Finally - they are eating salads!

It’s only been recently that my son has started begging for a green salad. Oh – music to a mother’s ears. For years, I have tried to get my children to eat a nice green salad. I have tried plain salads, many different greens, a wide variety of toppings and an even greater variety of dressings. Anything to easily get nutrient dense, raw foods in my children. Although they have always had to eat what I have prepared – it kind of took the fun out of family dinners when I watch their faces as they eat. Then – I went to visit a friend of mine and watched how she served salads to her children. The lettuce and all of the ingredients were finely chopped or grated. My husband says I chop them so fine he almost doesn’t even have to chew. Although I don’t quite chop them that fine, I do chop, dice, grate, toss and mix so that the salads are easily eaten with a spoon (no more struggling to get them on a fork) and the texture is quite appealing to the children. I have also found that I use much less salad dressing when I chop the salad. Once the lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers are mixed together, I add their favorite toppings – black olives and garbanzo beans. My daughter is still a little resistant, but my son now says salads are his favorite thing to eat and he even likes to eat them with no dressing. That’s pretty good coming from someone who would be happy to eat toast and rice krispies at almost every meal – if I let him. Now my biggest challenge is to keep his little hands from trying to grab handfuls of salad as I am mixing them up. Someday he just might just lose a finger if he isn’t careful.