Beans, Bread, & Birthday Cake

The Chef: Colleen and Frankie

The Menu: Slow-cooked, cumin seasoned black beans served with vegan sour cream, fresh guacamole, and chutney paired with a simple, crunchy side salad filled with grated carrot, mixed greens, and onion. Colleen rounded out this lovely meal with rosemary dusted roasted potatoes and Frankie brought homemade carrot and thyme bread.

The Goods: Happy Birthday, Elizabeth! Per office policy, Elizabeth spent her birthday—which was yesterday—relaxing and celebrating with friends, but per another office policy, we saw fit to continue the celebration today. VN's resident pastry chef Colleen baked a mouthwatering, rich cocoa and raspberry-filled cake covered in a sumptuous, vegan buttercream icing, topped with drizzled chocolate over ripe raspberries. Lets just say that this cake made us wish birthdays happened everyday.

Lentil Soup Leftovers

The Chef: Lyndsay and Chas

The Menu: Hearty leftover lentil soup brimming with carrot, green lentils, garlic, kale, celery, rosemary, and onion paired with a simple, delicious leftover salad chockfull of mixed greens, halved cherry tomatoes, grated carrot, black olives, cucumber, and avocado. Naturally, we rounded out this classic soup-and-salad combo with doughy slices of sourdough bread.

The Goods: If this meal looks conspicuously like our Friday lunch prepared by Chas, it's because it is. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our good friend as he left for home this morning, so lets call our leftovers-filled lunch a lingering tribute to Chas—and not laziness. It definitely wasn't laziness. Seriously though, we can't wait until Chas visits the VNHQ again. We miss you Chas! In addition to missing Chas, we also miss lovely Ms. Elizabeth, who is taking the day off to—VN office policy—celebrate her birthday. So, happy birthday, Elizabeth! We can't wait to continue the celebration tomorrow.

Birthday Wellington

The Chef: Native Foods, Colleen, and Frankie

The Menu: In honor of Chas' birthday, we dined on the new Spring Wellington from Native Foods. This delicious, seasonal spin on Native Foods' autumn standard was packed with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, kale, peas, asparagus, and carrots all wrapped in a flaky, crunchy puff pastry and topped with rich, smooth Hollandaise sauce. Colleen balanced our hearty main course with a splendid, veggie-filled side salad, and Frankie added color to our plates with punchy, pickled cauliflower.

The Goods: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHAS! We couldn't be more thrilled to celebrate this special occasion with Chas, who is truly a member of the VN family. After toasting to Chas and enjoying a lovely, hearty meal we indulged in the requisite birthday dessert: cake! Colleen made a celebratory strawberry cheesecake with a chocolate-cookie crust and sweet strawberry jam on top. Unfortunately, our gluttony prevented us from photographing said cake before devouring it, but below we're including a picture of Chas with a different cake, mostly because he's the best.

Crispy Tofu and Birthday Cake

The Chef: Chas 

The Menu: A splendid spread complete with crispy breaded tofu and seasoned brown rice made up the bulk of this hearty, rainy day lunch. Chas balanced out the meal with a bounty of greens: steamed kale and a salad overflowing with cabbage, broccoli, shredded carrot, chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, and mixed greens topped with a delicious avocado, lemon, and tofu salad dressing, to be exact. 

The Goods: We're officially adding crispy, crunchy, perfectly breaded tofu and tangy, zesty avocado dressing to the ever-growing list of Chas' lunchtime specialties. We followed this tasty feast with a strawberries-and-cream cake—vegan, of course—to celebrate Lyndsay and Laura's recent birthdays. Colleen whipped up this decadent, rich delight from scratch, and expertly topped it with fresh strawberries covered in chocolate and sprinkled with sugar. Were we complaining about it? No. Were there leftovers? Are you new here? Happy Birthday, Lyndsay and Laura!

Rice, Beans, and Cake

The Chef: Kristen

The Menu: A delectable, colorful, South-of-the-Border plate filled with whole-wheat tortillas, perfectly fluffy rice, and a scrumptious scramble of black beans, tofu, red bell peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and spices. An equally attractive salad balanced out the plate, and featured garbanzo beans, crispy tortilla strips, and chunks of avocado.

The Goods: We had a full team back in the office today, which was awfully convenient as we also got to celebrate Abby's birthday. Technically, she was born yesterday (a number of years ago), but we have a pretty fantastic policy that allows employees their birthdays free from work. So, today we had cake. Here's half of it.


We also have some exciting—and potentially depressing—news: VegNews Great Adventure to India is sold out! If you are going, we are super excited to see you in October! If you didn't snag a spot in time, don't despair. We just might be doing this kind of thing again in the future.

Hot Pink Soup!

The Chefs: Abby and Susy

The Menu: One of the most colorful ways of using Thanksgiving leftovers we've ever seen! Though the photo doesn't quite do it justice, this soup—which was an amalgamation of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and roasted root vegetables—was hot pink in real life, thanks to the roasted beets it contained. Susy (aka Elizabeth's mom) brought the soup makings, some stuffing, and a highly delicious cranberry-Cabernet sauce from the Castoria family Thanksgiving. Abby whipped up her signature biscuits and a big, beautiful salad.

The Goods: Today we had the pleasure of Susy's company and celebrated the birth of our beloved Frankie. OK, so technically Frankie's birthday isn't until tomorrow, but she has celebration plans that don't involve coming into the office, so we took the opportunity to whoop it up with her today. Fun ladies and great eats? We like that.

Birthday Thai Food!

The Chef: Vanida Thai Kitchen

The Menu: A stellar array of awesome Thai food. Curries, eggplant, tofu with garlic, sweet-and-sour vegetables, and tom ka soup were some of the yummy dishes we devoured.

The Goods: As you can see, we are not at the VNHQ in this photo. In fact, we took a leisurely, off-campus lunch in honor of Joseph's birthday. Maybe there will be a Press Pass entry up about it soon. Maybe go-karts were involved, and maybe we now have enough pictures of ourselves in racing suits to blackmail anyone who was there. Happy Birthday to Joe!

Southern-Inspired Casserole

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: Um, wow. Aurelia busted out an incredible three-course treat for lunch today, which we happily devoured. The main attraction was a casserole with black beans, corn, green chiles, chopped meatless ribs, and sautéed Swiss Chard, which she topped deliciously with baked polenta dotted with cheddar-style Teese and spices. If you are thinking, "oh my god!" right now, you have the appropriate thought going through your head. In addition, we had the most smoky and delectable sautéed kale on the planet, and a light, fresh salad with shaved red onions, carrots, cucumber, and avocado.

The Goods: This outrageously yummy meal made the perfect base for what was to follow: a belated birthday cake for Lyndsay, who took advantage of our take-your-birthday-off policy. Yes, we've eaten more cake in the last week than any office should ever be able to, and the 3pm sugar pangs are getting stronger by the day. Today's fabulous meal was also a bittersweet occasion, as it marked Aurelia's last turn in the VNHQ kitchen. Thanks for all the amazing lunches, Aurelia!

Birthday Bliss

The Chef: Vanida and MaggieMudd

The Menu: A beautiful birthday bash of Thai food and ice-cream cake! Yeah, today is basically the best lunch day ever, just in case you were wondering. From our favorite local Thai place, Vanida, we served up some deliciously garlicky eggplant and tofu, a spicy yellow curry with zucchini, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and red bell pepper, and a lovely, light papaya salad with tomatoes and ground peanuts. Oh, and maybe there was a cake. Maybe it was an ice-cream cake that featured Toasted Coconut and Mint Chocolate Chip ice creams, set atop a brownie crust and covered in whipped-cream frosting. Oh, did we mention (or did we even really have to?) that this whole B-Day smorgasbord was vegan? Yeah, it was.

The Goods: We had not one but two birthdays in the office this week, those of Ms. Colleen and Ms. Stacy. If there was ever a time to order up a big, beautiful birthday cake, today was the day. A very happy birthday to both lovely ladies, one of whom you can see below with the sweet treat. Continuing the tradition of studly adornments, this year's cake featured one of our favorite vegans. Can you tell who it is?

Build-Your-Own Birthday Burritos

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: A birthday bonanza of burritos! In celebration of the birthday of one Frankie McGee, Ms. Aurelia busted out some first-rate burritos. Warm flour tortillas made the base for Mexican-spiced rice, savory pinto beans, chopped lettuce, roasted butternut squash, sliced avocado, fresh salsa, chopped scallions, and two—count 'em—kinds of vegan cheese, namely saucy Nacho Chreese and shredded cheddar Teese. Um, yum. That's pretty much all there is to say about a spread like this. Oh, did we mention that the festivities got going a bit early with a taste testing of some artisan olive oils and sea-salt blends? Yeah, they did. They also extended beyond the burritos with an absolutely delicious apple crisp from Ms. Colleen, who used apples right from her own tree as a special treat.

The Goods: Who says eating all day long should be reserved for holidays? Around the VNHQ, we'll go ahead and take just about any excuse to share a big, fantastic meal, and Frankie's birthday is certainly no exception. Here's a brief list of things that would suffer drastically if we didn't have Frankie:

1. Our plants—they would all be dead.
2. Our intake of chocolate-covered everything.
3. Our happiness! Frankie is a much-loved member of the VN crew—we'd be lost without her!

Hot Dog!

The Chef: Rizza Punzalan of Underdog

The Menu: Hot dogs! Today we took a very special field trip to the Inner Sunset neighborhood to check out Underdog, an all-organic hot dog joint that serves up a selection of vegan dogs. And tater tots. We're talking like, baskets of delicious, hot tater tots, which, in case it wasn't abundantly clear, made us all very happy. There are four vegan dogs on the menu—a classic dog, Bratwurst, Polish, and Italian—and the homemade potato salad is to die for. With homemade sauerkraut, chopped onions, fresh relish, perfectly toasted buns, and a selection of ketchup and mustards, these dogs totally hit the spot.

The Goods: Why the extra-special lunchtime outing, you ask? Today we honored the birth of our very own publisher, Mr. Joseph Connelly. We won't be saying how many candles there were on his cake at the office, but suffice it to say that he started the day off with an 18-mile run. Seeing as most of the rest of us started the day off by, uh, rolling out of bed shortly before leaving the house for work, we were all rather impressed. Happy Birthday to Joe, and happy vegan hot dogs to all! In case you're wondering what happy vegan hot dogs look like, here's a photo of the whole VN team, hot dogs in hand:

Roxanne's Raw Revelry

The Chef: Roxanne's Fine Cuisine

The Menu: A raw-food smorgasbord! We dined on Tu-Nut Pinwheel Sandwiches, Sweet and Spicy Cashews, Seasame Glazed Sprouted Almonds, and those two delectable little dollops you see at the bottom of the plate are incarnations of Nutmilk Cheeze—regular and Garlic Onion. Ms. Jenny generously offered up a fresh salad of romaine, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes, though the accompaniment was hardly necessary as Roxanne's dishes were as filling as they were organic (the whole line is certified organic!).

The Goods: It was completely fitting to have a fine-food lunch, as we had reason for celebration in the office today—the birth of Ms. Colleen. To complement the lovely raw food, we thoroughly enjoyed an over-the-top delicious picture-cake from MaggieMudd. In case you can't see, that's one Mr. Johnny Depp inviting Colleen to call him up:
Happy birthday Colleen and a happy Johnny Depp to all!