Spring Rolls and Salad

The Chefs: Elizabeth and Valencia Whole Foods

The Menu: A pretty standard sampling of veggie-filled spring rolls and spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, fava beans, grated carrots, and hummus.

The Goods: Though the weather outside is dreary and bleary, I opted for this combination of mostly raw delights from our trusty corner deli for lunch today. Perhaps the recent infusions of bread, chocolate, and pumpkin pie had something to do with my desire for fresh veggies, but it's hard to say for sure. One thing of which I am completely, 100-percent, totally, and unflappably certain is that days like today make me even more excited about our Vegan Yoga Retreat to Mexico. I can't wait to stretch out on the beach in November!

Vegetable Rice Bowl (and Cake!)

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Rice bowl with pea shoots, cherry tomatoes, avocado, red onion, and yellow pepper—all over warm brown rice and tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and sea salt

The Dish: It's the Tuesday after a three-day weekend, and it's time to start eating healthy! It seems like there have been far too many opportunities to eat out lately, so a nice, healthy rice bowl was just what I needed. This is one of my all-time favorite dishes, and I have it at least three times a week (for either lunch or dinner). And given how gorgeous it was today on the VegNews deck, it was the perfect meal to enjoy outside with my colleagues. Since tomorrow is Assistant Editor Anna Peraino's birthday, we toasted her today with a homemade chocolate-peanut butter cake (inspired by our friends at Vegan Treats). Happy Birthday, Anna!

Anna's chocolate-peanut butter-bomb cake, which we quickly devoured.

A closer look at the three-layer, peanut butter frosting-filled cake.

Amazing Macaroni!

The Chefs: Made by Lyndsay and Frankie, eaten by Brooke

The Menu: The amazing VN macaroni and cheese, topped off with some of Frankie's homemade chocolates!

The Goods: So some mornings (read: most) I'm forgetful or lazy or late, and therefore forget or don't feel like or don't have time to make a lunch. These are the mornings I'm grateful for my wonderful VN co-workers, including Ms. Lyndsay Orwig who so graciously shared her VN mac and cheese with me. And yesterday, as you might have read in This Just In, a Ms. Frankie McGee gifted us some homemade chocolate-covered, cream-cheese filled dates and chocolate-covered almonds. Don't mind if I do! That's why I love the holiday season! Are you as emphatic about this time of year as we are? Check out VN's complete survival guide to the 2010 holidays!

Black Bean Soup

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: A silky, blended black bean soup, which we topped generously with Daiya. Does the bowl look a bit like it's full of chocolate pudding? Yeah, it did to us, too. But back to oh-so-savory reality. We gobbled up a side salad bursting with kale and avocado, and lovely little quesadillas, also made with Daiya.

The Goods: Yep, still going with the soup. No, we don't have the excuse of an impending blizzard for all this soup-making, but you know what? We don't really have a good excuse for covering everything we can in Daiya, either, yet that is exactly what we do. So there you have it.

Wrap-It-Up Wraps

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Some hearty, delicious wraps that may have been inspired by what we had in the kitchen. What we had, it turns out, were whole-wheat wraps, pinto beans, greens, mushrooms, carrots, and potatoes. Colleen roasted the spuds, sautéed the beans, 'shrooms, and carrots, and wrapped everything together with mashed avocado. Yum.

The Goods: We're not bragging, but this week we might have whipped up one of our all-time favorite covers, double checked our document, and talked endlessly about Thanksgiving. Oh, did you know that's happening next week? If you are in a panic over what to serve, take the advice of one of our favorite chefs, Jesse Miner. He'll be chatting away over on VegWeb this Sunday, answering all your vegan holiday questions. The guy knows his stuff, including knowing the way into our hearts, which—as if there were any question—is through chocolate. Jesse joined us today and generously brought along chocolate-covered peanut-butter truffles. Um, yeah. That's how you wrap up a week!

Milestone Meatless Ribs

The Chefs: Abby and Frankie

The Menu: Yes, those are Frankie's Falsies ribs. Yes, they are just as delicious as we remembered them. Abby roasted these babies up and doused them in Frankie's barbecue sauce, which was absolutely perfect. She also made her signature biscuits—Abby can whip these up in about 10 minutes flat, and they are so, so good right out of the oven—with the surprise addition today of Daiya and an absolutely incredible cashew gravy. Oh heck yes. Also, there was a salad. But really, Daiya biscuits!!

The Goods: In case you were wondering what milestone we're celebrating today, it's the 500th post on Café VegNews! Yes, our first-ever blog is still running strong, and we're so happy to be able to share our weekday meals with everyone on these here interwebs. In honor of the event, Colleen made a fantastic apple crisp and Frankie made a delicious peanut-butter-chocolate pie from Alicia Silverstone's new book, The Kind Diet. Since we couldn't share the pie with everyone, we made a crazy, one-day giveaway for you! Just leave a comment with your favorite Café VegNews post by midnight tonight, and we'll randomly draw one winner, who will receive an enormous tub of Sjaak's Peanut Butter cups. They are, in a word, incredible, as you can see below.

Mega Miso Soup

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: Basically, it's miso soup, plus a few extra bits. Elizabeth tried to fend off the illness that's struck a few of our staffers by including colossal amounts of garlic in this soup, and adding rice, Napa cabbage, and green onions. For toppings we chose from black sesame seeds, sesame oil, soy sauce, and gochujang—aka Korean red pepper paste—and Sriracha. Yes, this easily counts as "fusion."

The Goods: Today was highly exciting as we again dined al fresco, and we tested the first batch of cookies from our Holiday Cookie Collection! Yes, we'll be tantalizing you with our testing tales until we're ready to launch the collection itself. Since we're not ready to spill those details yet, we hope you'll enjoy this instead:

Yes, those are dates, stuffed with Dandies, dipped in chocolate. Have we ever mentioned that we freaking love Frankie?!

Yellow Curry and Yummy Cupcakes

The Chef: Charlotte

The Menu: A satisfying meal of homemade yellow curry and rice. Today's plate is deceptively simple-looking: this curry was utterly rich and very flavorful. It wasn't just the curry itself that was yellow, but pretty much all the veggies kept up the flaxen theme. Yukon gold potatoes, baby corn, wax beans, and tomatoes (just for their pop of red, of course) swam in a decadent coconut-milk broth.

The Goods: As if lunch hadn't been indulgent enough, we ate the world's fanciest cupcakes for dessert. Tessa Strauss of Cookies and Candids stopped by for lunch with her charming friend Julie, and brought with her what were easily the best cupcakes we've had all year. No joke, these things were incredible, as you can see below. On the left, you see her amazing champagne cupcake with white-chocolate icing and fancy, sparkly sprinkles. On the right, um, maybe that's a chocolate-almond masterpiece topped with a layer of marzipan (eeek!), chocolate-almond frosting, and a feverish chocolate swirl for flair. Um, dead. Dead is what we are. Gosh, you say, these sweets must have certainly maxed out your capacity for eating awesome vegan things. That, friends, is where you would be wrong. Ms. Laura Beck, whom you know and love, brought in homemade caramelized-banana ice cream. Did we mention that we are dead? It's a fact. Go forth, and be sugary.

Valentine Curry

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: A subtle, and subtly themed, Valentine's Day curry. See those tasty little red chunks of Swiss-chard stem dotting the curry? In combination with the red-skinned potatoes the chard made for a veritable Valentine's Day card, in food form, of course. Colleen also added some lovely purple potatoes, baby corn, and tofu to the mix, served everything over rice, and topped it all with some fresh cilantro. She also whipped up a bright salad of romaine, grated yellow beets, and blue-cheese-flavored Sheese.

The Goods: Sometimes eating such a lovely meal can put you in a certain mood—namely the mood for love. Since a certain holiday is tomorrow, and we thought you might enjoy a little foray into the world of veg dating. And remember, whether you're happily married or happily unmarried, chocolate affects your brain in much the same way love does, so don't forget to cover something delicious with it!

The Best Wednesday Ever

The Chefs: Aurelia, Kashi, and Frankie

The Menu: Wow. This one's going to be a doozy. So to start off, we enjoyed another frozen offering from Kashi, the Mayan Harvest Bake, which featured amaranth polenta, black beans, kale, sweet potato, pumpkin seeds, and delicious plantains. We were all really impressed with the way the plantains held up after being frozen and reheated—they were perfect! Aurelia busted out a red-quinoa salad with tempeh, red bell pepper, kale, and grated carrots that was a tasty, colorful addition to our plates. Just because we maybe have more vegan cheese in the office right now than we know what to do with, we also enjoyed some light water crackers topped with slices of Cheezly. Whew. Ready for more? Oh yes, there's more. Our beloved Frankie came in today bearing her signature tray of Chocolate-Covered Everything, which today included pretzels, marzipan, pecans, raisins, dates, and—get ready—potato chips. Yeah. We're dead. Here's a little preview of all the assorted chocolaty goodness we're munching on, as modeled by our extraordinary editorial assistants, Melissa and Stacy.
The Goods: It's difficult to imagine that there would be anything else to say after such a lengthy menu, but guess what?! There's more! Yeah, that's how we do things around the VNHQ. Melissa, who just transplanted herself to SF from Japan, was kind enough to bring us some yatsuhashi cookies, which were cinnamony, crispy, and a total treat. Here's Melissa with the artfully wrapped box, straight from Kyoto:
Like we said: Best. Wednesday. Ever.

Breakfast Bonanza

The Chef: Abby

The Menu: An utterly stellar breakfast. First of all, let's just be clear that Abby actually made breakfast for all of us today as well. That's right, that big, lovely chocolate-chip scone you see at the bottom right of the plate was one of the batch that she brought in and warmed up. Yes, we were met with warm scones this morning. If there's anything better than that, we don't even want to know about it. Oh, well, maybe with the possible exception of lunch, which was also incredible. Savory sides of red- and yellow-bell-pepper-infused tofu scramble and spinach-pilaf salad were the perfect balance to the sweet scones, and for those of us who were feeling French today, a little baguette and jam finished off the plate.

The Goods: We just pretty much can't say enough how much we like eating breakfast at lunch, especially when the food is this good. For a little visualization to illustrate the point, imagine a happily fed person with their arms completely outstretched to the side. Yes, we like it this much.

Extra-Super Awesome Surprise

The Chef: Frankie

The Menu: Chocolate-covered everything! No, like, literally, everything. Frankie just came in to the office—on her day off no less!—to bring us a sweet smorgasbord of chocolate-covered goodies. Included in this incredible array were peanut-butter-filled pretzels, regular pretzels, faux-cream-cheese-filled dates, raspberry jam, peanut butter, coffee beans, and toasted almonds. Oh, did we mention that she just made these out of the goodness of her heart? Because she did. Are we dead with joy? Yes.

The Goods: It just really doesn't get much better than a surprise delivery of epic, chocolate-covered proportions. Frankie, as you may recall, spoils us routinely with her homemade goodies, but this is an extravagance, even by her standards. Also, did we mention that she is maybe absolutely our favorite person on the planet? Because she is, hands down.

Café VegNews Extra!

The Chef: CocoaVino

The Menu: Hazelnut & Sea Salt bonbons!

The Goods: Okay, so Ms. Jenny, the lovely lady you see pictured above, has been hankering for vegan bonbons since the day she stepped foot in the VNHQ. Today, all her chocolaty dreams came true when this incredibly adorable package of CocoaVino bonbons came in the mail. They were way too cute for us to keep to ourselves, and we're proud to report that the look doesn't outshine the taste—they're yummy! Have you guys tried these? Let us know what you think!