Build Your Own Salad

We are always trying to make sure our kids get enough fruits and vegetables throughout the week.  While my kids are great at eating fruits, vegetables are a little bit harder to work in.  Although, I will say our kids are pretty good eaters. 


One evening, I got the great idea to put out a bunch of salad fixings and let the kids "build their own salad".  Well, you would have thought it was pancake night in our house!  You would be amazed at how many and how quickly pancakes are eaten in our house.  The kids ate their dinner in 15 minutes flat!  Usually it takes around 30-45 minutes to pick at their food and eventually eat it.  This is definitely an idea worth keeping!

So, here's what I do...
I use the biggest cutting board I have and load it up with anything I can find in the fridge that would taste good on a salad.  Use your imagination and think outside the box!  The result may look something like this:

From Top Left: Honey Dijon, Lite Ranch, Italian Dressing, frozen corn, mini pepperonis, chopped tomatoes, shredded cheese, chopped green chiles, romaine lettuce, sunflower seeds, sliced cucumber, red onion 

Then, I let the kids come up and load up their plate with whatever they want and as much as they want.  There are a couple of rules, though...  They have to pick at least 2 veggies on top of the lettuce and if there is a protein, then they have to take some of that as well. 




I had told my good friend, Tracy, about this idea.  She makes a taco salad that her son, Zachary, never wanted to eat.  So, she followed the "Build Your Own Salad" idea and put all of the ingredients out separated.  Then she told Zachary that he can build his own salad like Ethan.  Well, that was so exciting for him that he put every ingredient on his plate and ate it up!  It's funny... Even the smallest amount of independence given to a kid can give a great result!


Not only is building your own salad great for kids, it's great for adults, too.  My sister, Candice, told her friends about the idea as well.  Their next playdate with the kids was at lunch time and guess what they had?  That's right!  Each mom brought a couple of their favorite things to toss into a salad and shared with the group.  How fun!


Try it out!  Maybe you'll turn your kids into salad lovers, too!   


Need some salad ideas?  Here are several:

• lettuce (romaine, spinach, iceberg, spring mix)
• proteins (cubed chicken, chicken nuggets, hard-boiled eggs, lunch meat, bacon, leftover steak, pepperoni, turkey, shrimp)
• veggies & fruit (tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, onion, shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms, avocado, corn, beans, jicama, peppers, mandarin oranges, apples, dried cranberries, raisins)
• other (nuts, seeds, crushed tortilla chips, croutons, goldfish crackers, salsa, bbq sauce)
• shredded, cubed, crumbled cheese 
• dressing (offer a variety... try mixing salsa or bbq sauce with Ranch dressing)