Home Salad
Bar
One effective way to eat out less as a family and enjoy it more is by providing variety. A restaurant meal may be loaded with fat and expensive to boot, but eating out allows everyone in the family to pick what he or she wants. With some planning, eating at home can offer some of the same variety at a much lower cost and it doesn't have to take that much more time, either.Pay attention to what your family is ordering out, and try to offer up an old-fashioned salad smorgasbord at home using some of those items. You can serve lots of things on lettuce, and offering a broad selection can also help to broaden your family's tastes.
Instructions
Make a Home Salad Bar
1. Mix it up. Choose lots of different greens, but keep them separate. Fresh spinach is a good source of vitamins and looks like lettuce. Iceberg lettuce lasts for days in the refrigerator and can be the basis for a filling and nutritious salad. You can probably find four or five greens that will blend well in your salad.
2. Try the unexpected. Nuts in a salad? Sure. Try a little exotic variety to entice picky eaters. No one ever said you couldn't use peanuts in a salad or make a salad dressing out of raspberry jam if it's a favorite.
3. Bulk up on protein. One big complaint about salad is that it isn't filling. When you add beans like chickpeas and butter beans, cheeses, leans meats and seeds, you amp up the protein in your salad, provide some needed texture and make your fare more interesting.
4. Go for some color. Instead of always using that plain green pepper, try red or orange instead. Once or twice a year specialty bell peppers come down in price, so next time give them a try. Want more color? Try some yellow tomatoes, or add some sun-dried tomatoes to your bed of greens. How about a little fruit? Some papaya would go well with that avocado, or maybe you can dice a little pineapple in with that minced ham.
5. Add some favorites. Do the kids like tacos? Adding some taco ingredients like chips, sour cream and olives might work wonders. The same goes for other favorite dishes, like macaroni and cheese or mini hot dogs.
6. Make it big. Keep ingredients separate and spread them out in containers you can reseal and pop back into the fridge. Quantities can be small, but provide quite a few offerings. The variety will make it seem as if there must be something good in there somewhere, even for the pickiest eater.
Tags: Home Salad, Make Home, Make Home Salad, with that, your family, your salad