
Salmon Dinner Salad
Do you find yourself saying things to your kids that you’d choke on if someone said to you? I mean, I know kids are kids and it’s not always a parallel, but still… The other night Esme informed me at 7:25 (ie. Bedtime minus 5 minutes) that she was hungry and wanted a snack before heading upstairs. I told her it couldn’t be true, that she’d had big dinner and a bowl of fruit for dessert, yada, yada, yada. Of course what I suspected was that she was just stalling. She put her hands on her hips and said, “If you told me you were hungry I would believe you!” The truth is I don’t have to ask anyone for permission for a snack and it is not unusual at all for me to have something between dinner and my own bedtime. I felt like a real jerk and gave her a banana.
It made me think of something Jenny Rosenstrach (Dinner A Love Story — if you don’t read it, go!) told us when we asked a bunch of parenting experts for tips with picky eaters. She suggests serving meals family style, in platters on the table, and allowing everyone to serve themselves. We did it the other night with tacos and Esme freaking loved it! There are times when I really want her to try something new but why not let her choose what she wants? No one makes me brussel sprouts, which I loathe. Well, someone is but that’s another post coming soon. My point is that I like to have choice so when it’s possible to hand it over to the littles I feel like I should try. And I think it’s true that if you can dial back the pressure you can get lucky.
This salad was made with this kind of eating in mind. It’s substantial enough to serve for dinner and it’s got enough elements that people can choose what they like from it. You can also chip away at the preparation all day, which is what I did. Boil and cool the potatoes while you’re making breakfast. Marinate the fish in the afternoon. Chop the veggies and assemble five minutes before sitting down. The kids ate every part of it. Probably because we didn’t tell them to.
To make the dressing put all the ingredients into a jar and shake. Either dress the salad or just serve it on the side so everyone can do it themselves. Which is sort of the point of the whole dinner!
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