My precious two year old helped me out with this one. She is beginning to think that she has to “help” me every time I cook now. This can be a good and a bad thing, depending on how much time I have to prepare dinner. Today is was a wonderful thing. I had a great time admiring my sweet little girl as she helped me prepare this salad. I’m glad I got pictures of this one, because I think I will be happy to look back on these ones later. Okay, enough chit chat. Here’s what we pulled together to make a salad for dinner…
Ingredients:
Romaine lettuce
Tortilla chips
Tomatoes chopped
Chicken
1 can kidney beans
Taco seasoning
Taco cheese
Thousand Island (because we already had it, although, I would have preferred to use some sort of Southwestern Dressing, like that Southwestern Ranch dressing I got at Walmart before)
Preparing your salad:
Rinse off and cut up your Romaine lettuce.
Let your kiddo chop up, smash, and crumble the tortilla chips. We just used our hands and a bowl, but you could also use a ziploc bag for this part. Using a bag is usually more fun for younger kids if you have them.
Rinse off, and drain, those kidney beans. Pile everything into a big bowl.
Mix up all your ingredients.
Dig in. I have say, there was a time when my son would NOT eat a salad. He was about 2-3 years old at the time. I watched his slightly older friend devour a salad when she came over, and I convinced myself I was failing as a parent because my kids would not eat a salad. The good news is, I was wrong. He had not developed his appreciation for a salad yet at that point. Today he happily eats his salad when I put one in front of him. Keely, our two year old, eats a whole bowl and then asks for more. 🙂 While I have certainly not always been this way, as a mom, I am quick to beat myself down for each little thing I think I am not doing right. This quickly takes the joy out of parenting. Today I decided to relish in the fact that both of my children were delightfully eating a salad without complaints. This felt like a big victory for me. Have you had any small victories with your children you would like to share? We would LOVE to hear them!
Ethiopianmomma says
We just recently encouraged Moose to eat fish. He is now a Salmon and Tuna man. He even ordered the “Fish and chips” when we were out to eat the other night….now to get his father to do the same!!!