It’s Salad Bar Night

I’m pretty proud of my kids. I’m not sure I ate one vegetable at their age. C’Man and P’Diddy eat full salads and like them! O’Bear is a different story, but I will give him credit for trying most of the time.

A new concept that we are giving a try is Salad Bar Night and it’s going to be held on Mondays. I started the day by shopping at Whole Foods to grab my fresh fruit and veggies for the week.

That night I laid out a Salad Bar ~ spinach, lettuce mix, colored peppers, cucumbers, avocado, onion, fresh basil, strawberries, kiwi, pita chips I crushed into croutons, shredded cheese, sliced almonds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, and three kinds of salad dressing.

The boys loved that they could come over and pick and choose what they wanted to put on. The rule was that they had to pick at least three items besides lettuce, croutons and cheese. Well really this rule was secretly for O’Bear who doesn’t eat as well.

Do you know the best part? Everything is chopped and ready for the week ~ for school lunches! YES! C’Man will bring salad to school and O’Bear likes when I prepare chicken wraps for him. A fruit and/or veggie is always served on the side if they bring sandwiches. We were ready!

oh, let me tell you about my salad. I made a Kiwi Strawberry Spinach Salad for myself.

1 c Spinach

1 kiwi, sliced

6 strawberries, quartered

sprinkle with sliced almonds and chia seeds

top with All Natural Pear Vinaigrette by Cindy’s Kitchen. (found at Whole Foods with the fresh cold dressings)

It was great! And may be a way to introduce salads. Most children LOVE strawberries and kiwi!

 

One more idea for you. This week we read A Very Hungry Caterpillar in our preschool homeschool studies and then made a Caterpillar Lunch!

I promise the kids will get a kick out of this and try every piece to eat like a caterpillar does. I loved watching P’Diddy eat that plum!

I stole this fabulous idea from A Year With Mom and Dad‘s post.

 

Did you know that replacing one meal a day for a salad could translate into the reduction of 100 calories per day? That’s 10-pounds in one year!  Or that by the time a kindergartner finishes high school, they will have eaten 2,300 school lunches, making the opportunity to impact childhood nutrition in schools very real.

Whole Kids Foundation, is a nonprofit committed to improving childhood nutrition by increasing the availability and consumption of fruits and vegetables, both at schools and at home.  The foundation just kicked off its annual fundraiser to support school salad bar and garden grant programs and nutrition education classes for teachers.

I can attest to this fact – if you child does not like a certain food that you know they probably will like eventually, KEEP AT IT. I’m serious. It took me forever to get P’Diddy to eat peppers and now he’ll grab them off the counter to snack on, even without hummus! We are still working on O’Bear with foods, but like I said in the beginning, he does better all the time. Kids need to first get to know their fruits and veggies so they aren’t strangers anymore. Let them look, touch and learn their names before they taste. Of course they may not like that first bite. We understand that! Just keep bringing them out. They can watch you eat them and start slow.

 

I loved writing this post. I hope you got some fabulous ideas to encourage more fruit and vegetable eating at your house.

Don’t forget to check out my next Whole Foods post featuring Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies made with no flour and no sugar! 🙂