Salads For Kids : The story on how my kid started eating salads.

Last week, as I was driving my 11 year old daughter back from school, she was complaining of being “Really hungry!!” I told her that she needs to eat more vegetables to keep herself full. The next words out of her mouth completely shocked me. She said “ Mamma, how about you give me salad for lunch tomorrow?!!” I could not believe what I was hearing; the girl who never eats salads, apart from picking out cucumber pieces from it, wants to have salad for school lunch?!  But yes she was serious about it.  For a moment I wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea. If she doesn’t like her salad then she won’t eat it and will end up being hungry and cranky by the end of the day. However, she immediately added, ” As long as you add Nando’s sauce to it” and of course, her specified salad ingredients. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with Nando’s Peri Peri Sauce, check this out.)

So there you have it, the key to get kids to eat salad is to give them choice.

• See if you can get them to help prepare it, so they know exactly what’s in it and will be more likely to enjoy their own masterpiece. 
• Also, make sure the salad leaves are cut to the right size, so it’s easier for them to eat without making a mess or having to struggle to get it on the fork.
• Using the right kind of dressing means the salad is appealing to their taste buds. My daughter’s special instructions were to use Nando’s sauce. So I coated the cooked chicken pieces in it before adding it to the salad.

Now I’m one happy mamma! My daughter came up with her own new item for her weekly lunch menu 🙂