Learning to Like New Foods: Make-Your-Own Salad Night (Kids Cook Monday)
| November 26, 2012 | Posted by Stacy under Food education |
Believe me when I say that my kids do not like salad. My 4-year-old daughter Reese occasionally eats it, but her fraternal twin Jamie and older brother Whit (age 7) are another story altogether. When I serve one with dinner, they rarely touch it. If I dare to put a green leaf on their sandwich at lunchtime, it is promptly removed with a scolding: “Mommmm! I told you that I don’t like salad!”.
As you may know, I’ve had just about enough of this “I don’t like it” stuff. Thus, I’ve been working hard to get them to open their minds to new foods, especially green ones. (SEE Teaching Kids About Food: The Lesson that Turned My Twins into Spinach Lovers). Which brings me to our latest project: mixed green salad.
Suspecting that this could be a tough hurdle, I decided to give them some control by creating a “salad bar” and letting them assemble their own. I placed a big bowl of mixed greens on the center of the dining table. For toppings, I provided small bowls of fruit–fresh blueberries, chopped mangoes, sliced green grapes and dried cranberries. My goal was just to get them used to the idea of eating salad, and I thought they would be more likely to go for it with sweet and familiar add-ons. For fun, I also included homemade croutons in the shape of stars. The dressing was an Asian ginger–one of my faves.
We don’t usually have multiple courses at our house. But on this night, I told them we were having a salad “starter.” Their second course was to be salmon and pommes frittes. The kids didn’t bat an eye. They came running up to the table, sat down, and started helping themselves to both the greens and the fixings.
Mind you, my 7-year-old doesn’t like blueberries or mangoes. Yet I still found him piling them onto his salad–prompting me to say, “Please only take what you plan to eat.” His response: “I’m taking it and I’m going to eat it!” Well, OK then!
As you can see, these are the faces of very unhappy children. I must admit that I was a little surprised not to get any resistance. Not a single word of protest! In the end, Jamie did end up leaving behind some (but not all) of his greens. And as he neared the bottom of his bowl, Whit started offering to feed me his blueberries, confessing, “Mommy, I really don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I’m not loving this so much.”
Reese, on the other hand, devoured every bite. Is it my imagination, or do girls tend to be better eaters?
The only bummer was that, after eating their salads, none of them were hungry for their entrees. So the salmon and roasted potatoes (which my husband had graciously cooked) went untouched. Although Whit did promise: “I’ll eat the salmon tomorrow.”
Overall, I’d call the experiment a success, as both boys stepped out of their comfort zones and ate without complaint. And when I asked the twins what they thought about it the following day, they both exclaimed, “We loved it! Let’s do it again tonight!” It’s been more than a week and we’ve yet to do it again (partly due to the Thanksgiving holiday). But over the weekend, we did have Make-Your-Own-Taco Night with leftover turkey, shredded cheese, corn, guacamole, tomato salsa, and baby spinach leaves. Another hit!
It always amazes me how kids (even fussy ones) can be so much more open-minded about food when they help grow, cook or even just serve it themselves.
Do you have any good tricks or tips for getting kids to try new foods? I’d love to know them! Please leave all ideas in the comment section below.
I created this blog to raise awareness and start a dialogue about the various issues involved in school food. By writing about it, I hope to provide parents and educators with ideas and inspiration for making healthy changes in their own schools. Since healthy eating habits start at home, I also address common feeding challenges faced by parents.
I think the DIY approach is a brilliant way to get kids to try new foods. You’re in charge of what the offerings are, but they feel ultimately in control of what they choose. Love it.
Katie, I agree! The question is, what took me so long?!? I think I was wary of the extra clean up (more bowls to wash, and we quickly run out of room in our dishwasher). But it DOES seem to make a difference when it comes to their enthusiasm for new foods!
Love this! My boys do eat salads, but this inspires me to let them build their own. My 4 year old actually likes eating the lettuce plain–he likes the crunchy hearts of romaine and will nibble on these while I’m making dinner. My 8 year old likes salads with sunflower seeds and ranch. (The dressing isn’t the healthiest but I’m sure he’ll eventually branch out.) I think growing our own lettuce this past summer motivated him as well, since he helped me pick it.
Sally, I am anxious to try growing some veggies this summer. I have been too overwhelmed/busy to attempt a garden by myself, but my neighbor has one and has agreed to let me share it. Her kids eat arugula!
[…] unfamiliar or lesser-loved ingredients) that they helped create. Take, for instance, Make-Your-Own Salad Night, when my normally salad-resistant kids devoured a bowl of mixed greens with fresh fruit to my […]
Make-Your-Own-Taco is the big hit in our house. Little bit will eat lettuce (which he calls salad) on his taco when he usually won’t eat it anywhere else. He sees the bowls with all of the colorful toppings and he just can’t resist.