Roasted Vegetable Tamales & Black Beans

The Chefs: Colleen and Hella Vegan Eats

The Menu: Roasted vegetable tamales with a verde salsa, black beans with vegan sour cream, and an organic salad with lettuce, carrots, olives, and cucumber

The Goods: A few weeks ago, I went to a holiday party which had the most amazing vegan spread. An array of dips and appetizers, vegan tamales with 10 different fillings, and a beverage bar that only vegans could appreciate (think hot rum-spiked soy nog with all-you-can-top vegan whipped cream). It was a good night, let's just say that. And what made it even better was that the fabulous hostess (VN Editor-at-Large Laura Beck) sent me home with a bag of Hella Vegan Eats' tamales. Today, I steamed up a batch for myself and a few of my colleagues and served them with a spicy tomatillo-avocado salsa. Delicious! This savory meal provided a nice antidote to all the sweets we've been inhaling this month. There's been chocolate, cupcakes, peppermint bark, truffles, soy nog, soy nog cheesecake, cookies, bars, and the lists goes on. Here's to a happy, healthy New Year!

Vegetable Platter at Gracias Madre

The Chef: Joni and Gracias Madre
The Menu: A yummy veggie platter with refried black beans, rice, warm kale salad, and fried plantains.

The Dish: Most of the VN staff is saddened by the fact that Gracias Madre is currently for sale, so we’ve been heading there for lunch this week to say our goodbyes to this beloved establishment. This is probably one of the last meals I’ll have here, as I’ll soon be heading back to Upstate NY to spend the holidays with my family. Right now, the VN team is currently working on web stories for the month of December. Get ready for the hottest articles to revive your holiday spirit, starting next week on VegNews.com. Happy Friday!

**Thanks for the photo, Lyndsay! I was way to ravenous for lunch and forgot the camera. While I didn't have exactly that meal, it is a great representation of Gracias Madre's amazing hearty Mexican food.** 

Café VegNews' 1,000th Post!

The Chef: Colleen and Taqueria Cancun

The Menu: Soft tacos with black beans, rice, onions, cilantro, and avocado—plus a healthy side of chips and salsa

The Dish: It was Taco Tuesdays here at VegNews, complete with melon aguas frescas and streaming salsa tunes. And why the festive celebration? IT'S THE 1,000TH POST OF CAFE VEGNEWS! Yes, we're excited, as that's a lot of posts, a lot of lunches, and a lot of delicious vegan food. Café VegNews debuted on October 27, 2007, when Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria decided it was time VegNews had a blog. And, back then, we were still in our old offices where we served a staff lunch every day to the VN team, so a blog chronicling our meals was the perfect foray into the world of blogging. Over the years, we've featured every type of cuisine imaginable, entertained guests from around the world, ate very healthfully (kale salad!) and very unhealthfully (deep-dish Chicago pizza), and enjoyed many a memorable moment with fellow VN staffers. And we've blogged about it every single (business) day since that October day four years ago. We hope you'll help us toast this milestone for VegNews, and cheers to all of our wonderful Café VegNews readers who've made penning this blog so gratifying. Here's to 1,000 more posts!

The full Mexican spread at Casa VegNews to celebrate Café VegNews' 1,000th post

Gracias Madre Feast

The Chef: Joni and Gracias Madre

The Menu: Quesdadillas stuffed with sweet potatoes and topped with cashew cheese, and a potato-corn gordita with even more cashew cheese, lettuce, and fresh slices of avocado.

The Dish: While oatmeal is a good start for breakfast, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies fail to have the same hearty morning meal effect. After scarfing one of those down with a cup of coffee for breakfast, I was famished by the time lunch rolled around, so Editorial Assistant Hilary Pollack and I feasted at Gracias Madre. The staff spent the rest of the day lounging in the sun on the newly revamped VNHQ deck while discussing stories for the March+April issue. The more time we spend out there, the more we love it, and we think it will be the perfect place for the VegNews Book Bash with the Spork Food sisters this October. Ticket sales start September 15, so keep checking VegNews.com for more details. 

Enchilada and Tomato Salad

The Chefs: Hilary and Whole Foods Market

The Menu: A mouthwatering vegan "chicken" enchilada smothered in melted Daiya and an heirloom tomato salad with peppers and dill. 

 
The Goods: After all of the wild 'n' crazy taste tests we've been conducting at the VNHQ yesterday and today, I'm surprised that I had any room left for a full lunch. However, when I spotted these vegan enchiladas at the local Whole Foods, it was love at first sight (and bite), and as you may have noticed, I've been on a nonstop heirloom tomato bender. While we noshed on the deck, our publishers Colleen and Joseph shared tales of the awesome vegan eats that they got to experience at Chicago's VeggieFest this weekend. According to the cover showdown currently raging on our homepage, it looks like our readers have a craving too—for carrot cake. Whether the apple of your eye is sweet or savory, be sure to give your favorite snacks, restaurants, and products your seal of approval by casting a vote in the 2011 Veggie Awards poll. 

Quesadillas and Salad

The Chef: Hilary and Gracias Madre

The Menu: Sweet potato and caramelized onion quesadillas with cashew nacho cheese and pumpkin seed salsa; plus a salad of farm lettuce and stone fruit tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette, topped with toasted hazelnuts and served with grilled Acme bread and vegan queso blanco

The Dish: After a late night at Homestead celebrating a friend's birthday, my friend Kris and I decided to meet up mid-workday and take the Tuesday afternoon edge off via the ever-delicious culinary stylings of Gracias Madre. I needed something light due to my Cinnaholic hangover and vegan Japanese feast last night at Cha-Ya, so we decided to share a couple of the smaller dishes and call it a lunch. Every time I dine at Gracias Madre, I pray that they'll start selling vats of their incredible cashew cheese so that I can drench everything that I eat in it. They won the 2010 Veggie Award for Restaurant of the Year, and I can't wait to see who takes the top honors this year. Don't forget to vote! 

Kris loves vegan quesadillas and voting in the 2011 Veggie Awards.

Mexican Lunch with VegNews Staffers

The Chef: Colleen and Gracias Madre

The Menu: A delicious Mexican lunch of Quelites con Pan (fresh, local micro greens stewed in a chili and vegetable broth, served with a garlic crouton) and an Ensalada de Higos (organic lettuce tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette topped with toasted hazelnuts and grilled figs, served with vegan queso blanco on warm bread). 

The Goods: Another amazing meal at our local favorite vegan eatery, Gracias Madre. Seriously, this place just nails it every single time, and we count our blessings that it's a mere two blocks away. Today, we had reason to celebrate, as several staffers have been on vacation recently, and it was high time for us to get together over lunch. VN Assistant Editor Anna Peraino just returned from a long weekend on the beach in South Carolina, Editor-at-Large Laura Beck is back from two fabulous weeks in Greece (with a stopover in Russia!), and Publisher Joseph Connelly enjoyed his first vacation in a very long time in Laos. If you're dying to get away, and haven't checked out our just-announced 2012 VegNews Vacations, don't miss your chance to see the world, vegan style, before all spots are taken. Hope to see you in India, Bali, Thailand, or Mexico!

The very tasty Ensalada de Higos, made with organic greens from Gracias Madre's own Be Love Farm

Spinach Salad & Pozole Soup

The Chefs: Jennifer and Flacos Tacos

The Menu: A spinach salad topped with mango, walnuts, and Annie's Natural Goddess dressing. Pozole soup filled with hominy in a spicy broth.

The Goods: After attending a Forks Over Knives screening last night with VN Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria, I went home and opened my produce drawers. The movie was a wake-up call to me that even though I'm vegan, it doesn't mean I'm eating healthy (hello, soy ice cream). My family has a history of cancer and diabetes so Forks Over Knives was a real reminder that what I put in my body is important. Hence, the spinach salad topped with fresh mango and walnuts. The pozole soup is from the wonderful vegan Flacos Tacos in Berkeley, Calif. My husband and I ate there a few nights ago and we love it. Everything there is delicious and freshly made. If you've seen Forks Over Knives or want to go, we're giving away an amazing prize pack over on our Facebook page just by answering a question about the movie. Here's to your health!

Mission Tacos

The Chef: Gabrielle and Taqueria Cancún

The Menu: Two delicious vegan tacos stacked with beans, rice, salsa, veggies, and avocado, with some chips and spicy salsas on the side.

The Goods: Associate Publisher Colleen Holland has been raving about Taqueria Cancún ever since we moved the VNHQ to the Mission District, so Editorial Assistant Brooke Still and I were thrilled when she generously offered to take us out for tacos! People, I think I have found my favorite San Francisco taqueria. Four fresh corn tortillas were topped with black beans, savory rice, the most delicious salsa, onions, cilantro, lime, and the true pièce de résistance, huge chunks of avocado. This is my last week in San Francisco before I head back to Canada, so I figure it's only right to fill it with as much Mexican food-eating as humanly possible. Wish me luck!

Friday at Gracias Madre

The Chef: Colleen, Elizabeth, & Gracias Madre

The Menu: A traditional Mexican sandwich, or torta, filled with beans, avocado, grilled onions, and greens in a toasted French sandwich roll, along with a a fragrant bowl of the house Posole soup, a spicy hominy stew in an ancho-chile broth.

The Goods: It's Friday, it's World Vegetarian Day, and today marks the end of the first week in our gorgeous new office space. Life is good—so Elizabeth and I decided to venture over to the all-vegan Gracias Madre (two blocks away) for a delicious mid-day Mexican meal. And, as expected, lunch was incredible. The restaurant has a $10 lunch special, which today consisted of the torta along with a Caesar salad and marinated vegetables. It's an excellent value, especially since all the food at GM is made from scratch, organic, and GMO-free. In case you haven't noticed, we're doing HUGE giveaways over on Facebook and Twitter (one for each!) in celebration of World Vegetarian Day. Don't miss your chance to win a VeganTreats Peanut Butter Bomb Cake and a dozen creme-filled cookie sandwiches from Sticky Fingers Bakery. Good luck!

Above photo: The taco platter at Gracias Madre, courtesy of SF Weekly. The chef for today's Café VegNews post (Colleen) forgot the camera, so this is just a sampling of the delicious food!

Rockin' Rice and Beans

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: A totally rockin' array of Mexican-food-inspired goodies. Aurelia spiced up the rice and black beans with diced green chiles, which made both dishes extra delicious. Alongside she served fresh guacamole and a lovely spinach salad with red onions, red bell pepper, and French dressing. We used two different kinds of chips for scooping up the main courses, a lime flavor from Food Should Taste good and organic tortilla chips from Salba Smart. We also tasted a trio of salsas, all from Organicville. You really can't go wrong with a base of rice and beans, but it's always nice to have a variety of toppings like we did today.

The Goods: Yeah, if anyone needs us, we'll be at our desks, rubbing our incredibly full bellies this afternoon. Oh, and in case anybody out there needs a little piece of good news, we've got something for you: VegNews just won Best Digital Design in the 2009 Nichee Awards! This may certainly go down in VN history as the most award-filled week ever.

Jennifer Pickens Appreciation Day!

The Chef: El Burrito Express

The Menu: Burritos! If there's anything better than a whole-wheat tortilla, it's a whole-wheat tortilla stuffed with savory black beans, Mexican-style rice, guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes, and salsa. With sides of crisp tortilla chips and red and green salsas, burritos are a no-fail lunch option.

The Goods: We hope that you'll forgive the break in our Vegan à Go-Go! coverage, but today we had a special event to celebrate. Ms. Jen Pickens, our editor-at-large extraordinaire, has been working with VN for four years, and we just wanted to let her know how wonderful she is. Hence, today is Jen Pickens Appreciation Day; hence the special burrito menu. Here's Jen with the rest of the VN ladies, and as you can see we couldn't help but get a little sassy.

Quantum Quesadillas

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: An amazing Mexican-inspired meal. A savory combination of pinto and black beans met wonderfully fluffy couscous, and both of these dishes complemented some thoroughly delicious cheese-free quesadillas. If there's anything more exciting than making vegan quesadillas, we just don't want to know about it. Of course, we also enjoyed a vibrant salad with avocado, tomato, and yellow bell pepper. Olé!

The Goods: It happens about once a week that someone brings up the idea of Mexican food, and we get totally lost in dreaming about our favorites. When this mood strikes, we can always depend on Aurelia to come through with something delicious and on-theme. These are "quantum" quesadillas because they were sliced into sections which ensured that we all got our fair share. Yes, sometimes we like to use fancy words. That is all.

Mexican Splendor

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: A delicious Mexican-food spread featuring homemade tortillas. Yes, Aurelia made fresh tortillas right here in the VNHQ. These tasty little guys would have been impressive enough on their own, but of course she didn't stop there. Black beans, roasted potatoes, chopped salad with red bell pepper and avocado, grated Galaxy Foods soy cheese, fresh lemon wedges, and tortilla chips all accompanied her phenomenal creations.

The Goods: It's just another gorgeous, sunny day here in San Francisco. We got to enjoy the company of Marshall and Susie, who have been longtime friends of VN. Both vegan since 2000, these brave souls were two of the first 50 people ever to subscribe to VegNews. Thanks guys!

Raw Week: Taco Salad Fiesta

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: Super-fantastic Mexican food. Aurelia made an absolutely amazing raw refried-bean-style paté of soaked sunflower seeds, jalapeños, sun-dried tomatoes, and magic. Yes, magic is raw for those of you who might be wondering. Add to that a bed of romaine lettuce, her crispy flax-seed crackers, fresh lemon salad dressing, and an avocado-tomato salsa, and you get the majestic Mexican meal you see before you.

The Goods: Aurelia has the advantage of a dehydrator at home, and was so committed to raw week that she took the time to make her flax crackers in advance. Let's just say that we are some very lucky co-workers around these parts. Even though every meal this week has been more distinct and delicious than the last, there's a little something we want to come clean about. The office hasn't been 100-percent raw. It's true. The lunches, yes. The oh-god-it's-four-and-we're-starving snacks, not so much. Maybe there was some chocolate. Maybe someone, who shall remain nameless, brought in some fantastic Cuban arroz con leche. However, we're still darn proud of the varied, and very delectable meals that have been coming out of our un-kitchen this week. More to come tomorrow, on our Raw Week finale!

Easy Enchilada Bake

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: You know what the best thing about having rice and beans for lunch on Monday is? Having ready-made enchilada stuffing on Tuesday! And you want to know the best thing about lightly burning the filling while reheating it in the pan that will later be used to make enchilada sauce? Instant smoky flavor. We're pretty sure that these are not the most authentic enchiladas ever made, but they certainly were a satisfying lunch. A big, leafy spinach salad with cherry tomatoes and yellow bell pepper and a slice of rosemary focaccia filled all the other space in our bellies.

The Goods: So we're a team here at the VNHQ, which means we can shamelessly piggyback on the success of others. Taking Ms. Jenny's awesome eatin's from yesterday and making them into enchiladas was the plan for today. Of course, the corn tortillas had other plans. Instead of rolling up nice and neat, they decided to burst, tear, leak, and otherwise fall to bits. In the grand Julia Child tradition of turning catastrophe into casserole—voilà!—we went from enchiladas to enchilada bake. Do you have favorite save-the-day moves for when lunch isn't coming out your way?

Freakin' Flautas

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: For today's meal, you'll need to go ahead and bust out the ol' x-ray specs. Since the flautas are rolled, that's the only way that you'll really get a good look at their black bean, roasted butternut squash, and caramelized onion insides. On top, you can see some Vegan Gourmet sour cream and a sprinkling of avocado. The condiments continue counter-clockwise with fresh lime wedges and—making its grand return to Café VegNews—corndiment! Yes, we've been missing this little roasted corn gem, which perfectly complimented the beans in las flautas. Finally, our daily salad got a little color kick from some red bell pepper and multi-color tomatoes.

The Goods: For a comforting lunch on yet another cold, dreary day Elizabeth came up with a hearty Mexican food-style lunch. Inspired by the Black Bean and Sweet Potato Flautas from Yellow Rose Recipes, these rolled little goodies totally hit the spot. Want to know more about this cookbook? Be sure and look for a full review in the May+June issue of VegNews!

Inaugural Post: Mexican Medley

Hello! By which we of course mean, hello, look at that food. Welcome to the very first post of Café VegNews, the very first blog by VegNews Magazine. Everyone here is so excited to share our daily staff lunches with the world, just like the proud food-parents we are!

Ok, we'll try and limit the gratuitous exclamation points, but really, this is thrilling. Here at the VNHQ we all sit down to lunch together every day, and enjoy phenomenal meals prepared right here in the office by a designated staffer. Of course, everything we serve here is vegan, because that's how we do lunch in these parts. And so, without further ado, to the food!

The Chefs: Colleen and Elizabeth

The Menu: Holy moly Mexican food (though today we went sin molé). Sure, sometimes tossing a can of diced tomatoes into the rice cooker will get the job done for Spanish rice, but not when Colleen's cooking. Diced orange bell peppers, sautéed onions, paprika, garlic, cumin, and just a touch of red pepper flakes made this a savory specialty. Moving clockwise around the plate you'll see a superb sauté of summer squash, black beans, and tomatoes. Totally traditional? No. Completely eaten within minutes? Yes. For toppings we scooped on the roasted corn dip (or "corndiment" as its creator, Chef Ben Adams, would say) and finished off with just a dab of vegan garlic mayo. Toasty corn tortillas and a fresh, decidedly non-Mexican salad of mixed baby greens, yellow bell peppers, baby tomatoes, and soy bleu cheese in a basalmic vinaigrette rounded out this feast.

The Goods: Colleen just returned from a few days in Mexico. If lunches like this are what she brings back from vacation, we'll be shipping her around the world shortly.