New Book

The Date: Thursday, August 4
The Delivery: Lunch Wars by Amy Kalafa
Staff Pick: Lunch Wars

The DL: With the first day of school looming (where did July go?), it's once again time for school lunches to take center stage. Unfortunately for kids all over the country, most cafeteria trays contain less than stellar sustenance. Enter Lunch Wars, a book that tells readers how to bring the good food fight to our schools and transform school lunches. If you're more of a lover than a fighter, head on over to our Facebook page and check out VN Associate Editor Jennifer Chen's weekend of shopping, cooking, and eating at San Francisco's Millennium restaurant. You'll love seeing what she whipped up (hello, zucchini cake)!

Vegan Pizza and Cheese

The Date: Thursday, May 26
The Delivery: Frozen vegan cheese pizzas from Amy's Kitchen and assorted vegan cheeses from Heidi Ho Organics
Staff Pick: The pizza!

The DL: You might have noticed a fair amount of frozen pizzas gracing the pages of this blog. What's the deal, you might ask? Well, you'll just have to wait for our September+October issue to find out! While the entire office is still stuffed from last night's Southern Comfort dinner at San Francisco's Millennium Restaurant (check out Press Pass later this afternoon to hear about chili-cheese fries, beer-steamed brats with a topping bar, ice cream sandwiches, and much more), we still can't wait to taste these lovely cheese pizzas.

Kale Chips, Nacho Cheese, and Shoes

The Date: Friday, April 29
The Delivery: Kale chips in assorted flavors from Kaia Foods, spicy Nacheez from Love & Joy Foods, and vegan shoes from The Earthly Sole Shoe Company
Staff Pick: The vegan nacho cheese!

The DL: VN Associate Editor Jennifer Chen met the geniuses behind this vegan nacho cheese at last week's Berkeley Vegan Earth Day event, and boy, are we happy for that occurrence (want to read more about Jennifer's day? Read all about it on this week's Press Pass). We can't wait to taste test this new vegan nacho cheese, and plan to try it out on tortillas, chips...maybe even our fingers. We here at VNHQ wish you a great weekend, and hope wherever you are has both springtime sunshine and vegan nacho cheese.

Dried Fruit and Vegetable Snacks

The Date: Thursday, April 21

The Delivery: All-natural snacks from Crunchies Food Company

Staff Pick: The edamame

The DL: We already love edamame steamed and topped with sea salt, so we hope the dried version is just as delicious. Plus, trying these healthy snacks will distract us from the chocolate-vanilla vegan cupcakes from Dash Café (check out a pic and read about VN Editorial Assistant Alexandra's date night at Dash on this week's Press Pass) Full disclosure: We might run over to Dash after taste testing. We don't do well when it comes to resisting temptation.

A Cookbook, Gum, and Necklaces

The Date: Friday, April 8

The Delivery: Eat Greens by Barbara Scott-Goodman and Liz Trovato; vegan gum from Pur Gum; and necklaces from Love Infinitely

Staff Pick: The necklaces

The DL: These lovely hand-stamped necklaces made from copper, silver, brass, and hemp are courtesy of the lovely Brenda Rodriguez, a former traveler with VegNews Great Adventure to India 2010 and friend of the VN team. She also just launched her new 100-percent vegan Esty shop, Love Infinitely, where you can nab your own "vegan" necklace, among other fantastic finds. Speaking of fantastic finds, have you checked out Press Pass this week? Associate Publisher Colleen Holland dishes about her day at a farm sanctuary, where she found happy chickens, pigs who loved belly rubs, and ample sunshine. If that's not a good way to start the weekend, we don't know what is!

Books, Beauty, and a Vegan Purse

The Date: Wednesday, March 23

The Delivery: The Self Health Revolution by J. Michael Zenn, shaving foams from eco-armour, and the Hermes-Inspired Textured Birkin bag by Bello Iris

Staff Pick: The Self Health Revolution

The DL: We know, we know. Picking a book over that beautiful bag? That's like choosing to eat a head of iceberg lettuce instead of cupcakes. But stick with us for a second. This new book says it will tell us how to extend our lives by 15 years, get rid of aches and pains forever, and three things we can do to stay fit and thin for the rest of our lives! Plus, this week at VN we're getting pretty booked up. From Monday's delivery, to VN Publisher Joe Connelly's book-brainstorming session with bestselling author Jeffrey Masson, to our visit with the author himself yesterday (he gave us signed copies of his latest!), we can't seem to get enough of them.

A Book and (More) Deodorant

The Date: Thursday, February 17

The Delivery: Change of Heart by Nick Cooney and natural deodorant from Tom's of Maine

Staff Pick: Change of Heart

The DL: A quote (from Rory Freedman, former VN columnist and co-author of Skinny Bitch, no less) says on on the cover of Change of Heart, "If you want to create a better world, read this book!" Sounds good to us! We are excited to check out Cooney's new tome to see what psychology can teach us about spreading social change. Is there a chapter dedicated to the science behind converting people to veganism with giveaways, book clubs, and cooking demos? Probably not, but maybe we can contribute a page or two for the next edition.

New Products and Adorable Napkins

The Date: Tuesday, October 5

The Delivery: Raw granola, cookies, and kale crisps from The Cook & Butler, Silver Hills sprouted hempseed bread, and cute napkins

Staff Pick: Veggie character napkins from Home Deconomics

The DL: This past weekend's 11th Annual San Francisco World Veg Festival (read about it on Press Pass!) featured a slew of great new vegan products, among them being these assorted delights from The Cook & Butler. The pick, however, goes to the thoughtful gift from our dear friends Jenny and Heather Goldberg at Spork Foods. The lovely sisters sent us these adorable linens from Home Deconomics as an office-warming gift. I don't know if you noticed, but they (and by they, we of course mean both the sisters and the napkins) are pretty damn cute.

And the Award Goes To...

The Date: Monday, May 10
The Delivery: Two Maggie Awards
Staff Pick: The Best Lifestyle Magazine Maggie Award!

The DL: VN Publishers Joseph Connelly and Colleen Holland recently flew down to Los Angeles to attend the Maggie Awards banquet, and VegNews scored two awards! Make sure to check our Press Pass blog for more details.

Dreamy Daiya

Date: Tuesday, October 20
The Delivery: Vegan cheese to die for
Staff Pick: The rich, stringy, deliciousness that is called Daiya

The DL: We were so happy to see this large shipment of Daiya arrive this morning, and we've already put it to good use. Stay tuned to our Press Pass blog to see the results!