travel :: santa monica

A week ago, Lane and I went on a little kid-free vacation to Santa Monica, CA. We love short getaways to explore an area we have never been before, and three nights was the perfect amount of time to do just that with out missing the babies too much!

I arrived on Thursday and Lane taxied up from Long Beach where he had been at a conference. We checked into our airbnb, ate some tacos, and explored the area.

The area we stayed in was known as "the canyon" in Santa Monica, with tiered neighborhoods rising steeply on the North and South side. We immediately fell in love with the area to the South, specifically the neighborhoods of beautiful old houses and one street in particular, Montana Ave, that was so quaint and had the best restaurants and coffee that we experienced.

The next day, at the recommendation of some locals, we rented bikes and rode along the beach south to Venice beach. We explored the beautiful canals and then walked over to Abbot-Kinney Blvd, which we were told was rated "the most fun street in the US". We truly don't understand that status. However, we had a yummy lunch at Neighbor, and then returned back to the canyon and spent the rest of the day on Montana once again.

On Saturday we biked to the farmer's market in downtown Santa Monica, which was not much to speak of, and then explored around downtown. Again, it could not compare with the charming area of the canyon/Montana Ave.

Saturday afternoon we grabbed an Uber ride up to the hills of Pacific Palisades and hiked the Los Leones trail, which was a nice easy (and very popular) walk with beautiful views.
That night we ate at Art's Table (on our beloved Montana Ave.). I am still dreaming about the vegan bowl of rice and roasted veggies I had along with a glass of JuneShine hard kombucha- SO good! After dinner, we went next door to check out the impressive tap selection at Father's Office. Lane had a couple tasty beers, and we turned in early (yet again. nerds.).

Before we flew out on Sunday we had coffee for a second time at the best coffee shop we had found in the area- Primo Passo, then strolled the neighborhoods one last time.

I would have loved to go up to Malibu for a day, but aside from that, I think our quick getaway was the perfect amount of time to spend in the little area that we fell in love with in Santa Monica. As always, though, it was just so sweet to come home!

pasta and roasted broccoli with almonds, parmesan, and chives

This recipe came from one of those nights I was feeling uninspired by what I had planned, so I decided to wing it. I had to use up broccoli, wanted to use the shallots and chives, needed the pasta for bulk, added the almonds for crunch, and the parmesan was for pure tastiness.

The star here is the roasted broccoli with shallots. I am a firm believer that if you don't like a vegetable, you simply have not prepared it correctly. This is my favorite way to prepare broccoli, so if you think you don't like broccoli, you may find yourself a convert after this meal.

Pasta and roasted broccoli with almonds, parmesan, and chives
only makes about 5 servings if you are in my family of big eaters and broccoli lovers

a couple heads of broccoli (about 7 cups when all chopped up)
1 bulb of shallots, peeled and sliced length wise
olive oil
salt
pepper
7 handfuls dried pasta (most ridiculous measurement award)
1 bunch of chives, chopped
grated parmesan for serving
slivered almonds for serving
balsamic vinegar for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Chop up broccoli heads and dump them onto a baking sheet. Add shallots and drizzle with 3 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Mix with your hands, evenly coating broccoli with olive oil. Spread out in single layer on the baking sheet and roast 15-20 minutes, or until soft when stems are poked with a fork, but not mushy.

While the broccoli is roasting, cook the pasta according to directions, adding a touch of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt into the water. Reserve a bit of water before draining.

Toss the roasted broccoli together with the pasta, adding reserved liquid if necessary. Drizzle with more olive oil and mix in chives. Add salt and pepper to taste

Scoop into bowls and top with a good amount of parmesan and a sprinkling of slivered almonds. Serve with balsamic on the side for those who wish to add some. (We all wished in our family.)

Enjoy!
Ashley

chipotle black bean chili with sweet potato and quinoa + whole30

For the sake of experimentation, and of being more intentional with what we put into our bodies, the hubby and I are trying a whole30. Basically this is a super-strict paleo diet for 30 days- no grains, legumes, dairy, sugar of any kind, or alcohol. The point is to reset your eating habits and cravings, and to eliminate inflammation that may be cropping up as a result of the food you eat. I'm actually really excited- I've been wanting to take action to get the rest of the baby weight off, and to just eat better in general. I already avoid gluten and most dairy anyway so this program fits me perfectly. We start tomorrow!

I don't plan to give you the play-by-play, because everyone and their mom is doing that on their blog, so if you want to know how to do a whole30 yourself, find one of them. I will pop in to tell you my favorite recipe of the week and how things are going, and a summary after the 30 days are up (did I starve? How did I manage without ice cream and wine? Oh, the suspense).

In the meantime, I've been meaning to share this recipe with you. It's totally not whole30 approved, but I made it a few days ago and it was delicious. If you like chili, you'll like this. Even my sweet-potato-averse husband admitted the sweet potatoes soaked up the flavor of the rest of the soup and they were tolerable. So if you like the orange stuff, just imagine!

        

Chipotle Black Bean Chili with sweet potatoes and quinoa
Serves 6-8

1 medium red onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium sweet potato or yam, peeled and cubed
1 chipotle chile (that's one chile, not one can) in adobo, finely chopped (sold in cans in the Mexican section of most grocery stores)
Two 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes, or one 28-ounce can
Two 15-ounce cans black beans
1/3 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed well
4 cups veggie or chicken broth

In a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, drizzle a bit of oil over medium heat. Add the onions, pepper, chili powder, cumin and salt. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until veggies begin to soften. Add sweet potatoes and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for one minute. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for 25-30 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are soft and quinoa cooked. Serve garnished with cheese, sour cream and green onions.

nom nom, Katie 

panini bar

A couple Saturdays past, we had a few friends over for dinner and games. This was not our typical dinner party, due to the fact that we had invited over a greater number of adults than children. In fact, the ratio of people over the age of twenty-seven to people age three and under was a whopping two-to-one. This was huge for us.

I was thrilled that I didn't have to work within the confines of "kid food that adults will also eat", but I did not want to be in the kitchen the entire day. I decided upon create-you-own grown-up grilled cheese: the panini bar.

The day of the get-together I was able to play with my kids all morning, go for a run/bike ride with the toddler, go grocery shopping, and prep dinner about twenty minutes before the guests showed up.

When they had all arrived and had beverage in hand, we distributed "order forms" on which they wrote what they would like us to fill their panini with (I had all the options written on a chalk board next to the table). One of our friends exclaimed "I didn't realize I was going to a restaurant for dinner!"

We (okay, the hubs) grilled the paninis up on our humongous counter top plug-in griddle, which we only pull out of storage for events such as this. (keep your oven on low and store the cooked paninis in there until they are all made so that you and all your guests can eat together. Otherwise, it's not really much of a dinner party.)

Right before everyone showed up I had (very quickly) cut out little tags and taped them to toothpicks so that guests could put their names on them and we would not lose track of which panini belonged to who (whom?) while we were cooking them. There are probably many ways to create a personal-panini-tracking system, but I threw this together fast and it worked just fine.

Dinner turned out great, and everyone raved about the meal (which they had picked out themselves, basically). I served it with a huge salad, but I think I would add a couple bowls of fun-flavored, crunchy kettle chips next time.

What do you think of this idea? Would you or have you done a panini bar for a dinner party? What options would you have added to our list? (I think cranberry sauce and artichoke hearts would also have been good... but not together.)

Happy entertaining,
Ashley