Salads Our Kids Eat (& a Few to Try)
Josh built the family a backyard rink for Christmas and the kids got outfitted in hockey gear. The blurry picture is courteous of freezing temps and an ill-prepared mother.
While I love cooking and love understanding nutrition, sometimes I get in a rut. And that would be right about now.
We are still in the depths of winter and have a long way to go until the snow melts, but I have decided to commit to salads for lunch for the next 8 weeks. Funny story: at lunch while gazing out the window, one of the kids asked, “When will the snow melt?” Josh responded, “150 days buddy. 150 days. Give or take a few.”
I am going to make these salads a learning opportunity for our oldest who is 6. She will help me prep the components on the weekend, and then during the week, she will be the one to assemble the salad for us. She already helps a lot in the kitchen and has started to be more independent when it comes to assembling meals that are leftovers, so I don’t think it will be a big leap for her.
For us, salads must have protein + fat + veggie + fiber, so each of these salads will have those 4 components.
Fam Favourites:
Going to try:
You can sense a theme with the salads I would like to try. Hopefully we find a BBQ chicken style salad the kids like.
These recipes are from websites I frequent often when doing recipe research.
Random tidbits I have learned over the years that make meal prep more successful.
I use frozen avocado for guacamole - let them thaw first. They are cheaper and you have a much better chance they stay ‘fresh.’
I add frozen mango to the peanut chicken noodle salad - let them thaw first.
I reluctantly started making whole chicken in the instant pot. It grossed me out at first. It is easier to clean up, I can make bone broth with bones immediately after in the instant pot (3 hours on high pressure), and I find I get way more meat off the bones this way. I also don’t care *too* much about flavour because there is so much going on in the salad. In a pinch you can even cook a while frozen chicken in the instant pot.
I utilize coleslaw mixes whenever I can to add extra veggies and crunch.
That’s it for now. Happy Cooking,
Rebecca