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| 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 19th 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.
