Testing the Salad Spinner

This evening I thought I'd give the new salad spinner a whirl. It worked! I can see that you do get what you pay for and it won't last forever. Its good enough to last a long while though. I was surprised at how well it spun the water off. It sure beats trying to dry each leaf of lettuce.

I had watched a show on television about eating more local produce, farming, etc. (I think I'm longing for spring.) There was a place that was having salad bars in the elementary schools and students really liked it. Enough so that shorter salad bars are being built to make it easier for young children. Parents were surprised at how much produce there children were eating.

I thought I'd give my own home variation a try. For dinner I set out a large bowl of lettuce, two plates of fruits & vegetables and cheese, a plate of grilled chicken, and a few varieties of salad dressing. Usually Chris and I serve the kids but tonight I wanted the kids to build their own. I asked them to put however much lettuce they'd like to eat on their plate then they had to select a minimum of two different items from each plate to build their salad.

Oliver made a large salad and ate the whole thing! Normally we'll give Ollie a couple of bites of salad and he's required to take a taste. There was no encouraging him to eat the salad when he built it the way he wanted.

Evelyn also made a large salad. She didn't eat as much but that's normal. It doesn't really matter what she's served, she just nibbles. I'll give her a cookie and it can take a half hour for her to eat it. Frequently she'll be left the only one at the table just kind of nibbling here and there until she's full.

Spencer liked putting things on his plate but not eating it so much. He was the only one to take bites and declare it to be gross. He still struggles with chewing produce so I'm just pleased he was willing to try new things.

Overall I'd say a success!

Oh and Oliver said the prayer for our dinner. He said rather bluntly, "Thank you for my head." It sounded really funny but I think it was because he fell at the bottom of the stairs yesterday and really has a big goose egg. We woke him up through the night to be sure he was ok and he was. So yes I express thanks for his head too!