A Leisurely Saturday Lunch

During the week, I'd liken my lunch routine with the kids to a true sprint. We enter the door in a blast-off, and then I'm piloting the solo run of juggling three children who are exhausted from pre-school, transport, hunger, etc. It's quite a sight to see me negotiating these kids into patience as they wait for ANY food to miraculously appear before them. They just don't seem to understand that healthy items don't come from a robotic, push-button machine like on the Jetsons.

Wouldn't it be great if lunches did?

I enjoy Saturday lunches. As John is around, I have a little more time to thoughtfully prepare. Here is an example of a staple salad I'll make on Saturdays. I'm showing you the 3-plate special for our family, because we really have 3 categories of eaters in our family.

1.) The Mom and Dad eaters:
As you can see, John and I enjoy a "combination" meal with each dietary element mixed into the next element. Here, I've taken simple spring mix and complemented it with goat cheese (freezes well, I usually keep it on hand from Costco), pine nuts, shredded turkey breast, strawberries, avocado and a simple vinaigrette of balsamic, oil, salt, sugar, and minced garlic.

My general recipes for an entree salad is this:
80% Green + Fruit + Good Cheese + Nut + Dressing = Success
Bonus points for adding in extra vegetables.




2.) The toddler, separated special:
Tom and Lucy are still in the age category that generally prefers food to be separated, not mixed. I'm not sure why kids go through this stage, but it's fairly common. I don't tolerate this request for every meal, but for lunches, I often find they will try new foods if they are easily visible on the plate. I am still working at getting the kids to eat any kind of greens, but they each have a few vegetables they'll tolerate, and I consider that an accomplishment. Pictured, you'll see a variation on our adult salads to include sliced avocado, turkey "roll-ups", spring mix, and strawberries.


3.) The baby plate:
Since Jimmy has proclaimed his new stage of eating everything in sight, I make a point to chop up much more food than I'd ever imagine he'd eat in one sitting. He surprises me with both the quantity he consumes AND the quantity that he deflects onto the (carpeted) floor beneath him.
Jimmy loved the avocado and turkey; I supplemented with some baby food since he's not yet ready for strawberries, pine nuts, and spring mix.