
Fantastic – thank you!
I’m sorry, I forgot that I added a small scoop of soaked raw sunflower seeds too. Not necessary at all, just did it for extra nutrition.
I heard about your blog through a homeschooling email group I am part of. I have to say I love your blog and I am really thinking about trying the Raw Diet with my family. You make it look so easy. I am going to try some of your food ideas! Thanks for sharing…btw…I love those darn plates and have been looking everywhere for them…hard to find! You should buy a ton of them and sell them on your blog! ;o)
Sheri,
We are totally revamping our diet here. We’ve already made major changes. One is no sugar (except agave, honey, dates). The problem is that I have 6 children who are all used to having Walmart cake for their birthdays. (ewww, my tummy hurts just thinking about that!) The first birthday of the year is next month and I would LOVE to make that lime pie as the birthday “cake”.
You post a diving lime pie with no recipe? You’re killing me over here
And how does one make kale chips? I have a dehydrater and would love to get my kids eating kale!
thanks a ton!!!
Kerri
Hi Kerri,
That lime pie just came together in a flash…I was ‘winging it’.
As a result, no written recipe
Ditto for the kale chips!
Hi Sheri,
All of it looks amazing, especially that cake!!!! OM NOM NOM NOM…
I couldn’t believe my eyes the other day – I drove 2 hours to Melbourns (Australia) to buy some Indian spices/ingredients and saw SECTION PLATTERS!!!! They were AU $9.50 each.
I’ve never seen section plates here or anything like it, so I was just standing in the middle of the store, gobsmacked, and thinking of you!!
You found section plates! Yay!
Did you get yourself one?
I love the word ‘gobsmacked’, by the way
Looks amazing! And always on such a large scale. Great recipe inspiration.
LOVE the idea of a dip night – thanks for sharing. I guess I need to learn how to make some dips, then!
Just to say I love visiting your site all the way from South Africa. I just love the photos and the way you write. I am not a vegan and certainly would not be able to survive on the food you eat
All my meals should have a lot of heavy starch and I more often than not, must have meat as well. I first heard of a hydrator from your site, and am now thinking of buying my parents one since some of their fruit goes to waste during harvest time as it is too much. All the best and I will definitely be back!
Were did you find the sectional plates? Those look great!
My big round section plates are from various india grocery stores. They are a fun way to feed the kids (and adults!) in my house!
Sheri