Cozy Cheesy Farfalle and An Apple a Day

The Chef: Hilary

The Dish: Bow-tie pasta smothered in mozzarella Daiya and marinara sauce with shallots, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes, plus a delightfully crunchy and sweet Honeycrisp apple. 

The Goods: With temperatures dropping, I find my urge growing to crawl into a cave with a barrel of hot cocoa and knitted things to hide for the remainder of winter. Due to various social obligations and physical logistics, my dream scenario is unfortunately not feasible. However, I find that a hearty, Daiya-laden pasta dish here and there provides a sufficient dose of cozy to help me beat the winter blues. Now all I need is the aroma of fresh-baked cookies from the VegNews Holiday Cookbook to keep me feeling toasty. Submit your best cookie recipe to the VegNews Holiday Cookie Contest today! The deadline is Friday for showing us how brightly your baking skills shine. 

Peanut Butter and Jelly, Part Deux

The Chef: Anna

The Menu: A peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Ezekiel bread, an apple, and a peppermint patty from Allison's Gourmet

The Goods: It's a little déjà vu all over again: As you might have noticed, a week ago I essentially ate the same lunch. What can I say? I can never get sick of a good ol' PB&J. And, well, I didn't feel like cooking last night and didn't have time to make a salad this morning. But really, I can't get sick of a PB&J! Some might call it boring, but I like to think of it as classic. If you need ideas for classic—and not in any way boring—holiday meals (you know, like Seitan Roulade with Oyster Mushroom Stuffing), be sure to buy our Holiday Cookbook, available for instant download in the VegNews Store!

VegNews Annual Thanksgiving Feast!

The Chef: Native Foods Café and Colleen

The Menu: One of our favorite meals of the year featured a Native Foods' Wellington (layers of roasted portobello mushrooms, orange-glazed yams, seitan, organic kale, caramelized onions, and stuffing, all wrapped in a decadent puff pastry), shallot-mushroom gravy, balsamic-roasted Brussels sprouts, homemade cranberry sauce, and Colleen's Holiday Salad with baby greens, dried cranberries, sliced apples, and caramelized pecans. And we haven't even touched dessert yet.

The Goods: The VegNews staff anticipates this day all year long—and for good reason! Have you checked out that menu above? Every year, the week of Thanksgiving, the VN team sits down to a sumptuous vegan Thanksgiving meal that we don't stop talking about until the next feast rolls around. Southern California-based Native Foods Café, once again, provided the incredible centerpiece to our meal: The Native Wellington. If you need a stellar main course for your holiday table, this is it. And they ship overnight anywhere in the country! Of course, a lovely feast such as this has to have a dessert finale, and we went with one of our favorites: VN columnist Beverly Lynn Bennett's Pumpkin Cake with Vanilla Buttercream, straight from our brand-new VegNews Holiday Cookbook. It's a cinch to make, and always a crowd-pleaser. Accompanying the multi-layer cake is some delicious chocolate-peppermint bark made by VN Publisher Joseph Connelly—we couldn't get enough! Check out more mouthwatering photos here, and Happy Tofurky Day to all.

Colleen's Friday Salad

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: My favorite lunchtime salad—organic greens, English cucumber, cherry tomatoes, olives, shredded carrot, green onion, avocado, fresh garlic, and grilled Gardein "chicken", all tossed in an orange-balsamic vinaigrette.

The Goods: I am a creature of habit, what can I say. I'll do my best to change up my go-to lunchtime meal, but you'll most likely be seeing some variation of this (delicious) salad every Friday. Don't get me wrong—the food in the Mission is as good as it gets (vegan Mexican, Japanese, comfort food, raw food, fresh-baked pies, and so much more literally exists all within a two-block radius of the new VNHQ), but I enjoy bringing my own lunch. I like to eat as much organic as possible, I like to know where my food comes from, and it just tastes good. For some major homemade-food inspiration, have you seen the just-released VegNews Holiday Cookbook? VegNews' editors have armed you with everything you need this Thanksgiving to create an unforgettable vegan feast. Get your copy now! And have a wonderful weekend.

Manicotti and Colorful Salad

The Chef: Elizabeth and Valencia Whole Foods

The Menu: A highly enormous salad with mixed greens, spinach, roasted red peppers, corn, beets, chickpeas, and Annie's Goddess Dressing from our friendly neighborhood salad bar, plus a delicious vegan Holiday Manicotti. Butternut squash ricotta with vegan Bechamel topped with cheese? Well, fine.

The Goods: You might have heard recently about our Holiday Cookbook, about which we're pretty stinking thrilled, and it's been a really tough couple of weeks talking about holiday recipes, editing holiday recipes, and thinking about holiday recipes basically non-stop. I'd finally had enough and made one of the 35 incredible holiday recipes, and it was pretty much the best decision of the week so far. Hope everyone is having an equally delicious day!

Picnic in the Park

The Chef: Lyndsay and Gabrielle

The Menu: Just your classic picnic with leftovers from the past week, including Paper Masala Dosa from Udupi Palace, cheeseless takeout pizza, and some raw goodies from Lydia's Kitchen.

The Goods: It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, so Editorial Assistant Gabrielle Pope and I decided to take our bikes to nearby Dolores Park. With the sun shining, and the park having just enough people and lovable puppies running around, we were in paradise, which is just what we needed. It's been quite busy at the VNHQ with the holidays fast-approaching, and we just can't get enough of our VegNews Holiday Cookbook. If you haven't purchased this insanely good e-book yet, get to it! You really don't want to miss what's inside.

Cancun

The Chef: Colleen and Taqueria Cancun

The Menu: Two vegan tacos—complete with black beans, seasoned rice, chopped onion, cilantro, and hearty strips of avocado with soft corn tortillas—and a side of chips and freshly made salsa.

The Goods: Today, I needed to eat lunch fast, as it's just been one of those days. Two blocks from the new VNHQ is one of San Francisco's three locations of Taqueria Cancun, a local taqueria that is full of character and vegan options. For $4.60 ($2.30 each), I filled up on two scrumptious (and healthy!) tacos and a basket of (unhealthy!) tortilla chips. Oh well, we do our best. I was in and out in 15 minutes, ate for less than $5, and enjoyed a delicious meal. So what do we have on tap today? First off, we launched the VegNews Holiday Cookbook and can hardly wait to start cooking our holiday feasts. We're also prepping for this weekend's Green Festival, right here in San Francisco, of which VegNews is a long-time sponsor. So if you're heading to the Green Festival, stop by the VN booth to say hello and pick up a subscription!