May 26th, 2010

Vegans We Love: Moby! UPDATED!

Posted by Beth on May 26th, 2010

Moby stopped by KCRW to chat about his new book, Gristle: From Factory Farms to Food Safety (Thinking Twice About the Meat We Eat). We are so glad to see that he’s lending his celebrity to such an important cause, and we’re totally thrilled for RFD to have gotten a shout-out during his interview.

Click here to listen to his interview on Good Food:  Moby on KCRWs Good Food

And now, check out his recent article on Grub Street NY Moby in Grub Street NY

We’re always grateful for RFD love, and we can’t wait to pick up a copy of his new book!

May 14th, 2010

Healthy Eating for Kids!

Posted by Ann on May 14th, 2010
As I’ve spent the week preparing for my talk at this weekend’s You Are What You Eat event, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to get kids to the table and enjoy healthy and delicious meals with the family. As I thought back on strategies that I’ve used with my kids, I remembered this GEM of an idea, given to me by  Mary Hartzell, who is an early childhood educator and ran the nursery school both by children attended.  Mary suggested to always have one consistent dish on the dinner table that the kids could eat, no matter what.  If they are picky or fussy and don’t want to eat what I have prepared, there is always one dish that they can eat.
When I cook, I cook what my husband and I want to eat (and what we WANT our kids to eat) but, lets be honest, what  parents like eating vs what the kids want to eat is often not the same thing!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told Halle and Walker, that our home kitchen is not a restaurant!  So in addition to what recipes I am preparing for that night’s dinner, I always prepare a whole grain dish, usually quinoa or brown rice. That way, the kids know there’s one nutritious item being served that they’ll WANT to enjoy.
I hope that there may be some of you out there who are able to make it to Brea tomorrow.  There promises to be a full day of talks and discussions on this very topic, which I know is one that most mothers grapple with regularly! Even if you can’t make it to Brea, please feel free to share any thoughts or questions you have in the comments section, I’d love to start a dialogue where fans of RFD and REAL FOOD can talk about how to make the best choices for you and your families.
Click here for more information on You Are What You EAT. I hope to see you there!
May 4th, 2010

Superfoods to save the day!

Posted by Ann on May 4th, 2010

I recently had a great opportunity to work with the folks at MSN’s Practical Guide to Healthier Living, a health and wellness site dedicated to showcase easy, everyday tips for ways to improve your quality of life and improve your overall health and wellness.

I was asked to share my thoughts on superfoods, and why it’s so important to incorporate these nutritional powerhouses into your daily diet. I was thrilled, because this is a topic very near and dear to my heart. Often, people think that “Superfoods” are just the exotic items like Goji or Acai berries, and neglect to think of the everyday items that really pack a nutritious punch. Foods like spinach, soy, avocado, and blueberries are all items that are nutrient rich and loaded with antioxidants and phytonutrients. By simply incorporating these foods into your daily meals, you will get an extra surge of vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients that will produce results for your body that you can see and feel, inside and out.

Check out my full video interview, as well as my article on superfoods on the MSN website, and let me know your thoughts! Are there items that surprised you on the list? Are there foods we left off? Let us know!

April 20th, 2010

h monthly

Posted by Beth on April 20th, 2010

h monthly visited our West Hollywood location and published a great review about the delicious food and gracious service at RFD. According to the reviewer, “Real Food Daily is, quite simply put, deliciously tasty and highly creative.”

April 20th, 2010

QSR

Posted by Beth on April 20th, 2010

QSR Magazine interviews Ann about the positive benefits of being green and how green practices at RFD help to influence and impact staff retention and motivation.

April 18th, 2010

Deadlines make a girl write!

Posted by Ann on April 18th, 2010

I’m am finally writing my cookbook, really I am. It is for REAL now. Nothing a deadline won’t do for a girl but to put her to work. I’ve spent the last week in my kitchen cooking. And what a perfect place to start, the breakfast chapter. This is one meal I am adamant about. I never leave the house without eating something and I am teaching my children this valuable habit. I’ve chosen my favorite breakfast foods that are accessible, as in they don’t take up to much of your time. In my new book, Real Food for Everyone, a major theme will be about the accessibility of both ingredients and execution. From smoothies, to my new super “hippy” granola, to my husband’s porridge, to tofu scrambles and an open faced tofu omelets, these recipes will be fun to make and nourishing to eat and most importantly, ‘accessible’ to make.

Yesterday when I took a break from working to walk my dog, I ran into a neighbor who asked me a great question.
Where do you work when you write your book?
I have a seven foot foot walnut dining room table that long ago I gave up on keeping perfectly unscratched like the furniture in my mother’s house. My book project has taken over this table. My kids have been forwarded to not touch anything on it. My husband is to walk through the front door and advance to the desk in the back. My Mac Power Book is set up on one corner of the table by the windows. This way I can keep watch on the gate and get distracted by the going ons in the street. Distractions are a must for any creative project! I’m surrounded by cookbooks; they feel like wonderful friends as I go on my journey looking through them as well as my recipe notebooks going all the way back to when I first started to cook. I’ve organized the chapters and recipes by page, printed them out and placed in a three-ring binder. This helps me ’see’ and ‘feel’ the flow of the book. I’ve organized my recipes by chapters but at this point in no particular order. My objective for now is to lay down the recipes I for sure what to explore – via testing and cooking.
More later and photos and recipes are in the works.

April 8th, 2010

Eat Well, Chew Well

Posted by Ann on April 8th, 2010

At Real Food Daily, we make sure to let everyone know that we are LA’s top spot for organic vegan cuisine. What you might not know is that RFD’s original menu was founded on the principles of macrobiotics, and we still keep a core devotion to the macrobiotic diet with our Real Food Meal and our daily basics such as whole grains, beans, greens, and vegetables both land and sea as well as nori maki and miso soup.

Macrobiotics is a concept that gets an occasional burst of media attention as one celebrity or another endorses the diet, but in truth, Macrobiotics is more than a diet—it is a lifestyle based on the principles of balance and harmony, dedicated to the pursuit of living life to the fullest.

While there are many facets to the Macrobiotic diet, one good place to start the discussion is to talk about chewing. Before you get caught up in what to buy, or how to cook it, let’s talk about The Chew.

Macrobiotics teaches that how we eat is just as important as what we eat. This may sound crazy—especially when you read on and discover that some gurus recommend chewing 100 TIMES before swallowing – and that’s per bite, not per meal! Chewing, it’s core, is a practice in mindfulness.

According to practitioners, benefits associated with chewing well include: improved digestion, more energy and endurance, eliminating more toxins, promoting deeper relaxation, and cultivating patience and self-control. Once you begin the practice of mindful eating, you may even begin to experience feelings of enlightenment or event bliss! (Some attribute this experience to the fact that the brain receives about 20 percent more oxygen when chewing well.)

Ultimately, what you eat, and how you eat it can have a profound impact on your daily happiness. At your next meal, start by chewing each bite as many times as you can—when you start it will probably be only 8 or 10 “chews” before you feel compelled to swallow. But keep at it! This practice will help you to be more mindful as you eat, and will encourage you to be thoughtful and conscientious about how you feed your body.

Eating well gives you three chances every day to make good decisions for your body and your soul, so embrace the opportunity to eat and chew well!

April 7th, 2010

Driven to a Greener Future

Posted by Ann on April 7th, 2010

We were so fortunate this year to be a part of the 2010 TED Conference in Long Beach, as participants in the Lexus Eco Village, and now I have big news: I am a finalist for the Lexus Prize!

At the Eco Village, TEDsters were invited to share their ideas for small but powerful ways that we can all reduce our carbon footprint. My idea is very simple: Eat Green! A vegan diet is an easy and delicious way to reduce your carbon footprint, and I’ve made it my mission for the last 17 years to share that message with the work we do at RFD.

Watch my video here, or see it online at Articulate-SF.com

March 9th, 2010

my cup is full.

Posted by Ann on March 9th, 2010

Almost a month has past and I thought I was on a roll with my blog postings. I am laughing, what was I thinking? Ideas run through my head daily, but my fingers never touch the keys. The perils of a modern woman are running my cup over. In plain English, I am on overload, but I’m use to it, so I don’t even notice.

OMG, am I just whining when I think of all my excuses?

Let’s see, I own a small business that employs 150 people. I actively run it every day. I’ve got my business in a good place where I work on it, not in it. I’m the producer, but this role does call on me to be present and participating. I liken it to show business and the show must go on. I am raising two kids and maintaining a relationship with my husband. Daily, I try to carve out quiet time to have the sacred life, I so longing want and I try to show up at a few exercise classes because if I don’t release all the tension from these other things, I’ll go mad.

And now, I have taken on a big creative process, the one the fortune teller told me in the fall that I needed to balance my life, to fulfill my creative urges. So, here I am writing a cookbook and blogging about it. Am I crazy? How do writer’s work? How do mother’s juggle? How does a working woman stay emotionally attractive to her man? How do I connect to my blog readers, my husband, my kids, my employees, myself?

March 3rd, 2010

Vegetarian Times

Posted by Beth on March 3rd, 2010

In this month’s Vegetarian Times, Ann shares her thoughts on utilizing frozen vegetables for peak flavor and variety during the long winter months!

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    Real Food Daily is the premiere organic vegan restaurant in California. With two locations in Los Angeles, Real Food Daily continues to draw crowds who enjoy delicious, balanced meals made fresh with organic ingredients. RFD attracts the someday to the everyday vegetarian, celebrities, trendsetting young eaters with sophisticated palates and the mature diner seeking gourmet health supportive cuisine.

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