How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Jessica Alba
(Illustration by Lindsey Made This; photo by Jean-Baptiste Lacroix / AFP via Getty Images)
When Jessica Alba reminisces about her Sundays as a child, the first things that come to mind are sleeping in and having Sunday dinner with her tight-knit family.
“We would do enchiladas, al pastor or a more elaborate dinner that took more time,” says the Pomona-born actress, adding that one of her fondest memories is making tortillas in the kitchen with her grandmother.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Over the past two decades, Alba has starred in myriad projects, including the films “Fantastic Four,” and Y2K classic “Honey,” as well as the TV series “Dark Angel.” Her latest is Netflix’s “Trigger Warning,” which was released this summer. The second season of “Honest Renovations,” her Roku Original home improvement series, drops on Friday.
A mother to three kids who range from 6 to 16, Alba continues to make family the focus of her Sundays. “We do believe in lazy Sundays,” she says. “I used to be really intense, like, ‘We have to be out of the house doing stuff,’ but my kids and my husband have all agreed that it’s nice sometimes just to be in pajamas all day. So I’m like, ‘OK, let’s embrace this.’”
We caught up with Alba to discuss how she’d spend her ideal Sunday in Los Angeles with her husband, Cash, and children, Honor, Haven and Hayes. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
9 a.m.: Enjoy a latte and a few games in bed
On my perfect Sunday, I wake up at 9 a.m., and my husband makes me an almond milk latte and my son gives it to me [with] a kiss. [Laughs] I do a meditation in bed, I drink my coffee and I’m doing my New York Times crossword puzzle, Wordle, Connections and all the things.
11 a.m.: Go on a hike and then have acai bowls
Then I’ll do some kind of outdoor activity, so I’ll either get on my spin bike or I’ll take a walk or a hike. I like Franklin Canyon. I like that it’s chill and there’s a bathroom. Then we order acai bowls for lunch. That’s like a special thing that we’ll order in. Sometimes we’ll make our own smoothie bowls and those are fun because we can make the base, we chop up all of the fruit before and make the bowls really pretty, so I’ll do that with the girls. If we order it, we like Ubatuba Açaí or Açaí, Por Favor. We usually build our own bowls. I always like to have almond butter in mine. My kids do not. They always want Nutella and I’m like, “Well that’s just all sugar, guys. Have some kind of nut butter or something.” [Laughs]
We asked readers to weigh in on their favorite local hikes that weren’t in the recent L.A. Times hiking guide. Here are their go-to spots.
1 p.m.: Look for bugs and plants with my son
Usually by then, my son [Hayes] has been up doing a lot of things so I can convince him to come into this little space in my closet and we can paint in there together. We’ll watercolor and he likes to listen to calm music and we’ll just chat. After that, we’ll go on an adventure. We’ll go around the yard and we’ll take pictures of plants or bugs. I have an insect identifier and a plant identifier, so we’ll be able to look them up and [learn] different things about little plants or little bugs.
2:30 p.m.: Meditate, journal and find some stillness
Then I would want to do my meditations and do my sound bowls. [Hayes will] kind of come in and out but he has to be quiet. He’ll play the chimes or he likes to play the drum a lot. Then he’ll get bored because I’ll be like, “You can’t touch that,” then he’ll be like “Ugh” and he leaves. [Laughs] So I’ll do that for like 45 minutes. Just meditate, journal, maybe I’ll pull cards, pray and just kind of sit with myself and the sound bowls.
For the ‘Land of Women’ actor, a perfect Sunday involves pancakes at the Polo Lounge, a pool party with family and friends and dinner at Petit Trois.
3:30 p.m.: Start prepping Sunday dinner
That’s when I’ll start to prep for dinner. I’ll go and see what we have in the fridge. Usually I’ll do roasted veggies because we always have veggies. I can get root vegetables, I can get broccoli, cauliflower, whatever we have. Chop them all up, [add] olive oil, seasoned salt, and that’s an easy side. Then depending on the night, I’ll either do a pasta, rice, a potato for the starch, and roasted chicken is usually my go-to. We’ll have like two small organic birds. I’ll spatchcock them, which means you split it and open it, and it gets all the skin really crispy. I’ll do a spicy one and then one that’s more mild, like a lemon pepper. It takes probably two hours from beginning to end. Then the girls will set the table and Hayes usually gets the napkins and drinks. We’ll sit down and do “rose and thorn” for our whole weekend.
7:45 p.m.: Read stories with my son before bed
One of us is going to have to put Hayes to bed. So we rock, paper, scissors it. [Laughs] No, just depending on how we all feel, one of us is putting him to bed. He’s getting his bath or reading three stories. With me, he always keeps me there longer. We tell stories on top of reading the three stories and then I’m like, “OK, enough of the stories. It’s time for bed. You’re just stretching this out. Your dad is in and out of here in 15 minutes, it’s been an hour and a half.” [Laughs]
For the “Sister, Sister” star and cookbook author, an ideal Sunday involves hanging out with her kids, grocery shopping at Erewhon, exercising at Equinox and eating pasta.
8:30 p.m.: Wind down with a movie with my husband and the girls
I’ll go downstairs and usually Cash, me, Honor and Haven will watch a show or a movie together and that’s it. I really like “Bridgerton” and “Dark Matter.” I’ll have chamomile lavender tea and they’ll usually have their dessert — they usually pick something out of the freezer. Sometimes if I know a movie is going to go so late, I’ll try to do my skincare before I go downstairs so I can just roll into bed.
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