National Salad Month – 3 ways to get kids to eat salads

photo credit: startcooking.com

Have you heard? May is National Salad Month. I love salads anyway, so this is just another reason for me to try a new salad. Maybe you love salads, but the kids are not so fond of them. How do you get the kids hooked? Get them engaged.

Give the kids a little history about salads and then make an enticing salad. Let’s start with the history of salads. Did you know that those mixed greens that we call salad were first enjoyed ancient Romans and Greeks?
In the late 19^th century the United States popularized mixed greens salads. Eventually the Caesar salad came along. The creation of this salad is attributed to restaurateur Caesar Cardine, “an Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/caesar-salad).”

So, what can you to get kids to eat salads? Here are three things you can try –

1.      Add fruit to your salad – strawberries, apples or even pineapples have worked for my picky eater. Grape halves have also made their way onto a salad at our house. You could experiment with other toppings such almonds, walnut pieces or pecans.

2.      Chicken Caesar Salad – one mom blogger recommended this as a kid friendly salad that her little ones love. The kids can even help sprinkle croutons or other toppings.

3.      Mediterranean Bean Salad – if you have kids who like beans, this may be the salad for them. Create this salad using artichokes, olives, black beans and tomatoes. Toss in red onion, cilantro and caesar dressing. You can serve this over greens or use as an appetizer with Tortilla chips.
 

It may take time and exposure to get kids to like salads, but there’s no time like the present to get them started. You don’t have to eat salads every day of National Salad month, but will you try a new salad or introduce something new to the kids?

 Here are a couple of my favorite salads.

 

What is your favorite salad?