Let’s look at the children’s picture book, “1 Big Salad.” In this video we explore different vegetables and make a healthy salad together!
Video was created by Kristyn the Dietitian
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Lemon and olive oil dressing recipe from my blog
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[Music] today we are going to take all of these vegetables and turn them into a salad and um this is based on a children’s picture book that teaches counting but also introduces the kids to a lot of different veggies and even some fruits so let’s um take all these veggies and these Clementines and turn this into a salad [Music] so the book that I’m featuring today is called one big salad and it’s written by Wana Medina one avocado deer two radish mice three pepper monkeys are you hungry yet counting from 1 to 10 one big salad fills a bowl with the most delicious and delightful vegetables here is a Truly Scrumptious way to learn numbers and eat them too I really like this children’s picture book it’s geared towards younger children um it is encouraging them to learn how to count and um I really like it because it’s also encouraging children to think about vegetables salads and it introduces them to several different veggies that perhaps not every child has seen before so um this is a great way if you’re trying to encourage your child to try different foods different vegetables um to check this book out and go through it with them the book is really cute too because each vegetable that it features it’s highlighting a certain number but it also shows the vegetable um depicted as part of an animal so for example the first food that’s highlighted um for the number one is an avocado and the avocado pit serves as a reindeer’s nose it’s really cute so by the time you get to number 10 your child has been introduced to 10 different foods mostly vegetables but also some fruits with um the Clementine and um by the end of the book the author has basically created a full salad so I’m using this as a salad recipe that I’m going to try um there’s also a salad dressing recipe at the end so I’m going to do both of those combine them and see how it goes this book I did find at a library book sale I love going to library book sales because it’s a great way to get some good books for a lower cheaper price my family we’re big into books we love reading um so when I find a favorite book that’s on sale at a library I love to grab it um and collect our favorite books another great way to get your children involved and to get them interested in different vegetables and fruits is to have them cook along with you so this would be a great activity if you pick this book up you can either buy it or find it at your library you can go ahead and make the salad with your kid let them help with the steps that are safe for them to do try having them use some knife skills as well and also you can use the peeler um have them rinse the veggies and or supervise them make sure it’s safe for them and I think that it will be a fun family activity I am impressed with how many different veggies that the author is able to fit into the salad so I’m going to go ahead and go through them real quick with you the leafy greens are the Roma and I did go ahead and buy a salad mix um which I like anyways cuz there’s different all different kinds of leafy greens leafy vegetables in there um so you can always use whichever leafy greens you like best she also highlights um Peppers so I’m going to use one yellow pepper i I chose yellow so that I can vary the colors in this salad and you’ll notice this is a very colorful salad there’s also tomato two radishes one avocado carrots cucumber walnuts Clementine for a little bit of sweetness and then the salad dressing at the end of the book is made up of olive oil freshly squeezed lemon Juice Salt and Pepper I actually have a very similar recipe on my blog I’ll link it below if you’d like to check it out um but a lot of people do like to combine lemon juice with olive oil for a fresh and simple salad dressing that you can make at home I went ahead and I rinsed all of my vegetables so they’re nice and clean and I’m going to go ahead and prepare them now this is the bowl I’ll be putting my salad in I’m going to start by putting my leafy greens in there I’m going to cut my Romain so it’s in some nice bite-sized pieces eating foods with different colors indicates that you are getting different nutrition from those Foods the more colorful the salad and the food that you’re eating the more attractive it will be to children it’s great if we can teach our kids to desire those foods that are colorful but that are naturally colorful those will be more of your fruits veggies grains and Whole Foods so I already have a really great base of leafy greens going let’s go ahead and add some more veggies I’m going to do my bell pepper next and this recipe is pretty open-ended you can add as much or as little of each vegetable as you like in the book The author highlighted three bell peppers I feel like that would be a lot of bell peppers I’m just going to do part of one bell pepper um perhaps she meant three miniature Peppers you can buy those you know snack siiz bell pepper and that way you’d be able to get in a different a couple different color of pepper but you can do whatever works best so I’m just going to go ahead and add these and see how it looks for me that would be a good amount of bell pepper so I’m going to stop there next I’m going to add my carrot I’m going to peel them I like in the book how she has different colored carrots she has purple orange I know there’s yellow carrots and some more whitish colored carrots so um I just had orange carrots so that’s what I’m using all of the foods in this salad offer really good nutrition most of them will offer phosphorus and pottassium but in addition to that you’ll also find that you’re going to get a lot of fol weate vitamin C vitamin A some of these veggies have vitamin K A lot of them will have calcium and magnesium and many of them will also offer fiber and antioxidants so some of the antioxidants will include beta carotene lutein and zanthin but also some of your other antioxidants like beta crypto zanthin and lopine a lot of these foods are also a source of choline the avocados provide calories um most of the of the calories are from unsaturated fats and then um the walnuts likewise offer a good amount of calories from healthy fats um but also some from protein you can see how eating salad can offer so much nutrition for your body especially when you vary the vegetables fruits and toppings that you include in your salad I want to make sure my salad looks balanced so I’m going to be adding just as much ingredient as looks good to me all right so now onto the radish I’m going to go ahead and slice these up I’m going to use about a qu of an English cucumber I’m also going to cut these slices in half so they’re not too big for little mouths next I’m going to add some chopped tomato now I’m going to go ahead and add some fresh Clementine wedges another way to make this activity fun with your child is to let them pick out any vegetable or fruit that looks really good at the grocery store that they haven’t tried before that they think would go good in the salad um there’s a lot of fun in experimenting with food different veggies and fruits while this recipe is for more like a side salad you could also turn it into a complete meal you could add some lean protein like beans or you can also add some grilled chicken chicken you could even try some hardboiled eggs that are sliced up for a grain you could always add some cooked and cooled couscous quinoa at the bottom you can also just have your Grain on the side there’s the little pit that would be the reindeer now so cute this salad is looking really beautiful very colorful I’m going to go ahead and add some walnuts and then make our salad dressing so walnuts will add a great crunch um also some protein and healthy fats to this salad to make the salad dressing I’m going to use half of the recipe it uses half a cup of fresh lemon juice and 1/2 cup of olive oil I’m going to go ahead and do just 1/4 cup of each really you could just do whatever um whatever you get from your lemon that you squeeze out it’s a 1 to one ratio you can do the same amount of olive oil as lemon juice I did get about um pretty much exactly 1/4 cup of lemon juice from about a medium siiz lemon when you’re adding your olive oil try and use extra virgin olive oil this is the kind of oil that goes well in salad dressings so since I have A4 cup of lemon juice I’m using 1/4 cup of olive oil this recipe does call for a teaspoon of salt I did half the recipe which would be half a teaspoon of salt but guys I’m not really good at following recipes um unless it’s for something that’s baked and even then I’ll change it around to how I like it this kind of salad dressing is so flavorful to begin with from the lemon juice that you don’t really need salt at all but I’m going to go ahead and just do about a I’m going to add an e teaspoon of salt and sadly I lost my grinder my pepper grinder I have no idea how I lost it or where it could be um so I’m going to just use my regular pepper okay so that looks good to me I’m going to go ahead and shake this up it’s very simple um I do have a similar recipe on my blog it does have freshly minced garlic glove in it so it’s a little different um doesn’t use any salt I I will link that Below in the description box I’m excited to try this salad out but I do want to say that as I’m cooking it I am thinking of other things you could add to it which you’re totally free to do I think feda cheese would go really good in here um red onion and I would also be curious to try a salad dressing made with lime juice instead of lemon but for now let’s give this a try okay I’m going to go ahead and scoop some some of this into my bowl I want to get a little bit of every vegetable I want to make sure I have avocado some walnuts and then I’m going to put some of this delicious looking salad dressing on top all right let’s give this a try there’s so much flavor from the lemon and I just love all the brightness and flavors from all the different vegetables this would go really good it’s a side salad with a meal the avocado adds a great creaminess I love the Nutty flavor and the crunch that the walnuts offer when you make this with your kiddos you may find that they’ll tell you I really don’t like this vegetable that’s okay um but I’m sure they’re also find some they do really like and that’s that’s the point of trying different veggies and fruits is to figure out what they like of course I would always offer ones they say they don’t like another time um a few more times just to see if down the road they like them but um this is good experimenting and just figuring out what fruits and veggies they like the Clementine is really fun in this salad it adds a nice sweet Tangy flavor my challenge for you to go along with this book and the salad that I prepared today is to switch up the vegetables and the foods that you include in your salads try and add new veggies or even a fruit um or even toppings you can try and add some nuts or seeds to your salads um try different things um to vary the nutrients that you’re getting from the foods that you include in your salads let me know if you participate in how it goes I hope you enjoyed watching this video I hope that encouraged you to try some new veggies or fruits in your salad um and if you have kiddos I hope it encourages you to check out this book with them find it at your local library it will be under the kids picture books under Concepts and learning such as numbers and counting I will also put a link in the description box below if you’d like to buy your own new copy thank you for watching today please hit the like And subscribe buttons and I look forward to making my next video for you [Music]