Today I thought I’d share something I’ve been making my 5 yr olds to get them interested in eating lots of leafy greens. Greens are the food highest in mineral (per calorie), and I want to make sure my kids are getting plenty of minerals, but some kids have a hard time with greens. My kids don’t mind eating them but I was trying to get them to eat bigger portions of tender leafy greens.

So here’s what I did.

They’re really into pirates right now and one day I decided to make a “Treasure Salad.” I took a big pie plate for each kid and covered the entire bottom area with some fun salad fixin’s that they like. Fresh orange slices, almonds, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, baby carrots, mango pieces, pineapple. Then, I shredded a bunch of lettuce and piled it all on top of the plate to make a mountain, covering all the fixin’s I had on the bottom. I squeezed fresh orange juice over the lettuce mountain.

When the kids first saw it, they were like, “What??? We’re having just plain lettuce?” and I said, “It’s a treasure salad! Eat all your lettuce to get to the bottom and you may find some treasure!”

Lets just say, it worked like a charm. I’ve never seen them eat lettuce more enthusiastically. They ate and ate and ate, and were so excited when they got to the bottom and there was all this “treasure”! :) They savored each bite of the juicy fruit, veggies and nuts I had “hid” on the bottom.

Now, they ask me for a Treasure Salad several times a week. I hope this will be a family tradition/meal that they will take with them when they grow up!

I’d love to hear any creative ideas you all have had to help your children make healthy choices. I will be sharing a couple more ideas this week that has worked with my kids.