Vegan Cheesesteak Sandwich

The Chefs: Elizabeth and Jay's Cheesesteak

The Menu: A highly delicious (and filling!) vegan cheesesteak filled with seitan, tomatoes, vegan mayo, mustard, pickles, lettuce, and onions, all served on a toasty French roll. Fries with that? Yes, please!

The Goods: Happy Valentine's Day everyone! It's drizzly and dreary here in SF today, and sometimes a stellar sandwich is just what the doctor ordered to brighten up a dull Monday. Did this enormous offering from Jay's totally hit the spot? Yes. Will I now happily return to my kale or green salad lunch routine? Definitely. Chilly weather and a full belly make me want to hibernate. In case you were doing that very thing this weekend, and missed Isa Chandra Moskowitz's cooking demo here in SF, check out her excellent interview with VN Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig.

Vegan Sausage, Biscuits, and Gravy

The Chefs: Abby and Liz

The Menu: Um, hello. A delicious smorgasbord of breakfasty goodies. First of all Liz busted out an incredible batch of rich cashew gravy, which we slathered on breakfast sausages (Liz whipped these up from a mix) and biscuits alike. Yes, those would be Abby's famous biscuits, of which we wish we had a permanent supply. Abby also made a lovely salad. You know, because vegetarians supposedly enjoy eating vegetables. Whatever. Oh, and the very bright cauliflower behind the salad? That would be Frankie's latest foray into pickling. Let's just say that she brought a few jars of various pickled goodies for us to try, and they are now empty.

The Goods: Today we shared lunch with VegWebmistress Laura Beck, whom, as you might know, we adore. We also enjoyed the company of Zac Taylor, our local Honest Tea rep. Zac was kind enough to bring us over a ton of tea, some of which he kept cool for us in this nifty container. Yes, we were thrilled. Thanks to Zac and all of today's chefs!

Homemade Vegan Meatballs

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Oh, just your basic bowl of ziti and pasta sauce—with homemade vegan meatballs!! Seriously, we are not even sure how Colleen managed to make all this in just an hour, but she did, and we are stoked. Well, OK, we do know that she used Match Meats Ground Chicken as a base, but then loaded these baked babies up with spices, and cooked them perfectly. The end, love, meatballs.

The Goods: Well, it's raining and gross here at the VNHQ today, but the inclement weather has not dampened our spirits. It's Friday, we'll be doing a giveaway next week, and for those who are into this kind of thing, it's the first night of Hanukkah. Need some vegan Hanukkah recipes? Maybe you should head over to VegNews.com, where we just happen to have some.

Free-Form Fajitas

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A fairly monochromatic plate of beef-free fajitas. For the "beef" she used Match Meats Ground Beef, and then served quinoa topped with spiced zucchini, black beans, and crimini mushrooms alongside. Whole-wheat tortillas and sliced avocado make anything better, don't they?

The Goods: As you might or might not be aware, it's cold here. Like, really cold. Like, so cold that while Elizabeth was in the kitchen making lunch (which is in a part of our office that doesn't have great heating), she donned her sweater, heavy jacket, and borrowed a knit hat from Abby to keep her ears from freezing off. If anyone is interested in sending hot-cocoa reinforcements, we'd be fine with that!

Beefless Stew and Mashed Potatoes

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A savory beef stew—except, of course, without the beef. Instead, Elizabeth used yet another item from our Gardein stash, this time the Beefless Tips. Red wine, carrots, onions, garlic, thyme, and tomatoes made a homey sauce for the tips, and the whole shebang was served over mashed potatoes. A side salad with romaine, tomatoes, chopped zucchini, and yellow squash added some color to the plate.

The Goods: Can you tell that it's cold here at the VNHQ? The thermometer says it's 65 degrees, but it definitely feels closer to 45 with the thick blanket of fog in which we've been shrouded all morning. On days like today, the only thing to do is stew! We got to share the meal with Matt Flanzer, who's one of our contributors. Guests make any meal more fun, and today's was no exception!

Meat(less) Loaf and Potatoes

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: A yummy, meat-free meatloaf, courtesy of Field Roast Grain Meat Company, which Lyndsay topped with the traditional ketchup and then slathered in a homemade gravy. Where did she find a recipe for gravy? That would be over on VegWeb.com, of course! Her green salad was lovely as ever, and you might have noticed some seriously thick-cut potatoes up towards the top of the plate. Those would be the Three Spice Potatoes from the new VeganYumYum cookbook!

The Goods: So, it would probably be really mean of us to tell you that we just happen to have five copies of this long-awaited cookbook here in the office, and not give them away, right? Good news! We're totally giving them away! We'll do one each day this week, and we'll be featuring a recipe from the book every day at lunch. For today's copy, tell us in the comments: What vegan cookbook can you absolutely not live without?

Match Meat Monday

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: Myriad Match meats, a line of new, plant-based meat alternatives. Lyndsay took advantage of a recent shipment of products for us to try, and served up a trio of Match Foods' latest offerings. Starting at six o'clock on the plate, you see a lovely Italian-sausage infused marinara, tossed with a brown-rice ziti. Moving clockwise, we had a savory, stuffed chicken-style entrée, then a fish-free crab-cake, and finally a gorgeous green salad.

The Goods: To balance out the savory with some sweets, we had the pleasure of dining with Yvonne Smith, aka The Traveling Vegetarian, and Michelle Taylor, creator of Vegan Break. These two lovely ladies were sweet enough themselves, but they decided to go way beyond the call of duty and spoil us with dessert, which included chocolate cupcakes from Whole Foods, cookies from Peet's, and two pints of Maggie Mudd's Mudslingers Freestyle. Yeah. About that. We might be in sugar-induced comas under our desks right now, and totally happy about it. Check out the sweet splendor below, and feel free to remind us to eat vegetables!

Hot Dog!(s)

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Fan-freakin'-tastic Friday frankfurters. Colleen warmed some delicious whole-wheat buns, and we piled these pups high with a smorgasbord of sauces. Ketchup, spicy Dijon mustard, relish, barbecue sauce, Artichoke Hummus, Vegenaise, Roasted Green Salsa, and Roasted Mole were just a few of the ample options. Alongside these barely contained buns we enjoyed crispy fries and a vibrant salad with dried cranberries and Swiss chard.

The Goods: Ever wonder just exactly what a group of educated, professional, dedicated vegans talk about during lunch? Saving the animals? Bettering the movement? Opening new, exciting restaurants/boutiques/animal sanctuaries? Not today, friends. Today we discussed such enlightening topics as the work histories of Sandra Oh and Margaret Cho, who had/had not seen Saved by the Bell during their youth, and which of the incredible, delicious treats from Sticky Fingers that arrived yesterday were our favorites. Yes, it's Friday. Yes, that's good news all around.

Ready Ribs

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: A savory plate of totally rockin' barbecue ribs, a nice, big green salad, and fresh-from-the-oven biscuits doused with maple butter. Yeah, we eat pretty stinking well around here. The delicious faux ribs came courtesy of Frankie, who also makes the barbecue sauce in which they are smothered. She could easily make millions on the stuff—it's the perfect combination of sweet, savory, and smoky. No skimper when it comes to sauces herself, Colleen whipped up the delicious maple butter that topped our biscuits, literally, by combining a little Earth Balance and a little maple syrup.

The Goods: Today is a very exciting day at the VNHQ as we are sending our fan-freaking-tastic March+April issue to press. Last minute final edits and design choices leave little time for lunch-making, so we were all thankful to find a nice big tray of frozen ribs left lovingly in our freezer. Even the biscuits, which Colleen made from scratch using the recipe in Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Joy of Vegan Baking, took fewer than ten minutes from start to finish, making this one speedy, superb lunch.

Pancake Palooza

The Chef: Abby

The Menu: A plethora of pancakes, as you can probably tell from the photo above. Maybe this breakfasty bounty has something to do with a Taste Test feature in an upcoming issue, just maybe. In case anyone was wondering, there are lots and lots of vegan pancake mixes out there! Ms. Abby paired the pancake goodness with soy chorizo and chopped apples for little bursts of sweet and savory.

The Goods: It's a good thing that Abby had already secured her place in the kitchen as our resident breakfast maker, and that she was willing to have today's menu dictated by our editorial needs. Yes, the taste testing process is probably one of our favorite parts of putting together this little magazine of ours. For your reference, eating these many pancakes, silver-dollar-sized though they may be, makes one feel as though her body has become roughly 90 percent batter, five percent syrup, and the rest vital organs.

Frankie's Falsies, the Return

The Chefs: Abby and Frankie

The Menu: A mouth-watering amalgam of flavors. Frankie brought in some extra-delicious barbecue-sauce-drenched seitan, which she had of course made at home and brought to us as a special treat. Served over a perfectly fluffy rice pilaf blend, these yummy nuggets really hit the spot. Alongside you see some cheddar cauliflower—which is vegan, despite the suspicious-sounding name—and a lovely spinach salad with grated carrot and big chunks of avocado.

The Goods: If there's anything better than a surprise delivery of awesome faux meat, we don't even want to know about it. Frankie, and her fabulous "falsies" are always pleasant additions to our mid-week routine.

Faux Meat Farewell

The Chef: Jenny

The Menu: A tangy stir-fry of broccoli, kale, and mock meats stood nicely next to a hearty helping of rice noodles flavored with teriyaki sauce and shredded carrots. Aromatic roasted acorn squash with Indian spices completed the tantalizing trio, making a flavorful and filling lunch. Adding a true taste of adventure to our culinary quest, Ms. Jenny incorporated one of the lesser-known mock meats—vegetarian intestines. Yes, you read that correctly. Intestines. Only with her skills could such a curious ingredient be turned into an A+ lunch, with no complaints from the diners.

The Goods: Last week's gorgeous sunshine seems to have gotten lost on its morning commute, leaving the VNHQ a little gloomy. Today, the down-and-out weather is on par with our official announcement of Ms. Jenny's last lunch as chef. Sad but true, our beloved office manager is soon leaving for sunnier skies. Café VegNews will miss her creative lunches and superb culinary skills, but we're sure to remember her farewell lunch of intestine ingenuity!

Vegan à Go-Go! Week: Day One

The Chef: Jenny

The Menu: Punk-kin Pasta, which is a delicious amalgam of pasta, pumpkin purée, and vegan sausage. Um, yum. Savory, hearty, and rich, this main course filled us up, which is just the way we like to start off the week. Jenny paired the dense dish with a nice, light salad, which kept some of us from totally exploding.

The Goods: This week, we're all about Vegan à Go-Go! We'll be making recipes from Sarah Kramer's latest work all this week, which is good news for those of you who want recipes for the meals you see on this blog—they'll all be neatly contained in the book! Since we're pretty sure everybody already knows about our party, we'll just go ahead and mention that there is literally one ticket left. Literally. One. Feel free to freak out with excitement (as we all are) since this is sure to be a blast of a book launch.

Celebratory Drumsticks

The Chefs: Aurelia and Frankie

The Menu: Faux-chicken drumsticks slathered with barbecue sauce and baked to perfection were the main-course stars of today's stellar lunch. Potatoes sautéed with smoked paprika and kale and a bright salad of mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, avocado and strawberries—side note: is there anything better than strawberries in a salad? Yeah, we don't think so either—with a chopped basil vinaigrette made lovely complements to the faux-meaty main. Oh, and is that a little glass of bubbly? Well, yes and no. Yes, there are bubbles in that glass, but since we eat lunch at noon-thirty it was a tad on the early side for alcohol. Thank goodness for sparkling cider!

The Goods: Maybe you want to know why we're celebrating. Maybe it's because we got the absolutely fantastic news today that VegNews is a finalist for two (count 'em!) Eddie Awards! Maybe this is a huge freakin' deal and we are totally beside ourselves with glee. While we don't know which honor we've received yet (the Eddies have gold, silver, and bronze designations), we do know the categories which are Best Enthusiasts/Hobbyists Magazine, and Best Online Column or Blog. Yes, that means that you are right now, this very second, reading an award-winning blog. Eeeek! Preemptively feeling the celebratory spirit, Ms. Frankie brought in a delicious dessert—her signature fruit pizza! Oatmeal cookie crust meets pudding sauce meets fruit toppings. Yes, we're dead from excitement. And sugar. And glee. And eeep.

Welcome Rice and Beans

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A mix of rice, black beans, and corn that was meant to resemble a gallo pinto, but didn't quite get there. (Mainly since the typical Costa Rican dish usually has bell pepper instead of corn. We like to take liberties around these parts, as you likely already know!) We enjoyed some marinated, baked faux chicken from the local Asian grocery store, and a full salad of baby greens, lacinato kale, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and a light vinaigrette completed the plate.

The Goods: Today is a momentous occasion here at the VNHQ: we have two new editorial assistants! We're thrilled to finally meet Lyndsay and Abby, who begin their fall internships today. Thankfully, the sun is cooperating and gave us a lovely warm lunch.

Creative Curry

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: A delicious, exotic curry comprised of green beans, carrots, zucchini, kale, and faux duck all simmered in rich coconut milk and savory curry. Yum! Served over quinoa and with a vibrant side salad of mixed greens, bell pepper, heirloom tomatoes, and avocado, this was one mega-satisfying main course.

The Goods: Yes, you read that right: faux duck. Our offices have been awash recently with uncommon faux meats in preparation for an in-depth look at the history of meatless eats which will appear in our September+October Food Issue, coming your way in a few short weeks! So, since we've got all these, um, interesting items, we thought the best way to share them with you would be by literally sharing them with you. Conveniently, today being the last day of July (sniff!), it's time for our Café VegNews Giveaway! For loot we have something that we're pretty sure has to be the strangest thing we've ever offered: vegan haggis! We figured that you might want visual proof of this one, so check it out below. Also, just in case faux-Scottish-nasty-potted meat doesn't turn out to be your favorite new food, we're also including a signed copy of VN columnist Rory Freedman's book, Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. On the cookbook theme, we'll be making recipes from cookbooks all next week, so don't miss it!

The Question: So here's what we're wondering: What's the strangest faux meat you've ever seen? You may get bonus points for having eaten it, but then again, you may also get bonus points for not having eaten it. Leave your answer in the comments by Friday, August 8, and we'll select a winner. Good luck!

Tummy-Taming Thai

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: An utterly yummy yellow Thai curry. Served over perfectly herbed rice, this filling meal featured potatoes, bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, shiitake mushrooms, and some of Frankie's famous faux chicken all stewed in a luscious, coconut-milk-based curry. An equally appetizing salad of romaine lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, sliced fennel, and avocado balanced out the curry's hint of spiciness.

The Goods: In case it wasn't already abundantly clear, we like eating here at the VNHQ. Right around 11:30 am, each of our stomachs starts to rumble, and by noon we're ready to eat the morning's coffee grounds. The ever-present thought of lunch makes sitting down to a meal as delicious as this one even more satisfying—and keeps our dignity intact.

Southern Indulgence

The Chefs: Colleen & Frankie

The Menu: Are you sitting down? You might want to be for this. Starting at the top of the plate, you see our knock-your-socks-off mac 'n' cheese. Ms. Lisa, who's only been here six and a half months, wasn't with us when we tested this recipe for the January+February issue, and was blown away by how utterly delicious it was. As if that weren't enough, Frankie made us another round of her incredible barbecue faux ribs. They are absolutely to die for, especially since she smothers them in a smoky, slightly sweet homemade barbecue sauce. Oh, and maybe Colleen made some savory, wonderful collard greens, just to finish off the meal properly. This may officially go down as our staff's favorite lunch ever.

The Goods: Since we keep hearing great things about Souley Vegan over in Oakland, it was only a matter of time before the soul food bug bit us, and boy, are we glad it did. If there's a better way to break up the work day than spending your lunch hour gorging on the best mac 'n' cheese and faux ribs in the world, we don't even want to know about it.

Sausage Patty Party!

The Chefs: Lisa & Frankie

The Menu: Some seriously scrumptious sausage patties! Ms. Frankie decided to take on the world of faux meat, having already completely conquered the dessert realm, and the results were today's savory main dish. Perfectly Cajun-spiced, these patties knocked our socks off, and they were even better paired with fresh heirloom tomato slices, slabs of French bread, and an amazing garlicky avocado spread which Ms. Lisa made. Lightly steamed green beans took the place of our usual salad, much to our delight.

The Goods: We know it's been said before, but Frankie spoils us rotten. Who else gets homemade faux-meat delivered right to their office? Nobody, that's who. (Well, okay, let us know if you do, and then we'll have ourselves a taste test!) What we know for sure is that getting through a busy week is always easier when Frankie's around.

Delish Dumplings

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: Oh dumplings, we love you so. Today's little pleasing pouches were filled with a crazy, off-the-cuff garbanzo paste, sautéed shiitake mushrooms, and faux pork in a soy sauce and rice vinegar sauce. Topped with chopped scallions, toasted sesame oil, and a touch of extra soy sauce, these dumplings were—like so many meals here at the VNHQ—a unique marriage of inspiration and available ingredients. A crisp side salad of romaine lettuce, avocado, tomato, and cucumber was a nice balance to the doughiness of the dumplings.

The Goods: While enjoying today's radiant sunshine and munching on the lovely lunch you see pictured above, we got to talking about the history of San Francisco, and, in particular, all the great attractions that used to be right in our neighborhood. Playland, the Sutro Baths, and a host of other summertime entertainments once stood just steps from where we are today. Talking about all the old-timey fun got us to wondering: what's your favorite part of your city? Where is the place you head to at the first sign of a summer's day?