Tuesday, April 23, 2013

We've got fever, for Betty Beaver

When I was growing up, we lived about 25 minutes from a petrol station which had a sort of three dimensional sign featuring a massively-busty beaver in a very short, American-flag dress. I was just thinking how much I wish I could share a photo, and lo! Google to the rescue!
Check it: http://aesthetic.gregcookland.com/2007_08_19_archive.html

I mainly saw Betty Beaver when I was on the bus to sporting events (as the team manager, because I was definitely not willing to actually participate in actual sports!). We sang a song whenever we saw her:
We've got the fever, for Betty Beaver... Big teeth; big boobs; Betty Beaver's got the moves! Gooooo Betty.
I was, obviously, pretty cool.

Also when I was growing up, my mum had a food-splattered, red & white checker covered Betty Crocker cookbook. It lived permanently on the counter, and we all referred to it fairly regularly.

This Christmas, I was gifted a cash card that could only be spent in the US. I took the opportunity a few weeks ago to order some cookbooks from Amazon. I got two very healthy cookbooks: The Happy Herbivore and Let them eat vegan! Both are proudly low in fat and sugar, and actively avoid mock meats and things like wheat. The third cookbook I ordered is sort of the opposite, in all the best ways - Betty Goes Vegan by Annie & Dan Shannon.

I made my first recipe tonight for dinner

 

This is "Herb-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables", from p. 143. I used Fry's Vegetarian Chicken Strips, my first go at this frozen mock meat. I did make some substitutions - I used balsamic instead of lemon, I used sweet potato instead of white potato, and green peas instead of green beans. So, maybe I didn't really make this recipe, but in any case, it was fantastic.
So far, Betty Goes Vegan's definitely got the moves. Go Betty!


8 comments:

Joey said...

The title of your post alone cracked me up, let alone the awesome team song! Looking forward to more Betty recipes soon I hope (just make sure the song gets a redux too!)

Carrie™ said...

Hi there! I'm back and blogging on a new address. My beloved Simon passed away and I just couldn't continue on The House of Simon, so I started a new one - just yesterday in fact.
I've been hearing a lot about Betty Goes Vegan and I'm curious to check out the whole book. The "Herb-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables" looks really good!

Kari said...

Oh, how funny! I'll look forward to more recipes from that book :-) I think we all need some 'junky' vegan recipes to balance out the healthy ones - and by virtue of being vegan, at least the 'junk' is never so very bad.

Susan said...

I look forward to hearing more of your adventures with this book.

urban vegan said...

Wow--Betty's tail looks curiously like a, well, um....

Theresa said...

Wowza, Dynise, you're right! I had not noticed that before, but now I can't un-notice it!

Kate said...

May have to get this book, have heard lots of good reviews!

CV said...

These look so cool! I can not wait until I have a garden..

I nominated you for a blogger award! Feel free to play along if you wish x
http://www.skinny-vegan-food.com/2013/05/sisterhood-of-world-bloggers-award.html