Avocado Salad with an Orange-Balsamic Vinaigrette

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: A huge salad bowl of organic red leaf lettuce, shredded carrots, green onions, chickpeas, and gobs of avocado—all tossed in a homemade vinaigrette made with orange juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and sea salt.

The Goods: I know this isn't the sexiest meal, but sometimes you just need a good, fresh salad for lunch. After two weeks of (delicious) Indian food on the VegNews Great Adventure to India and a few days of eating at local Mission eateries (the options are endless!), it was time for a healthy brown-bag meal. This hit the spot, and just what I need before a fun night out at San Francisco Vegan Drinks. It's our last of the year, so if you're in the area, join us for $5 Pumpkin Harvest Martinis, 97-cent soy hot dogs, and free vegan popcorn. VN Publisher Joseph Connelly and I leave tomorrow for the much-anticipated Boston Vegetarian Food Fair, so an early Happy Halloween to all!

Ribs and Biscuits

The Chefs: Abby and Alisha

The Menu: Hello, lovely. This meal might have been the most hearty, savory lunch we've ever had. Abby, and her sister Alisha who's in town visiting, busted out some delicious meatless ribs, a perfect spinach salad with sunflower seeds and homemade dressing, broccoli with grated carrots covered in melted Daiya, and, the grand finale, Daiya biscuits. Um, maybe Abby makes the best biscuits on the planet, and maybe they are even better filled with Daiya. We're just saying.

The Goods: Boo! Happy Halloween (Eve), everyone! Don't forget to go see Lyndsay and Liz at the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival this weekend, where they'll be giving out a free Go Max Go candy bar with every subscription. It is entirely possible that some of our staff tried to renew their (complimentary) subscriptions today to try and snag one of these bars.

Picnic Pintos and Potatoes

The Chef: Lisa

The Menu: A lovely corn and pinto-bean salad with fresh lime juice, grape tomatoes, cumin, and garlic served with tarragon-roasted fingerling potatoes and leeks. Though you can clearly see Lisa's flair for garnish, it was hardly necessary to dress up such scrumptious dishes. Given today's sunshine and (relatively) warm temperature, this lunch would have been the perfect meal for a picnic in the park.

The Goods: As it happened, we didn't lunch in the park, but we did get to enjoy the special treat of having a couple friendly guests over. The lovely Kristin LaJeunesse, who is an organizer of the New York Capital Region Vegetarian Expo, and her main squeeze Michael came all the way from Boston just to have lunch with us. Okay, of course they were really here on vacation to visit San Francisco, but we were happy to get the chance to meet them! Here they are with the VN team:

There is one more matter of business to attend: the winner of April's Café VegNews giveaway! This month's goodie bag—which will arrived stuffed with excellent VN swag, including a signed copy of columnist Rory Freedman's bestselling cookbook Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, cookies, and some great new vegan products—goes to Amey of springsandwells for her lime-liking. Lime-coconut cookies? Yes please. Ditto cashew-lime-jalapeño cream! Amey, send us over an email with your mailing address so we can ship out your winnings. Congrats to Amey and thanks to all who commented!