Eat your greens to give some green

In our house, we have four go-to meals that are chock-full of veggies: minestrone soup, veggie quesadillas, Asian stir fry, and, of course, salad.  Because we don’t dumb down our food to appease the palates of picky eaters (no dinosaur chicken nuggets allowed!), even the two little kids will gobble up these veggie-packed meals and sometimes even ask for seconds.  I realize that not all kids are as eager to eat their vegetables, but there are ways to plus up your average, ordinary salad to make it more appealing to choosy eaters.  Here are five things you can do to that end.

1. Pick and choose – When kids are in control of what goes (and, more importantly, what doesn’t go) on their plates, they’re more likely to eat it.  Create an in-home salad bar.  Set out bowls of chopped veggies representing all colors of the rainbow (red peppers, carrots, roasted corn, sugar snap peas, purple cabbage) and allow your child to build his or her own meal.

2. Nullify texture issues – Have you ever noticed how many children turn their noses up to tomatoes?  In my experience, it’s not so much an aversion to the taste, but an aversion to the texture.  Sink your teeth into a cherry or grape tomato and you get this juicy explosion in your mouth.  It’s enough to trigger the gag reflex of squeamish kiddos.  Solve that problem by simply quartering or slicing those tomatoes (yes, even the tiniest ones) and voila!  Tomatoes are suddenly tasty.

3. Dress it up (or down) – Certain kids will take one look at the oily or gloppy salad dressing and quickly pass.  Ranch is a sure bet when it comes to salad dressing favorites for kids, but give options.  Homemade versions of balsamic vinaigrette can be sweet enough to please picky kids.  An Asian spin on vinaigrette offers a familiar peanut-y taste that epicurious children might enjoy.  Or skip the dressing entirely and place a small cup of it on the side for dipping.

4. Go with a theme – Salad is super versatile.  Taco salads with black beans and roasted corn are a family favorite ’round these parts.  I make a homemade salad dressing by thinning sour cream with a jar of salsa.  We top ours with a scant handful of crushed tortilla chips.  If you want to go Asian, start with a base of cole slaw and add toasted almond slices, green onions, whole grain couscous, and crispy chow mein noodles.  The aforementioned Asian vinaigrette with a dash of sesame oil and hoisin sauce add layers of flavor.  To play up your theme, you could place a globe in the center of the table and point out the region your salad is themed after as you enjoy a healthy family dinner.

5. Shape the way they think – If all else fails, you can always resort to a little tomfoolery.  Use small steel cutters to transform cucumbers into stars and zucchini into hearts.  Shaped veggies go a long way to turn an otherwise unappealing salad into a dinner novelty.

Hopefully these ideas will prove helpful in piquing your child’s interest in eating her greens.  Forming healthy eating habits early on will make it easy to stick to a healthy lifestyle throughout childhood and beyond.  With that goal in mind, Whole Foods Market is setting out to make salad bars accessible to school children through their “Let’s Move Salad Bars to School” initiative.  This coming Sunday, September 9th, Whole Foods Market will donate $1 for every pound of food purchased at its salad and hot food bars in Southern Pacific region stores (Southern California, Hawaii, Arizona & Las Vegas) to help put salad bars in local schools through the Whole Kids Foundation.  Not long ago I had the opportunity to eat lunch with Cassidy at her school and I saw firsthand what was being served in the lunch line that day.  Let me assure you: it wasn’t pretty.  I would love to see a quality salad bar added to her school cafeteria.

The “Eat Your Greens to Give Some Green” donation day aims to facilitate that goal.  Now that is a cause I can stand behind.

*This post is being sponsored by Whole Foods Market.