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Do your kids eat salad?

Mine tend to avoid it, although I have noticed recently that they’re willing to try it a bit more. If I could go back in time and do it over, I would have introduced salad to them much much earlier. I did focus quite a bit on vegetables, in fact I insist they eat a fruit or veggie at every meal and strongly encourage the same for between-meal snacks. We need to increase that quite a bit though.

I found a new recipe today that I want to try on the boys tomorrow. The original version is in the current month of Kraft Food and Family magazine. I didn’t have the broccoli slaw that it called for, so I improvised. I also cut the recipe in half since I was making it for purely scientific reasons.

Basically I took a package of Ramen noodles, broke it up into small pieces and dumped into a medium bowl. Take the seasoning packet and mix it with a quarter cup of italian dressing. Fill the bowl with chopped veggies (I used celery, green pepper, cucumber, and broccoflower) and pour the seasoned dressing over the top. Stir and serve.

This salad is soooooooooo delicious! The original recipe called for sliced almonds and roasted sunflower seeds. I didn’t try those, but the noodles and raw vegetables were plenty crunchy. Even if the noodles soften a bit overnight, there’s still a great deal of texture to enjoy. I might sprinkle some sunflower seeds on it tomorrow, but I plan to leave them out of the main salad until the boys have tried it. They’re generally not fond of nuts. Yet. Heh, heh, heh. I’m definitely going to put broccoli slaw and green onions on the shopping list this week so I can try the original version of the recipe.

So, do your kids eat salad? How do you make it tempting and delicious? Share with the group, would you please?

Oh, and excuse me. I’m going to have to go make some more salad… the batch I made already is nearly gone.

Originally posted at GNMParents, now archived at ForeverParenting.com. Several people had great comments, and Nan had a fantastic question that I’d never considered.

Earnest Parenting: help for parents who want their children to eat salad.