Raw "Peanut" Noodles

For the Dressing:

• 1" ginger
• 1 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons roasted sesame oil
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 cup of white miso
• 1/4 cup of maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons high quality shoyu or soy sauce
• 1/3 cup water

Blend all of the ingrediants together in a food processor or high speed blender until creamy.

For the Noodles:

• 2 small zucchinis  sliced with a veggie pealer
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced into matchsticks 
• 1/2 carrot sliced into matchsticks
• 1/2 cucumber grated or pealed into long strips 
• Scallions of green onions for garnish

To actually assemble the dish take all of the veggies and toss together in 1/4 cup of the dressing, adding more if necessary.  Sprinkling with the scallions or green onions as garnish.

I also personally really like adding mug beans to this recipe.  

Counter Culture Review

I have been dying to try a bunch of the vegan food trucks in Austin Texas since I read about them in VegNews Magazine.  Counter Culture (120 e. north loop, austin, tx, 78751) has been at the top of my "must eats" since day one.  So now finally I get to write a review about it.

Counter Culture is an all vegan raw foods trailer run by the chef Sue Davis. Davis worked in some of the top vegan resturants before coming to Austin and it reflects in her food.  She has veganized american favorates such as the Philly Cheese Steak, made with home made Setian, Cashew cheese, grilled peppers and onions on a whole wheat bun. (Which Will isn't going to be able to live without once a month now) and the Tuna Sandwich (Which I cant live without).

"Tuna" Sandwich

The food truck itself has an old school dinner feel about it, bathed in baby blues and silver with a bar stool at the front.  So where do you eat at a food truck?  Just a bit away you can walk into a small dining area with shade and matching blue picnic tables.  Some nights there will be documentary screenings there, vegan meetings and bands.

Diner Truck

Private seating area for Counter Culture Customers

All together we loved the food at Counter Culture and will be returning.

Upsides:

• Great food
• Great atmosphere

Watch out for:

• Cash only
• Does not sell drinks (But you can get them at the gas station next door.) 

Garbanzo "Tuna" Salad Sandwich

This is an idea I got from Counter Culture and I just had to try it myself.

Ingredients:
- 1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 prog of celery, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup of non dairy mayo
- salt and pepper to taste

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse 10-15 times.  Place on top of hoggie roll with tomato and lettuce.

As a side just serve as is.

Enjoy!

Roasted Pepper Hummus

Hummus is oh so much more then a dip. We use it for just about everything in the circles that I travel in. Its the all purpose party food, a great spread, amazing snack ect. Not to mention that it is chalk full of protein which non vegans seem to be so concerned about for us.

Now I love hummus but lets face it, its not cheap. So whats a little vegan girl to do? What we always do! Make our own!

The beauty of it is that making it is so easy!

Ingredients:
- two red peppers
-1 can of organic unsalted chickpeas (Drained)
-1/3 cup of Tahini
-1/4 cup of lemon juice
- 2 cloves of garlic (Crushed)

If you are not a fan of red peppers you're crazy. Just kidding. You can just make regular hummus by not using the red peppers. However, if you do like red pepper roasting them is super easy. Just set your oven to broil and toss the peppers hole. Watch them and turn frequently as the skin bubbles. When it is charred on the outside take out of the oven and place in an air tight container for 10-15 minutes. When that time is up peel off the skin and deseed.

Place rest of the ingredients into your food processor. Add red pepper and blend in as well.

Chill and serve.



If you are into roasted red peppers, which I am, that is the first step.

Peanut Power!

As many of you know I have recently gotten really into juicing.  Honestly I dont know how I lived before my juicer.

Ingredients:

• 2 granny smith apples
• 1 banana 
• 1 tablespoon of fresh peanut butter

Send your apples through you juicer.  Pour into a blender.  Peel and break up banana.  Spoon in peanut butter.  Blend well.  If you want to, garnish with thin slice of apple.  

Erika's Morning Wake Up Juice

A spectacular way to clean out your system and have a super duper nutritious breakfast in the morning!  If you are not partial to green drinks I would drink this through a straw so that you don't smell all of the veggies. The apple will make this surprisingly sweet.

1 green apple
1 inch slice of ginger pealed
3 romaine leaf
3 Kale leaf
2 stalks of celery
1 cucumber

Send all of these items through your juicer together.  I always send the leafy greens through with other more water dense items to get the maxim juice out of them.

Stir well and enjoy!

Half Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir

I have been thinking about product reviews for a long time as an addition to this blog. However I have always found them so subjective. I don't like fake meats for instance. But if someone reviews a fake meat and tells me its great I might trust their opinion and try it. Still since I don't like fake meat its still not going to be very good to me. And the truth is that I dont want to scare people off of good food products that could be their gateway into a whole lot of new and exciting foods.

When I was writing the post "Starting a Veggie Lifestyle" I came to the conclusion that I have a lot of books. Not just cook books either, but educational books of organic foods, juicing, human rights treatment in the factory farm industry and anthropological studies of eating habits. I tend to migrate to health focused weight loss books too. I also happen to watch too many documentaries about health and food.

While I might not be comfortable reviewing products I do like reviewing films and books. So that it one of the things that I am going to start doing on this blog.

First and foremost I have to say that this is not a vegan book like many of the ones that I like. Half Assed is the story of a morbidly obese girl who finds herself in a bad place health wise. She has to undergo a surgery that while routine for many healthy weighing people could be extremely dangerous for a women of her size.

Instead of going through the pain and risk of a weight loss surgery she takes a new mantra: health or death. She learns how to eat healthy, eases her was into exersizing and eventually looses 186 pounds.

Now I know what you are thinking but it is not that kind of book.  The author, who is also a distinguished blogger, is not the positive, crazy and slightly insane character we are used to reading these kinds of stories from.  No, she is 110 % real.  She uses this book like an outlet for her thoughts including everything from how did we get this way? to why do obese people get treated so differently? 


She is sarcastic, witty and thoughtful.

With a staggering number of people gaining girth in our country I would highly recommend this book.  Her talks about will power and holding others up as models of weight losing perfection are especially interesting.