ML Interest Tag: brussels-sprouts

Just Opened: Have A Winter Picnic at Picnic LA

by jolie loeb

Lighten up winter’s gray days (literally) with the healthy new spot that kicks off your New Year eating resolutions with ease. Combining farm fresh with family friendly, a new dining option is making take-out guilt free, dining in a delight, and picnicking a, well, picnic.  Picnic LA in Culver City offers curb side car pick-up service and makes everything from fennel salads to pineapple clafoutis palatable to even picky petites.

Picnics for the Picky
Choices are always welcome, but when your little people are picky eaters, choices are salvation.  That’s why this picnic model lends itself so naturally to families.  Three frameworks are in place to sate a solo eater, a family, or playdate where a dozen (surprise!) drop by.

The Petite Picnic comes with three dishes.  Choose any three grains, veggies, or legumes.  The Everyday Picnic comes with four dishes, and the Chef’s Picnic, four options plus a choice of snack.  Options abound from farro and Brussels sprouts to tagines and brisket tamales. Want something a la carte?  Sure, no problem.  Want two salads and call it a day?  That’s good, too.   They’re easy and breezy, as picnicking should be.

Ready P.D.Q.
How quick?  Pre-meltdown quick. (Fifteen minutes.)  Order on-line as soon as you realize this isn’t the night you want to cook for the fam (or company), and a quick fifteen later, picnic’s ready for pick-up.  You don’t even have to get out of the car. Toddler konked out on the way over and preschooler’s too preoccupied to unbuckle?  We’ve been there.  Picnic LA is designed for such scenarios.  Order on-line or from phone (easy), pull up to the curb on Duquesne, and give them a buzz.  They’ll bring it all out to you, no waking the kid, no disrupting the tantrum, get on home (or come summertime, to the beach or playground) and dinner/lunch/snack is served.

Eating Better?  One Resolution to Check Off
Farro and roasted Brussels Sprouts.  Toasted barely and butternut squash.  Roasted beets and Chinese broccoli. Great alternatives that’ll open their minds to the wondrous world outside of mac & cheese and pizza.  New Year, new possibilities.  It is deliciously easy to eat deliciously well (and varied) here. 

Patience is a Virtue
But not one your young have mastered.  That’s why the cafeteria style set-up here works so well for the kid crowd.  No waiting, no ordering.  If you haven’t ordered ahead, you just pick, pay, sit and start eating.

Market Rules
The menu’s going to change regularly, because one day the tangerines are going to be ripened to perfection and other days the atlas carrots are going to define the day.  That’s how it works here.  What’s growing and gorgeous is what ends up on the menu.  Kid require a bit more forewarning than that?  Their website is updated practically by the hour.  Feel free to check ahead and see what’s cookin’.

Their Bread and Butter
Literally, their bread and butter could be their bread and butter. It’s that good.  Their bread comes from a nearby bakery and the butter is house made.  And from that house made butter they use the buttermilk for the dressing that accompanies the radishes.  That’s the kind of detail one might expect at French Laundry.  Not the kind of place you can bring the kids and get it delivered curbside. Get an extra order to bring home and toast for breakfast.

Parking is a Picnic
Free parking in the structure just behind the restaurant, entrance on Duquesne.  Indeed it’s true.  Picnic is where parking is a picnic.  Great for that inevitable El Nino (it’s here)—park in the covered garage, enter dripless and dry through the back door, and watch the rainfall from the cozy comfort of their tables.  It’s practically a movie.  Ceiling to floor windows in a sun washed corner space.  Dinner and a show, coming right up.

When Summer Hits
LA Picnic is a tribute to the city that never says it’s too cold to eat outside.  And if it’s picnic paraphernalia that’s needed, they stock that too.  Flannel blankets (kids get cold, and parents are wired to know they will as much as they insist they won’t), unbreakable tumblers (um, yeah) and all kinds of alfresco outfitting.  Cute baseball caps, too. So if you feel the need for a winter picnic, they’ve got you covered.  If you’re the wait-until-summer type, you can dine in (or at home) and wait for the perfect sunshiny day.  They’ll be here, waiting.

Picnic LA
9900 Culver Blvd.
Culver City
310-838-3388
Online: picnic.la

What’s in your picnic basket?  We’d love to learn your favorite to-go spots for gathering goodies to dine outdoors (or on the picnic blanket in the living room at home!)

—Written and photographed by Jolie Loeb

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2 Pizza Joints You Haven’t Visited Yet

by jolie loeb

Parents love pizza almost as much as kids, but sometimes we want a refined meal.  With vegetables that aren’t a topping.  You’d also like the kids to consume said veg, and not leave enough crust to feed a small nation. Here are two hidden wood-fired spots with greens they gobble and crusts that end up in little bellies, not a sad heap of rejection.  Plus wine and a relaxing atmosphere—cue choir of angels. Join us for A Tale of Two Pizzas…

DeSano Pizzeria Napoletana
The mozzarella is made earlier that week, in a small town in Campania.  As in, Italy. The flour? It also came from the boot, by boat. Sea salt, straight from the Mediterranean. Here lies your family trip to Italy before your family trip to Italy. But exacting provenance or no, every parent knows a restaurant is only as good as it is appealing to our kids. So while we may marvel over the San Marzano tomato standard or the ovens handmade in Naples (each weighing over 10,000 lbs, no joke!), our kids arrive with different inquiries. Like how’d that guy toss that massive saucer of dough in the air and not drop it? And: Is it tasty? (Answers: we have no idea and heck, yes!)

Happy (Hour) in Hollywood
Some (most) Fridays can’t get here fast enough. This is where DeSano’s happy hour rides into our rescue. Fancy this: every Monday through Friday, from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. family style happy hour is celebrated with two large pizzas plus a bottle of house wine for $50. So load your pie up with all goodies you please, while kids go minimalist Margherita, and everybody goes home happy.  Very happy.

Salad Days Are Here Again
Here comes the real fun. A special something happens when they serve the Caprese Salad, atop an emerald bed of glistening spinach. One minute the kids are watching  pizza pros toss dough sky high, and they start picking at the food in front of them and suddenly, they’re eating spinach! The spinach nobody is even asking/forcing/bribing them to eat.  Don’t know if it’s the super casual picnic table in a warehouse vibe, the doughboys providing classic pizzeria entertainment, or the fact that the pizza itself is outrageously, out-of-control good. Who cares? Kids are eating spinach. And asking for more.  And maybe it was watching the dough getting tossed in the air, or the pillowy air pocketed edges,  but the crust is eaten as fast as the cheesy middle.

When In Rome, Room To Roam
The atmosphere is old school pizzeria. Think down market digs in what seems like a former warehouse. Huge TV screens, roll of paper towels on the communal tables, plastic wear in a jar. The space is unequivocally kid friendly, the pizza is unequivocally grown-up good. If it has you musing birthday party ideas, run with it. They do those, too.

 

Foodie tested, kid approved.  Salad that everyone loves. (That’s the Caprese, the plain Spinach you’ll dig, but it has decidedly less kid friendly ingredients like mushrooms and artichokes.  You can’t push too far, too fast.)  Dessert that includes one of the only decent cannoli in town.  And free corkage, if you want to bring your own vino.  All that, plus a giant and free parking lot?  Pinch us, we must be dreaming.

DeSano Pizzeria Napoletana
4959 Santa Monica Blvd.
East Hollywood
Phone: 323-913-7000
Online: desanopizza.it

Olio Wood Fired Pizzeria
Don’t judge a place by its corner. At the intersect of Crescent Heights and Third Street, it may appear all gussied and glossy and gorgeous and grown-up, but inside they do things that have children eating Brussels sprouts, finishing their crusts (alas in this instance, as here you don’t mind munching their leftovers), and fashioning their favorite food out of organic, untreated, whole grain flour, locally made cheese, California extra virgin olive oils, and to wash it down, fresh pressed sodas made from fresh fruit. Olio Wood Fired Pizza is a lure for families that touts an artisanal aptitude and the ability to please picky little people.

Such a Teeny Spot Making Big Flavors
Just 26 seats (plus a kick-back and stay awhile wrap around patio) and Zagat still rates them as one of the top 10 destination spots in the US. That’s the whole country, kids. And after 6 p.m., valet is free with validation, just pull into the garage north of 3rd on Crescent, and voila, enjoy the pie life without suffering the search for parking on 3rd.

That’s Right: Free Valet on 3rd
Well, right off of Third, on Crescent Heights, specifically, from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Just pull into the garage and go get what you came for. They’ll validate your parking so you can go ahead and ignore that $6 sign. How is this place still under the radar?

What They’ll Love
What won’t they? Kids can have a seat at the bar (très grown up) and enjoy a front row seat featuring the entertainment of wood fired pizza making. The staff is as kind as they come, chatting it up, showing their captive audience how to sling pie. But can you believe that even more than the pies, the Brussels sprouts here are the indisputable draw. These things are straight up delicious, all glossy and decorated in almond slivers.  Even green-o-phobes gobble these little globes. And the Greek Salad is loaded up with so much good stuff (French sheep’s milk feta and homemade sourdough croutons) that you’ll almost wish they’d eat less salad to leave you more.  Scratch that.  Just order two.  Because when your kiddo asks for seconds of salad, you know you can’t deny them.

“This Salad Tastes Like Pizza”
Direct quote, from two little taste testers. Don’t overreact. Don’t question.  (But seriously, how does salad taste like pizza?) Just serve them seconds and asked no questions.

Serendipity by the Slice
There’s a reason their Margherita pizza has landed the cover of both LA Weekly and Los Angeles Magazine. That crust could launch one thousand Italian dreams. Can your baby say burrata? They will.

What’s for Dessert?
Wood. Fired. Chocolate. Chip. Cookies. Uh huh. Take a minute with that. But don’t take more, because they’ll be gone. All melty inside, a Tollhouse commercial all grown up. Wood firing a cookie. Now there’s one we hadn’t seen, and now dream of.

 

Olio Wood Fired Pizzeria
8075 West 3rd St.
Mid-City LA
Phone: 323-930-9490
Online: pizzeriaolio.com

Eating out in LA is a treat—one that should feel that way to each generation. Pull up a chair, pull off a slice, and inaugurate a new age in pizza eating that would make any Italian grandma proud.

What’s your secret pizza spot where the kids will join the clean plate club and you’ll get a relaxing gourmet meal?

—written and photographed by Jolie Loeb

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The 52 New Foods Challenge: 3 Recipes to Cook with Kids

by Erin Feher

Is your family dinner menu stuck on repeat? A local Bay Area mom-turned-cookbook-author wants to help you get your groove back in the kitchen, and turn your little picky eaters into full-fledged food adventurers. The secret sauce is outlined in her new book, The 52 New Foods Challenge: A Family Cooking Adventure for Each Week of the Year. In addition to providing practical advice on shopping seasonally, cooking with kids and fostering peace (not war) at the dinner table, her prescriptions are completely approachable for even the busiest family, as they require only a 1-2 hour time commitment each week. For a taste of what the book has to offer, author Jennifer Tyler Lee has shared three of her family’s favorite recipes and a few invaluable tips with us. Click through to sample them all!

Brussels Sprouts Chips

Ingredients for Roasted Brussels Sprouts Chips

1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and peeled
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Directions for Roasted Brussels Sprouts Chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Using your fingers, peel away the leaves from the sprouts.

3. Place the leaves on a rimmed baking sheet. Add the oil and salt and toss to combine.

4. Bake for 10 minutes, then toss the leaves in the pan. Reduce the heat to 250°F and bake the sprouts for 3 to 5 minutes more, or until the leaves are crispy and almost burnt. Let your kids watch closely to figure out the best timing for your oven.

For expert tips on achieving the perfect chip (including rookie mistakes to avoid) click here.

 

Get your own copy of The 52 Foods Challenge right here.

What are your creative ways to eat healthier as a family? Tell us in the comments below!  

—Erin Feher

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Promoting Healthy Habits for the New Year

by jryan
Partner Content

This post originally appeared on Seng Nickerson’s blog, Sengerson.com

One of the hardest things for busy parents is putting together healthy and convenient options for dinner and snacks that adults and kids would actually want to eat AFTER the sugar-filled holidays. Some resolutions are way too ambitious and others fail because families get way too busy.

However, the start of a new year is the best time to reboot a health routine. While making kids eat broccoli and Brussels sprouts doesn’t normally get them excited about healthy eating, there are a few ways that you can motivate kids to start and continue maintaining these simple habits over time (and throughout their life). And for adults, let’s be honest, convenience is the number one reason why some health routines fail.

Planning Menus As a Family. One of my friends actually told me that their six-year-old is in charge of their menu for one night of the week. Crazy right? She told me that on Wednesdays, their five-year-old is given the parameters of their meal planning: it has to be healthy, they are in charge of making sure all ingredients are available, and planning side dishes (canned obviously). This is crazy, yet genius!

Colorful Game Plates. My mother-in-law got these fun game plates for our Sunday dinners one year, and it has become a favorite with the kids. You can hide the dessert at the end of the game plate until they finish their meal. I often add delicious Jif® Power Ups™ as their reward for finishing up their dinner at meal time! It’s a great way to mix up what your kids eat and encourages them to eat what’s being served for dinner and eventually reward them with a healthy snack option at the end. It makes dinner time pleasant and avoids the “how many more bites do I have to eat?!”

Keep Them Learning While Cooking. With such a busy schedule with four littles, I try to combine things when I can. This includes reinforcing school mathematics with dinnertime. I love having them count out ingredients, add ingredients and talk through the number of ingredients I would need if I had to double the recipe.

Healthy and Filling Snacks. When you are hungry (like me during the end of a long work day), it can be super difficult to avoid temptations such as cookies, muffins from the office cafeteria, or that chocolate bowl in the middle of the aisle. Nuts, seeds, beans and Jif® Power Ups™ are great snacking staples that provide flavorful and versatile options when you are trying to stick to your New Year’s resolutions while trying to stay energized after work or school. Having sensible swaps using Jif® Power Ups™ will keep you, and the kids, satiated!

These are just a few ideas that most families can manage to include in their weekly routines. These small changes can make a big difference in setting the entire family on a healthier and more energized path for the new year.

The best part about these tips is that you are doing it together as a family – built-in accountability partners.

 

This post was sponsored by Jif® Power Ups™. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 


Seng is a modern, working mom sharing her love for her family, home renovations, product reviews, home management/organizational tips, fun DIY craft projects, and digital scrapbooking.  By sharing her life experiences through her blog, she is able to inspire others to also balance parenthood, goal setting in their careers, and pursuing their hobbies. Read more about Seng on her blog, Sengerson.com.

 

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The Red Tricycle Team’s Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

by Erin Lem

photo: Stacy Spensley via flickr

Whether it’s Grandma’s secret apple pie recipe or the cheesy casserole you let yourself indulge in once a year, Thanksgiving is a showcase of family food traditions. Here the Red Tricycle team reveals their own family’s favorite Thanksgiving recipes. Read on to discover dishes and desserts that’ll soon become a part of your Turkey Day dinner tradition.

Jacqui, Founder & CEO
I’m totally addicted to mashed cauliflower, which is essentially just a vessel for transporting gravy to my mouth with fewer carbs/calories than mashed potatoes.

Tuba, Marketing Director
I love making this sausage and kale Thanksgiving dressing. Instead of sausage I substitute spicy turkey.

Erin, Editorial Director
Did somebody say pie? I have a major sweet tooth, but have no patience, especially when it comes to laboring over pie crusts that always seem to break. My remedy? This recipe for skillet apple pie that’ll satisfy any dessert-lover. Plus, it’s very easy to make and basically uses only one big skillet so there’s little clean up. Enjoy!

Tina, Web Producer
I love to eat stuffing! After making the stuffing, I skip putting the stuffing into the turkey and eat it myself! I’ve used this recipe (adding and subtracting some ingredients) and it’s super delicious!

Abby, Marketing Assistant
We do Turkey three ways at Thanksgiving: baked, smoked and deep fried. My favorite of the three is the smoked turkey, that’s cooked by my Uncle all day in the green egg. I don’t have the original recipe, but you can find one similar here.

Brandi, Digital Media & Sales Assistant
Buckeyes! My mom makes these for every holiday for as long as I can remember. Last year, my uncle attempted to throw a buckeye across the room to my dad, but it hit our freshly painted white wall instead, leaving a permanent stain to always be remembered!

photo: Brandi McWade

Erin F., Bay Area Editor
Apple pie. I’m a sucker for the classics at holidays, so it’s the one time of year I steer clear of new and inventive dishes in favor of the familiar. My dad baked apple pies with my brother and I for as long as I can remember—he could peel a granny smith in one continuous swipe, and I remember loving to play with the long curly apple skin “ribbons.” Now I make the pies, and while I’ve stuck to the same recipe for years, this year I’m upping the ante just a bit and trying this one from Three Babes Bakeshop. Yep, I’ll even attempt the lattice top.

Meghan, LA Editor
I’m a Boston girl (go Sox!), so Thanksgiving and Christmas aren’t complete without buttery Parker Rolls.  They’re heavenly.  We can eat so many, we always make a double pan – and then extra’s make awesome mini leftover sandwiches. Our family recipe is similar to this one. 

Phebe, Atlanta Editor
I am usually in charge of the apple pie. We bake this version in our fam using paper-thin apples sliced on a mandolin layered with butter and cinnamon. It is a labor of love we have made in our family for generations. It is named after Frank, my grandmother’s cook she had back in the 1950’s that was a beloved member of the family. We usually tell stories about him while we eat it.

Julie, New York Editor
My husband always makes Potato Puffs, which I think are amazing since I’ve never been a mashed potato fan. It’s his mom’s recipe below that is sort of similar to this one here.

Kristina, Seattle Editor
Every year, I make cream cheese sugar cookies in the shape of turkeys and let my kiddos do the decorating (the day beforeThanksgiving). I always double the recipe and use 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese. I also use store-bought vanilla or buttercream frosting.

Amber, San Francisco Calendar Editor
I vary this basic stuffing recipe from Martha Stewart by subbing 1 part mushroom and 1 part vegetable broth for the chicken broth and bake it on the side (not in the turkey) to make it vegetarian-friendly. I also add lady apples, whole. The kids love the tiny apples nestled in among the stuffing!

Leah, San Diego Editor
Creamed corn one of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes and it will knock the socks off of your dinner guests. I always double the recipe because it’s the first dish to run out every year. I like that it’s corn, which is traditional for Thanksgiving, but cooked in a different way. I also love that you can make it in advance. I often make this one as early as Monday and then bake it on Thanksgiving. Recipe here.

Ayren, DC Editor
My Thanksgiving “thing” is this Broccoli Bread. I know, it doesn’t sound too appealing, but—I promise—it just might be the most moist, savory bread you’ll ever have. I make it instead of cornbread or stuffing. To get kids on board, I just tell them it’s “Super Bread,” and they gobble it up.

Suzie, Portland Editor
Before our daughter came along, my husband and I started the tradition of hosting the Stray Dog Thanksgiving every year, inviting all of our friends who lived far away from their families. I cooked the turkey and gravy and friends brought sides and desserts. For 10 years, I have used my mom’s handed-down turkey recipe and it has always received rave reviews because the turkey turns out so moist, with a hint of sweetness. Unfortunately, you cannot make gravy from the drippings, so in addition to my mom’s turkey recipe, I’m also sharing a super easy gravy recipe that you can make while the turkey is roasting. Enjoy!

Francie, Account Manager
At Thanksgiving I always offer to make a green vegetable to balance out all the carbs that everyone else makes. These Barefoot Contessa brussels sprouts are a huge hit. The balsamic and pancetta combo is amazing! We get the big stalk of brussels sprouts (Trader Joe’s sells them) because my kids think it’s fun to snap them off and help me cook them. They are even willing to try them because of the bacon.

photo: Jing via flickr

Laura, Account Director
I found this delicious sweet potato recipe a couple years ago just before it was announced that Jose Garces had won the next Iron Chef. The spiced pecans are so good you could serve them as a snack! Also-easy to leave the nuts off for those with allergies or aversion to spice. Sweet Potato Gratin with Chile Spiced Pecans. Loove pouring over new recipes for Thanksgiving.

Tracy, Account Manager
I’m not sure which I like more — the Thanksgiving Day meal or the Turkey Sandwiches the next day! Simple, but so yummy these Turkey Sandwiches are the best!

Julie, Account Director
My husband is the main cook in our family but this is my one contribution to Thanksgiving dinner and it’s a big crowd pleaser! The chestnuts are kind of labor intensive but the reward is worth it. We serve this “fancy stuffing”, as my daughter calls it, in addition to the good old traditional kind.

Jessica, Account Director
I started making dried cranberry, apricot and fig stuffing a few years ago after seeing it in Bon Appétit. I’m a collector of their thanksgiving editions. I had my soon to be mother-in-law coming into town (who is a great cook) for turkey day, and wanted to impress her with a fancy stuffing dish. She was raving about it for days!!

Do you have a family recipe you’d like to share? Post it in the Comments below!

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