My precious two year old helped me out with this one. She is beginning to think that she has to “help” me every time I cook now. This can be a good and a bad thing, depending on how much time I have to prepare dinner. Today is was a wonderful thing. I had a great time admiring my sweet little girl as she helped me prepare this salad. I’m glad I got pictures of this one, because I think I will be happy to look back on these ones later. Okay, enough chit chat. Here’s what we pulled together to make a salad for dinner…
Ingredients:
Romaine lettuce
Tortilla chips
Tomatoes chopped
Chicken
1 can kidney beans
Taco seasoning
Taco cheese
Thousand Island (because we already had it, although, I would have preferred to use some sort of Southwestern Dressing, like that Southwestern Ranch dressing I got at Walmart before)

Preparing your salad:
Rinse off and cut up your Romaine lettuce.
Let your kiddo chop up, smash, and crumble the tortilla chips. We just used our hands and a bowl, but you could also use a ziploc bag for this part. Using a bag is usually more fun for younger kids if you have them.
Rinse off, and drain, those kidney beans. Pile everything into a big bowl.
Mix up all your ingredients.
Dig in. I have say, there was a time when my son would NOT eat a salad. He was about 2-3 years old at the time. I watched his slightly older friend devour a salad when she came over, and I convinced myself I was failing as a parent because my kids would not eat a salad. The good news is, I was wrong. He had not developed his appreciation for a salad yet at that point. Today he happily eats his salad when I put one in front of him. Keely, our two year old, eats a whole bowl and then asks for more. 🙂 While I have certainly not always been this way, as a mom, I am quick to beat myself down for each little thing I think I am not doing right. This quickly takes the joy out of parenting. Today I decided to relish in the fact that both of my children were delightfully eating a salad without complaints. This felt like a big victory for me. Have you had any small victories with your children you would like to share? We would LOVE to hear them!