Tempeh Curry

The Chef: Joseph

The Menu: A lovely Thai curry with sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, onions, garlic, and locally made tempeh. What's that you say? We live in the Bay Area and tempeh is a Thai tradition? Well, you're right on both counts, but this particular tempeh was made right here in the Bay Area by Philip Gelb, who's just about to launch a tempeh company, Dragon Lines. Joseph served the curry over rice with a lovely side salad. While the salad was great on its own, we couldn't help but try the Organicville Non-Dairy Ranch Dressing that just happened to be delivered right as we were sitting down to eat.

The Goods: Really? You want more good than local tempeh and vegan ranch? Demanding! Well, fine, in other good news, it's Friday! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Newleaf Entrées

The "Chef": Elizabeth

The Menu: A bright salad with red cabbage, sliced mushrooms, red bell pepper, garbanzo beans, and tomatoes, and a selection of entrées from Newleaf. We sampled the Tuscan Pesto Pasta (pictured above), Sweet Potato Gnocchi, and Java BBQ Tempeh.

The Goods: We received a ton of samples from this new line of frozen meals, and today was the perfect day to try them out, as our "chef," Elizabeth, has been feeling under the weather and wasn't really up for making a five-course feast. (Which she totally would have done, had she been feeling better. Obviously.) For a speedy meal, these all-vegan, organic, low-salt entrées worked out wonderfully, though the meal might have been a bit speedier if we'd had more than one microwave!

Amy's Comfort Food

The Chefs: Michelle and Tina from Amy's Kitchen

The Menu: Today we were kindly treated to two of Amy's brand-spankin'-new products. First up we devoured the incredible vegan mac 'n' cheese. Yes, this time it's totally vegan (the cheese is Daiya!) and gluten free. While sometimes "gluten free" really means "gummy and freakish," if our guest chefs hadn't clued us in to the missing gluten in this pasta, we would never have known. The same goes for the roasted vegetable pizza, which is another of Amy's products that's getting a gluten-free revamp. This one was already vegan, but the GF spin is new, and we liked it just as much as the original. And we had a salad. Woo hoo, salad. Not pictured (mostly because we ate it too quickly) was a GF version of Amy's chocolate cake. Yeah, that's gone.

The Goods: One of the best things about our office location is that we are within driving distance of Amy's, and this is the second time that Michelle and company have come down to make us lunch. Um, getting to try new products right away? Yes, please! Now if you'll excuse us, some of us have bowls to lick.