Salad is for grownups

They say a child has to try a food several times before they can really decide if they like it or not. The exception to this rule has to be salad. Granted, my experience is based on a very small, scientifically invalid sample (my two boys), but anecdotal evidence (parking lot conversations with other parents), backs it up.

Every night, there is a cooked vegetable and a salad on our table. Every night. Every night, we offer each child the same thing, and they're expected to take a bite or two of at least one of the veggies (granted, sometimes the vegetable is in the main dish). Every night until he was around six years old, number one son opted for the cooked veggie. Sometime around then it changed, and he decided he liked salad after all. Now he chooses the salad most every evening, often in addition to the hot vegetable.

Darling husband went to Costco this week to pick up a mega-pack of jelly bellies for our exchange student for Christmas (two pounds of pure refined sugar really ought to blow his mind). While he was there, he made a couple of impulse buys: a dozen bagels and two dozen croissants. Which means I'm getting creative in making them interesting. Yesterday, the boys got BLA (Avocado, since I was out of Tomato) croissant sandwiches, garnished with a huge leaf of local green lettuce. And that little kiddo couldn't stop raving about the lettuce!

And whaddyaknow, at dinner last night, he opted for the salad, and proceeded to eat a real-sized portion. Guess he's big now!