Chicken Thighs in a French Onion Sauce

EJ loves onions. He stands next to me, stealing raw slices, as I'm chopping them. No joke. So this meal is a big hit for him while I'm prepping and when it finally hits the table.

I came across the recipe and decide to modify it and make it safe for my food allergy family. It does take some time to pull together, so it's definitely a weekend meal. But it's worth the work.....plan on everything taking 2 hours.  I like to serve it with a simple green salad and a Schar Gluten Free Baguette.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp or vegan butter or olive oil
2 lbs sliced onions
2-3 chopped garlic
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
2 cups chicken stock, divided
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb boneless-skinless chicken thighs, dried, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
Chopped parsley for garnish
Optional:
1 cup grated gruyere cheese

Equipment Needed:
Large oven-safe pan with lid (or cover with foil)
Cheese grater
Foil

Let's Cook!
Heat oven to 350 degrees
1. In a large pan, melt vegan butter or warm oil over medium heat
2. Add sliced onions, stirring occasionally until golden brown (about 30-45 minutes)

3. Stir in garlic and thyme until fragrant, 1 minute
4. Add 1 cup of the chicken stock, bring to boil, simmer 5 minutes
     Chicken cooked in new pan
5. In another pan, heat 1 tbsp of olive over medium-high heat
6. Sear chicken thighs for 3 minutes per side, set aside 
     Return attention to original pan
7. Add remained 1 cup of chicken stock to the onion sauce mixture
8. Stir in balsamic vinegar and mustard
9. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer until sauce is reduced to half, 5-10 minutes
10. Place the chicken in the onion sauce, cover pan with lid or foil
11. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until chicken is cooked through
12. Remove pan from oven
This can be the last step, if you are dairy free.

This is EJ's giant bowl!

13. Sprinkle with cheese and broil 2-3 minutes, until cheese is melted
14. Garnish with parsley

Serve!

Contains: Optional milk (cheese topping), mustard

Recipe inspiration: http://www.closetcooking.com/2015/04/french-onion-chicken.html

Chicken, Mushroom, Carrot, and Potato Soup

It's that time of year.....cold season! And when one kid gets sick, the whole house gets sick. Time for soup. Luckily my kids love soup! Homemade soup always tastes better than store bought and you can control what goes into it. With food allergies, knowing exactly what's in your food is mandatory.

Ingredients:
1 package chicken thighs or breast: cut into pieces
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 yellow onion: halved and thinly sliced
1/2 lb of mushrooms: halved and sliced
1/2 cup of wine (sub water if needed)
2 large carrots: peeled and sliced
4-5 medium red potatoes: diced into 1" squares
2 cups of chicken broth or stock
2 cups of water
2 tbsp cornstarch: make a slurry by adding 1 tbsp of water
Fresh thyme and parsley: coarsely chopped
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Equipment needed:
Cast iron dutch oven or large pot with a lid

Let's cook!
1. Dry the chicken pieces with a towel and then season with the paprika, garlic and salt and pepper to taste.
2. Heat pot over medium-high, warming 1-2 tbsps of olive oil until hot
3. Add the chicken and cook 2-3 per side, until lightly seared but not cooked through
4. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
If the pan is dry add 1-2 tsps of oil
5. Add the onion to the pot and cook until it begins to soften, 2 minutes
6. Stir in the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper ,cook until the juices start to release, 4 minutes
7. Slowly pour in the wine, deglazing the pan and scraping up any brown bits from the pan, 30 seconds
8. Add the carrots and potatoes to the pot, stir, and cover for 4-5 minutes, occasionally stirring
9. Pour in equal amounts of chicken stock and water until everything is submerged
10. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, return chicken to the pot, cover
11. Cook, stir occasionally until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender, 12-15 minutes
12. Remove from heat and stir in herbs, season with salt and pepper

Serve! 

Contains: corn (cornstarch) 

I served the soup with hot bread: https://www.schaer.com/en-us/p/baguette

Recipe inspiration: https://sunbasket.com/recipe/braised-chicken-with-carrots-potatoes-and-thyme 

Do not feed the animals

It's pretty common that you see this sign in parks and zoos. You take notice and hopefully don't feed the animals anything. Maybe the animals are on a special diet, they don't want them being overfed, fed the wrong food....either way, don't feed the animals. It's clearly stated, you follow the rules.

Now there are some rules that aren't posted but should be common sense. DON'T FEED KIDS YOU DON'T KNOW. Outside of food allergies and special diets, you are teaching the kid to accept candy from strangers!!

As parents, we try and teach our children to be safe. Look both ways before crossing the street, hold my hand, don't leave the park with anyone but Mommy, watch where you're going, don't take food from strangers. I don't care how cute you think my kids is, how my kid is looking at you while you're eating (believe me, they are well fed) or even if my kid asks you for food......DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS.

Things you should do as a parent; find and ask the kids parent, tell the kid to go get their parent, just say no....be a responsible adult.

Teaching a child that it's ok to accept something from a stranger is wrong. No matter how many times I can tell my kids, don't take food or candy from a stranger....it's CANDY! So as responsible adults, we should teach kids to ask their parent first. So when someone tells them, "you don't have to ask your mommy," their sensors will go off!! I want to empower my kids to make the right decisions but it does take a village of people who respect the rules.

DON'T FEED THE ANIMALS.

Boxed Dinner for 2

I've always loved finding new recipes, shopping for ingredients and cooking. Now with 2 kids, that's been challenging....to say the least. My recipe rotation has gotten B-O-R-I-N-G due to the lack of newness. And with the added stress of EJ's allergies, finding new recipes for the whole family is nearly impossible. Find me something delicious that doesn't include Wheat, Milk, Eggs, Peanuts or Tree-nuts....and that also doesn't include his other possible allergens; soy, mustard and peas. And while you're trying to find that recipe, imagine 2 screaming children behind you.....yeah. Oh and did I mention, I need meals 7 days a week since we really can't eat out. Good times.

A few people had mentioned the box meal delivery services. They ship you the ingredients, you cook. I honestly wasn't sure how it would work for my family but I gave it a shot. I was able to try Blue Apron for free through a fellow member of a Mom's group!

I only got a picture of 2 of the meals because I ended up doing the steak meal as a lunch on Father's Day. The lemon-pepper sauce that was supposed to accompany the steak did not turn out correctly. The instructions said to add the butter then the lemon and water, the butter sizzled to nothing but oil. So it ended up just being a plate of mashed potatoes with sugar snap peas and radishes. The ingredients were fresh and the meat was of great quality. Just didn't turn out like pictured without the sauce, so I didn't snap it. (I did remake this recipe and nailed the sauce by adding the butter last, not first.)

Seared cod with an asparagus, potato and radish salad. This was surprisingly better than expected. It called for tarragon, which I'm not a fan of, so I did cut how much I used. Super light dish with interesting flavors. Only complaint, they sent 2 dishes with radishes included. I felt it should have been a bit more mixed up.

Last, the hoisin glazed chicken meatballs with zucchini and brown rice was my least favorite. About halfway through, I couldn't handle the sweetness of the hoisin sauce. I would never attempt to make this again.

After seeing my photos on Instagram, a friend told me about Sunbasket. Same concept as Blue Apron and the same price point. They do offer 2 free meals with your initial order but I did have to pay for this box. And honestly, it was worth every penny! I was able to select the 3 meals from 7 different options. Which is important to not have 2 dishes with the same ingredients on back to back nights. But most importantly, the flavors were superior!

First up was the salmon with mango salsa. Bonus, I learned a new cooking technique for salmon! I had NEVER attempted to pan sear the salmon with the skin on. I may never cook it any other way. HA! The mango salsa was so good but next time I will probably cut the pieces a bit smaller. Not pictured was a coconut cream sauce.....to die for.

Pork belly and kimchee fried rice. My mouth is watering just looking at the photo. I had never attempted a dish like this before. Now I am trying to find out where to find some pork belly so I can recreate this one!!!

Last up, thai turkey lettuce cups that we had for lunch. I wasn't sure these would be filling enough for dinner but I was wrong. We were stuffed! My hubby said it smelled like a restaurant in the house. HA!

I honestly am so excited for this weeks box to arrive. These are going to be our weekend meals and I'll be making the kids a separate easy meal like gluten-free pasta and baked chicken strips. We'll also keep my boring rotation during the week. Or maybe because we've added in these yummy meals, my rotation won't seem so boring. Either way, I'm excited to have some new flavors and cooking techniques in my kitchen!!!

No wheat please!

I had EJ tested for allergies back in February. He tested positive for peanut, milk, wheat, eggs and some tree nuts. I left the office with an Rx for an EpiPen. My mind was racing and I was scared. How do you avoid all of those foods in everyday life? How allergic is he?? I instantly joined allergy Facebook groups for support. Worst thing I could have ever done. Post after post of parents talking about how they had to Epi their child today. It made my anxiety levels go through the roof. I wasn't sleeping, jumping at every cough he made, watching him for scratching, basically I was making myself crazy. I unjoined those groups and read up on the facts and how and when to use the EpiPen. I felt I had gotten to a place where I felt empowered and in control. But I also understood how quickly things can go south.
One thing I didn't do, remove all the allergens from our house with the exception of peanuts. Sophia is 4 and I never wanted to penalize her by removing the snacks from the cabinets.
On Tuesday, the kids were having a snack while I got together Sophia's ballet bag. EJ was having his rice crackers (in a purple bag) and Sophia had a little snack pack of Annie's bunny grahams (in a purple bag). She left her bag on the table and EJ managed to reach for it. When I came back downstairs, he was holding the bag and sharing them with the Grandparents. I could tell he had eaten at least one since he had crumbs on his mouth and a little bit of redness on his chin. I ran him upstairs and wiped his mouth off and gave him a dose of Benadryl. My heart and mind were racing. It was only wheat, no peanuts....we'll be OK. We'll be OK. After 30 minutes, the redness around his mouth was gone. Whew, no other symptoms. I felt relief and honestly some excitement thinking that maybe he wasn't really allergic to wheat!
We headed out to lunch and as we were ordering lunch, EJ starts vomiting. I start cleaning him up and he starts yelling, "OUCHIE, OUCHIE, OUCHIE!" I bring him out to the car to change his clothes and as I removed his pants, his legs are covered in welts. Welts that are spreading fast all over his body. I start wiping off his skin with a baby wipe to get the skin clear from any throw up. He starts vomiting on me and then coughing. My mind is racing, is he coughing from vomiting or is he having trouble breathing. I grab his inhaler and give him a couple of puffs as I run back into the restaurant to grab my in-laws.
At this point, I know I need to use the EpiPen. The EpiPen, I never wanted to use. I have my MIL call 911. They agree I need to use the EpiPen. I pull the blue pin out and hit the side of his thigh and it pops. EJ let out the loudest scream and grabs at my hand. I count out-loud; "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10." I remove it from his leg and quickly grab him, holding my poor little boy on my chest. Within a minute the paramedics arrive. The hives are subsiding and he's breathing normally. They escort us quickly into the ambulance.
We arrive at the ER and suddenly his entire body is swollen, hives start forming and he starts coughing again. It's even worse this time and he's screaming in pain. They administer another Epi, more Benadryl and oral steroids. I'm terrified knowing how quickly things can go south. This is his rebound and it's worse than the initial reaction. After all that he falls asleep on me.

(I took these photos in order to document his reaction so I could show them to his doctors. They actually came in very handy when being transferred to Stanford. They thought he still looked pretty bad until I showed them these photos and then agreed he was improving and didn't need more treatment.)

After an hour, I started seeing the redness and hives disappearing. It was such a relief. A wheat cracker did this. A WHEAT cracker?!?! We ended up having to stay the night at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. Luckily we didn't have anymore rebounds and no other treatment was needed. 

It's so hard to keep calm around food now. Having to worry about contamination, will he react this way to any other foods?

We are seeing his doctor in the morning and we'll have to put together a new plan of action. Stay tuned......