Dalat – Vietnamese Comfort Food in East Dallas

Dear Dalat, I must confess. I strayed tonight. I went elsewhere for my pho. I couldn’t help it. I really needed a quick fix and well… it was just there. I didn’t even stay and eat. Just got my take out and ran. But when I got home, the kids knew immediately. They knew as soon as they smelled the broth. They pouted and then REFUSED TO EAT IT!! Lesson learned, I won’t be straying again.

Dalat beef pho – http://www.ittybittyfoodies.com

“Mr Khanh has the best pho,” declared Pikelet of Khanh Nguyen, owner of Dalat Vietnamese restaurant on Fitzhugh. The boys love the fragrant, silky, rich broth that Nguyen simmers for hours. The beef is lean and never grizzly or fat which is atypical of Vietnamese food. But that’s the way Nguyen likes it as do my two precocious children.

Weeknight Recipe – Japanese Chicken Tonkatsu with homemade sauce

Easy Chicken Tonkatsu with homemade sauce

I have menu-itis. It usually happens on a weeknight especially in between homework and carting kids from music to sports and trying to keep an infant happy. I get in a rut over dinner but want something fast. This is when I reach for my Japanese Chicken Tonkatsu recipe. There’s very little prep time and dinner is made while you boil rice. Try it!

A (candy-free) Easter basket from Edible Arrangements

A candy free Easter Basket from Edible Arrangements

We never buy our kids candy for Easter. The countless Easter egg hunts takes care of that. But we do like to give them a treat so when the Easter bunny dropped off this Easter basket from Edible Arrangements, the kids were hopping with joy. Here was a beautiful arrangement of fresh melons, strawberries, and grapes with chocolate dipped pineapple bunnies to boot!

Village Baking Co. –

(Clockwise) Laminated brioche, almond croisssant, chocolate canelés and pain au chocolat

Like little pigs with their noses to the ground sniffing for truffles, every so often a foodie finds a hidden treasure like we did with Village Baking Company. For months we drove by their baking facility on University Blvd and each time my little piggies hold their noses in the air commenting that something smelt yummy. Then one day, someone propped up a small sign that said “Pastries & Artisan Breads” that lured us right into their small showroom lined with fresh baked breads and pastries. There’s no ‘shop front’ to speak of and you just pull up to what looks like the backdoor to the baking warehouse.

MadPax – Love these monster backpacks!

Lollo with the Nibbler size & Pikelet with Full pack – ready for school

“Three parts funk, one pound of punk, a dash of dare and tad of turbo.” The tag sounds like a description of a Mad Max movie but MadPax co-creator Tina Huber is talking about her fierce styling Spiketus Rex, Bubble and Later Gator backpacks. Bring it to the Thunderdome or bring it to school, kids and gamers are coveting this latest backpack innovation.

Asian Shrimp Toast

We love easy entertaining and this Asian Shrimp Toast recipe is perfect for summer play dates and early dinners. The little appetizer sizes are great for IttyBittyFoodies ready for nibblies before dinner. It can be made ahead and served at room temperature. We like to use baguettes but I’ve also used not-so-fresh bread for this recipe.

Back-to-School CHOOZE 100% vegan shoes

It’s only July but Pikelet (my soon to be 1st grader) has picked out his new shoes for school.   Ever since he received his new fashion forward and 100% vegan CHOOZE shoes, he’s smitten with the idea of how cool he’ll look on the first day of school.

Shiloh in her CHOOZE

IttyBittyFoodies aren’t the only mini fashionistas fascinated with the line. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt has been seen sporting the camouflage Scout shoes all over the world on her vacations.

Three Happy Cows = Two Happy Foodies!

Let’s do the math! It takes just four ingredients to make Three Happy Cows blueberry drinkable yogurt - organic milk, blueberry pulp, pure cane sugar and live probitoic cultures (L.D Thermophilus and S.S. Bulgaricus) plus one talented artisanal yogurt maker, Edgar Diaz, to equal two happy IttyBittyFoodies!

Dim Sum – the point & eat food

traditional dim sum

In honor of the Lunar New Year, we wanted to share one of our favorite Chinese meals – Dim Sum. Pikelet and Lollo love dim sum – the traditional Chinese brunch food and we like to frequent Kirin Court Chinese Restaurant in Richardson. The crowd is mainly Asian (always a good sign) but the staff speak enough English to get by.  The most fun part of dim sum is in the ordering. Servers wheel carts filled with steam dumpling and little plates and present them to you at the table. All you need to do is point to what you’d like and they serve it immediately. It’s so easy, no Chinese required and even the kids get in on the action. I liken it to online shopping and for us, dim sum is our ultimate ’point and click’ meal. 

Earth Day Pledge – Be kinder to Mama Earth

Pottering in the vegie garden

 I’ve just spent a glorious afternoon out in the garden with my two IttyBittyFoodies. It’s the time of day when glowing sun turns all colors to a more vibrant hue. Pikelet & Lollo smelled roses, watered herbs and generally pottered about discovering fresh leaves and flowers blooming. It was an idyllic moment where Mother Nature was at her best until my mind wandered to the parts of the world that have recently suffered her wrath - Fukushima, Auckland, Rio de Janeiro. What on earth is happening to our … Earth?