Make-Your-Own-Salads

On a recent weekend, I had a spontaneous idea to do a make-your-own-salad for a Saturday lunch as a family.  It quickly became a fun activity with colorful plates and lots of moving parts!  I washed and chopped lettuce, and my oldest son helped peel and chop vegetables for the salad.  We kept cutting up more and more vegetables and got out different toppings to put in the middle of the table.  We all gathered around the table, then, and just started adding the different toppings that we each liked to our own plates.  And there was lunch!  It turned out to be so fun, and the kids loved the ownership of helping with the salads.  Of course, you could do ANY variety of ingredients, but we had a large selection of different vegetables (our favorites are carrots, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, and colored bell peppers), some cubed ham, some hard-boiled eggs, walnuts, and a couple of different kinds of cheese (I am not eating dairy right now but am starting to eat some goat cheese, which is SO yummy on salad!). (Oh, and sometimes we like to add some craisins or chopped apples for a sweet addition.)  And the BEST part was the salad dressing...it was our first time of making our own homemade dressing.  We had never even thought to do this before until we were at a party at a friend's house and tried her delicious salad with homemade dressing.  I got the recipe and we have only used this since!  It was perfect timing for us, as we are attempting more and more to eat more "clean" and to cut out processed foods, and it's been fun to learn to make some of our own things right at home!

So if you are looking for a fun summer lunch with your family or with friends, I highly recommend the make-your-own salads!  It was a blast!  I love when my kids are filling their tummies with vegetables, of course, and I love when we can make times around the table together a fun experience, too!

If you are interested in the dressing, here is the recipe...

Balsamic Vinaigrette

1 T. Dijon mustard

4 T. balsamic vinegar 

1 tsp. sugar 

1/4 c. olive oil 

1-2 cloves garlic

Sea salt and pepper to taste 

Shake/mix all together and enjoy!

Happy Salad-Making!