Pesto and Peas

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A pasta salad of sorts with pesto, tempeh, garbanzo beans, peas, and bell peppers

The Goods: After an extremely fun weekend of scooting down to LA for the Humane Society's Genesis Awards on Saturday, my dinner when I got home last night was decidedly of the "throw together whatever's in the fridge" variety. So, with some on-hand cashews, garlic, frozen spinach, and one bunch of fresh basil, this impropmtu pesto came to be. Back at the VNHQ the excitement continues, as tomorrow we'll be talking veganism and manliness in our Twitter Chat, and Thursday we're headed out for SF Vegan Drinks! Whew!

Quinoa Salad

The Chefs: Hilary and Herbivore

The Menu: Herbivore's quinoa salad with onions, kidney beans, spinach, tomatoes, celery, avocado, and soy chicken. 

The Goods: It's Twitter Chat Tuesday! In addition to the exciting Twitter chat that we have later today about healthy eating, we spent a big ol' chunk of our morning figuring out the most compelling topics and guests to grace our chats later in 2012. After all of that talk about healthy eating, quinoa seemed like a good base for today's lunch. If you're less of a health nut and more of a shopping guru, be sure to check out our giveaway (!) of a gorgeous faux-leather handbag from Matt + Nat's spring 2012 collection—Associate Editor Jennifer Chen and I splurged on bags from this cruelty-free brand last year, and we've never looked back. 

Spicy Peanut Pasta

The Chefs: Elizabeth and Valencia Whole Foods

The Menu: Savvy Savories Spicy Peanut Noodles with a side salad of romaine, kale, grape tomatoes, cucumber, orange bell pepper, red cabbage, and fennel.

The Goods: Friends, it's Monday. Finding leftover salad from Friday's potluck lunch in the fridge ensured that some greenery made it into today's lunch, and the peanut pasta added a nice warm element. If eating balanced meals is something you struggle with, even as a vegan, don't miss out on tomorrow's Twitter Chat! We have a truly awesome lineup, including Michael Greger, MD, Gena Hamshaw, and Julieanna Hever, RD, to help answer all your healthy-eating questions. The fun starts at 6pm PT, so don't be late!

Pesto Pasta

The Chefs: Jennifer and Valencia Whole Foods

The Menu: Savvy Savories Vegan Pesto Pasta with sun-dried tomatoes

The Goods: I blame Editorial Assistant Hilary Pollack for my addiction to this pesto pasta. She bought it all the time, and she made me try it to understand her obsession. Now, I'm hooked. The roasted cashews add a nice cheese-like taste to this pesto. I could eat it every day. Stop me. Immediately after eating this savory dish, all I really want is something sweet. So it's a good thing I'm baking up the Chocolate Sugar Cookies Iced with Crushed Candy Cane Topping recipe from our Holiday Cookie Contest. I'm not the world's best baker so I'm glad I'm chatting with some of the best vegan bakers tonight at 6pm PT during our VegNews Twitter Chat to get some help.

Burrito for the Broke and Busy

The Chef: Joni and Amy's Kitchen

The Menu: Pinto bean burrito topped with spicy tomato salsa and corn tortilla chips

The Goods: Amy's burritos topped with salsa are my go-to lunch during busy weeks. They cost significantly less than going out to eat and I just pop them in the over 40 minutes before lunch time. What could be easier? Despite this busy day of finalizing the cover for our November+December issue, lunch was spent lounging on the deck with the ladies of VN, dishing about celebrities and soaking up the sun. Ah, the life. If you're interested in finding out about cruelty-free fall threads, join us on tonight's Twitter chat for a discussion on compassionate fashion.

Vegan Chili Mac 'n' Cheese

The Chef: Jennifer

The Menu: A big bowl of mac 'n' cheese topped with red beans, veggie chili, and garlic roasted salsa

The Goods: I just got back from Kauai, Hawaii, yesterday (I miss you, taro smoothies!), and I luckily had the ingredients in my fridge to make VN columnist Robin Robertson's Chili Mac 'n' Cheese from Vegan on the Cheap for dinner. After a five-hour red-eye flight, this quick meal was perfect. Even better, I had leftovers for lunch. While vacation is sweet, it's nice to be back at VNHQ, just in time for tomorrow's Compassionate Fashion Twitter Chat at 6pm PT. We'll be talking with vegan stylemakers about cruelty-free fashion. Join us!

Quinoa Chickpea Salad

The Chef: Jennifer 

The Menu: Chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, romaine, and quinoa with a Goddess dressing

The Goods: In preparation for the blogging conference Vida Vegan Con in Portland, Ore., I've been eating a bit healthier because I plan on consuming my weight in vegan food in the food-truck capital (I'm looking at you, Native Bowl). Thanks to vegan cookbook author extraordinaire Isa Chandra Moskowitz for the lovely salad and dressing recipes from Appetite for Reduction. That book has been my go-to for awesome, healthy meals. The multi-color cherry tomatoes are from my mom's backyard garden and I've been snacking on these little gems for weeks now. If you can't make it to Vida Vegan Con to network, chat tonight with top bloggers including Kathy Patalsky, Chloé Jo Davis, Allyson Kramer, and more special guests during our "Blog to Business" Twitter Chat at 6pm PT. Never done a Twitter chat before? It's as easy as making this salad, trust me. See you there!

Herbivore Lunch to the Rescue

The Chefs: Jennifer and Herbivore

The Menu: The chicken shawarma—a wrap with soy chicken, potatoes, pickles, hummus, avocado, harissa, and magic—plus kale salad with soy chicken and avocado.

The Goods: Sometimes, you need lunch—stat. With tonight's Twitter Chat and Vegan Drinks to contend with after work, I ran to Herbivore to procure lunch for myself and our Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria. You know what happens when coworkers share lunch? It means that two people both get to eat two awesome things, in this case, a shawarma and a kale salad. Here's hoping it's enough to power us through the rest of the day!

Pasta with Marinara Sauce

The Chef: Alexandra

The Menu: Linguine and marinara sauce with bell peppers, onion, and garlic (even though you can't see the veggies very well in the photo). And an orange.

The Goods: When I was younger, one of my favorite breakfasts was leftover spaghetti. Now it's my go to carb-heavy, comforting meal. There's something so satisfying about piles of pasta topped with thick tomato sauce (read more about other delicious sauces here), or any pasta dish for that matter. To add a bit more nutrition to the meal, I started with an orange. Hopefully I don't go into a carb coma anytime soon, especially since I have VN's third Twitter chat to look forward to tonight! We're talking with founders of some of the most successful vegan businesses including Sweet & Sara, Chicago Soydairy, Vegan Essentials, and Veggie Grill to chat about how to start a vegan venture.

Kale Salad

The Chef: Alexandra and Herbivore

The Menu: The beloved marinated kale salad with soy chicken, avocados, tomatoes, and cucumber.

The Goods: Office Manager Lyndsay, VN volunteer Robin, and I ventured to Herbivore for a refreshing and healthy lunch. After a weekend spent indulging in baked goods, I definitely needed to do a mini-detox to start Monday off right. OK, so I had a Pepple's doughnut for breakfast, but who's keeping track? If anything, kale salad is so deliciously good for you, it reverses all the negative effects of previously eaten foods. That's (unproven, but highly likely) science for you! After going into cupcake overload this week—Food Network's Cupcake Wars airs Tuesday night, featuring two vegan bakers and VN's own Twitter chat with said bakers takes place the following night—everyone will want to believe my kale salad theory.

Vegan Breakfast Casserole

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A delicious breakfasty bread-pudding casserole, with cubed bread, winter squash, a tofu cream sauce, spinach, and leeks.

The Goods: First, I apologize for the quality of this photo. Sometimes a cell phone really is actually more of a phone than a camera, especially in the case of my flip phone. Yes, I said flip phone because they do still exist and I do still have one. Internets, schminternets. Though today's photo isn't terribly exciting, we have a bunch of super-snazzy news to perk up your reading experience. First, tonight is our very first ever Twitter Chat, featuring our gorgeous cover gal Kris Carr. Could we be more excited? No. We're also starting to see responses to our Vegan Bucket List feature in the brand-spankin' new March+April issue, which is highly exciting. And, if all that wasn't enough, this week we'll be hosting SF Vegan Drinks with Vegansaurus! Do we love an excuse to drink on a weeknight? Mayhaps!