Be Our Guest Berry Salad

As I have told you before, I grew up in an itty-bitty town in Colorado.  Our lunch room was used for the Elementary, Jr. High, and High School.  Yes, that means, as 1st graders, we were sitting on our knees trying to get tall enough to reach our trays.  Years later, the same Winnie the Pooh mural painted walls were there as we, then high schoolers, would squeeze into the same white picnic-type tables and benches.   We had one of those lunch rooms that had an actual kitchen.  That actual kitchen was ran by neighborhood grandmothers and mothers that cooked and baked everything from scratch.  Imagine my shock when I went to my daughters school and saw their lunchroom was really nothing more than a warming station where they would reheat processed, pre-packaged food.  Food that seemed like it would come from a fast food joint or a concession stand at a high school basketball game.  Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution anyone?!?!
Anyway, earlier in our homeschooling year, we did a unit on nutrition.  Teaching my kids about the type of food their body needs everyday and why.  Teaching what happens to your body when you give it the wrong type of food.  In case you are interested, Time for Kids has some GREAT age based worksheets on nutrition and physical activity.  When we were done with the unit, I wanted to reinforce this knowledge in a practical way, so it became a duty of theirs to help with the menu planning.  5 (almost 6) year old Kiddo C plans the snacks everyday, and 9 year old Kiddo B plans our lunches.  They make sure we get the right amount of food groups in our daily menu as well as making sure that we have the not-so-good-for-us stuff in moderation.  I purchased several kid focused cookbooks to help them get ideas and inspiration. 
Which brings us to today's recipe.  This kiddo friendly recipe shows that when you give something a fun name and add some happy colors and fruits that they like, they will eat and LOVE some amazingly nutritious food.  Lunches can be fun, flavorful, AND nutritious while still being quick and easy. 

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup orange juice
• 1 TBSP salad oil
• 2 tsp honey mustard or Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 cups torn lettuce
• 1 ½ cups fresh blueberries, raspberries, quartered strawberries, and/or canned mandarin orange sections, drained
• 2 TBSP cheddar or pretzel goldfish

~To make the dressing, put the orange juice, oil, mustard, sugar, and salt in a screw top jar. Tightly cover with the lid and shake until combined. Put the lettuce in a medium bowl and drizzle the dressing over top. Gently toss to coat with dressing, Divide lettuce among 4 plates.
~Put the fruit on lettuce and sprinkle with the goldfish crackers.
(For a dinner salad, add cooked chicken)


Recipe Source:  Belle and the Beast, Disney's Magic Kingdom Cookbook

This recipe is linked up at:
Simply Sweet Home
Tidy Mom
Mommy's Kitchen
Eat at Home