Caesar with Spicy Pickled Green Beans

I never used to be a fan of tomato juice, be it Clamato or V8. On the other hand, my husband loves tomato juice and would always order it when we are out.

Then it all changed when I was pregnant with my little man. He altered my taste buds. Foods that I could not stand pre-pregnancy are now a favorite. I was devouring cilantro, tomato juice and ginger like it was going out of style. Oddly enough, to this day, I still love cilantro, tomato juice and ginger.

While shopping at Costco during the Christmas holidays, one sampling station was offering Clamato juice with spicy pickled green beans. I picked up a sample for myself and one for my husband. We both took a sip and said "Yum". It was so good that it prompted us to buy a 4-pack of Clamato juice and a large jar of spicy pickled green beans.

I know it's a little early to make this pronouncement, but I think this is my Drink of the Year. Kudos to Costco for the brilliant pairing and my little man who helped me love tomato juice.

Ingredients
Clamato juice (original)
Spicy pickled green beans
Tabasco hot sauce, to taste (optional)
Worcestershire sauce, to taste (optional)
Slice of lime 

Rimming Salt
1/4 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp kosher salt

Directions
1. Mix the kosher salt and chili powder together. Pour out a thin layer on a plate.

2. Rim a glass with lime and the kosher salt mixture.

3. Add spicy pickled green beans to a tall glass. I like mine spicy so I added 6 pickled green beans.

4. Fill the glass with Clamato juice, add a few dashes of Tabasco hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce to taste. Cheers!

TIP

• To make it a Bloody Caesar, add Vodka.

Source: Slightly adapted from Motts Clamato and Costco Canada

8 Ideas to Prevent Kitchen Burnout

In most households, the cooking duties generally defaults to one person. In our household, that task falls squarely on my shoulders. It has been this way ever since my husband and I got married.

Up until my son was diagnosed with nut allergies, we would eat out on nights when I am too tired to cook. For many food allergy moms or people with food allergies, this is generally not a viable option.

In December of 2014, after over half a year of non-stop cooking, baking and making almost everything from scratch, I felt burnt out. Products I used to purchase were off limits as they often had "may contains" and my kitchen has now turned into a mini bakery, stocked with every possible kind of non-nut flour imaginable. I still loved to cook but I knew that I needed to ask for help or find other ways to alleviate the stress of meal preparation. I thought long and hard of other ways to find a balance between feeding my little man safe foods and keeping my sanity.

Over the Christmas holidays, I had a period of two weeks where I was no longer the main provider of all the meals. This allowed me some time to recharge and think of ways to prevent kitchen burnout in the future.

I have come up with eight ideas to prevent kitchen burnout for those with food allergies or those looking to get a break from the kitchen.

1. Ask Other Family Members to Help (ie. Spouse, Partner or Kids)
This can be the hardest thing to do for some of us. In our household, my husband is in charge of weekend breakfasts. In addition to his breakfast duties, he is also the backup chef in this house. This means pitching in to make a quick meal when I am busy.

Here are other things your spouse/partner/kids can do:

• Food preparation: peeling potatoes, washing vegetables, getting ingredients out of the freezer to thaw
• Setting the table: my little man (under 2 years old) and my husband have been tasked with setting the table for dinner each night. Sure the forks are all in one place when the little man is setting the table, but hey, it is one less thing I have to do.
• Kitchen cleanup: kids as young as 18 months old can take their plates to the sink after dinner. Older kids can help clear the table, load and unload dishes in the dishwasher.
• Eating area cleanup: kids can wipe the table after dinner, sweep (we are working on this!) and vacuum to make sure the table is clean and ready for the next meal.

2. Big Batch Recipes: Eat Over a Few Meals or Eat and Freeze

• I love doubling or tripling recipes so I have dinners for a couple nights.
• Try these recipes: Easy Peasy Beef and Macaroni, Chunky Veggie Spaghetti, Chicken Chow Mein,  Kimchi Fried Rice, 40 Minute Whole Wheat Rolls and Homemade Frozen Pizza 

40 Minute Whole Wheat Rolls

• If your family hates eating leftovers, find recipes that freeze well and freeze the leftovers for another meal.

3. Make Ahead Freezer Meals

• Make ahead freezer meals are great because it essentially allows you to shift the prep work to when you have more time and energy. Even better is that it allows you to take advantage of sales when you can purchase foods at a discount. 
• I will be trying some of these recipes from Two Under Two and this Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole. $5 Dollar Dinners offers a great meal plan each week that solves the dinner dilemma.
• If your family loves pizza, try this 35 minute pizza recipe which can be made ahead of time. Make a few extras and bake when you need a quick dinner.

35 Minute BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe made from scratch.

4. Dining Out at Safe Restaurants

• This year, one of my resolutions was to find more allergy aware restaurants. We recently added Red Robin Gourmet Burgers to our list of safe eats (see my post here). I am looking forward to trying other allergy aware restaurants in the future.

Interactive menu at Red Robin

• Things to look for when selecting a restaurant:
• Has an allergen menu
• Has knowledgeable and courteous staff who take your concerns seriously and explains their protocol for food handling and preparation
• Manager or chef is accommodating and knowledgeable, answers questions
• Has a special food preparation area for people with food allergies
• Notes allergens upon delivery of food items
• Good reviews from other allergy families (Check Allergy Eats for some restaurants near you)

5. Finding Allergy Friendly Shortcuts

• There are a growing number of allergy friendly products where they have a nut-free (or other allergen free) facility. Some allergy aware brands now list both "contain" and "may contain" statements. Based on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Food and Drug Administration recalls, you have a good sense of which companies are reliable.
• As much as I love making foods from scratch all the time, I also like using shortcuts here and there. In my 10 Minute Pulled Pork Tortilla Pizza recipe, I used store bought flour tortillas as my pizza crust.
  

10 Minute Pulled Pork Pizza recipe

6. Allergy Aware Family Members or Friends

• We are very lucky to live near my sister-in-law who is becoming more nut allergy aware. She generally invites us over for dinner once every few weeks. After dining safely at her house a few times, we feel comfortable enough not to bring food for our little man. She cooks mostly from scratch when we visit and happily lets us rummage through her kitchen to check for ingredients.

7. Cooking one protein and using it in different meals

• For those who like variety, try cooking a protein and using it in different ways: served over various carbohydrates (potato, rice, pasta, tortilla), in sandwiches, over salads or in stir-fries. I love these recipes which saves me a lot of time on meal prep. Roast Chicken, 2 Ingredient Slowcooker Pulled Pork, Baked Ham and Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork.

Roast chicken dinner. Leftovers used to make this 35 minute pizza.

8. One-pot/Slow Cooker meals (Prep and Go)

• I refer to this as Prep and Go meals. This wonderful for those nights when you have no time to stand over a stove. You would prep the ingredients, turn on the stove/slow cooker and allow the food to cook on its own. 
• Give these recipes a try: One Pot Spinach and Artichoke Fettuccine, 2 Ingredient Slow Cooker Pulled Pork and One Pot Tomato Basil Parmesan Pasta 

One Pot Tomato Basil Parmesan Pasta

Above all, no matter where dinner is, always bring the epinephrine injectors (Epipen or Allerject), ask questions if you are not the one cooking, and check the ingredients if you are. After all, food is supposed to be enjoyable. Give yourself some grace as everyone needs a break now and then from kitchen duties.

What do you do to combat kitchen burnout? Leave your comment below or let me know via Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Instagram.

Dining Out With Food Allergies: Red Robin Restaurants

I have been a loyal customer at Red Robin Restaurants for a long time. At one point, my husband and I frequented Red Robin once a week. It was almost a second home for us.

When my little man was diagnosed with nut allergies (peanut and almond), that was a huge change for us as dining out was no longer carefree and must be planned with extreme care.

One night, as I was reading the forums on Peanut Allergy, I discovered that many food allergy families recommend Red Robin Restaurants. I was so elated to read that this restaurant chain takes food allergies seriously.

Based on the recommendations of fellow food allergy parents and visiting Red Robin's website (which lists an Allergen Menu), this gave me the courage to dine out at Red Robin.

Here's why Red Robin will be a second home for us again.

Visit #1 (North Vancouver location) - September 2014
We visited Red Robin for dinner after a fun (but exhausting) day at the Fair at the PNE. Since we were unfamiliar with dining out with food allergies, we brought our little man's food (just in case). Our server was extra patient and explained they had an allergy menu (on an iPad) which allows you to select the allergens to avoid and based on that, it recommends menu items. She also explained that they have a special dedicated area to prepare food for people with food allergies. Moreover, staff wash their hands and the food preparation area is thoroughly cleaned to avoid cross contact.

iPad with an interactive menu

A manager visited our table and explained their process for food preparation and handling. He also answered all of our questions and took our concerns seriously. We felt pretty elated to hear Red Robin had strict protocol in place. With that, we ordered our little man some chicken fingers, milk, seasonal fruit and ice cream (which we ate). The manager personally brought out our food and made a special note of the allergy restrictions on the little man's meal.

Kid's menu. Best $6 I have spent dining out.

We gave the little man a small bite of the chicken fingers, waited 10 minutes before feeding him more. As we had expected, he ate the food without any reactions. We tipped generously and vowed to go back to Red Robin soon.

Visit #2 (North Vancouver location) - January 2015
After a fun day at the Vancouver Aquarium, we decided to dine out at Red Robin's North Vancouver location again because my awesome brother gave us Red Robin gift cards for Christmas.

As we sat down, I notified our server of the little man's nut allergies. The exact same great service was provided, the iPad with the allergen menu was given to us and the little man's food was delivered by a special server (who I assume prepared the food). This time, the server announced the allergens to us: "No Peanuts, No Treenuts, Red Robin Cheeseburger with Broccoli". We were all quite impressed by the consistency. Again, we gave him a little bit of his cheese burger which he ate without any issue.

We will be back
We have had two great visits to Red Robin's North Vancouver location and look forward to visiting them again. In particular, I liked how Red Robin:

• Has an online allergen menu
• Has an interactive allergen menu (on an iPad which they give you)
• Has knowledgeable and courteous staff who take your concerns seriously and explains their protocol for food handling and preparation
• Has a special food preparation area for people with food allergies
• Notes allergens upon delivery of food items

So from this Allergy Mom, thank you Red Robin for making my life a little easier. It's nice to know that dining out is possible when you have a second home to go to.