My four year old was quite a fussy eater from a baby and  I had real struggles getting him to eat certain foods.

However as he got older and was able to help with food preparation, the fussiness became less and less. Granted there are many things he is reluctant to try, but he is definitely getting better, especially with vegetables of the green variety.

A few months back I managed to encourage him to try some lettuce with the aid of The Hungry Caterpillar book (the things we do eh??? lol). As we read through the story together, we talked about how eating all the cakes etc made the caterpillar feel uncomfortable and gave him stomach ache, but by eating a lovely green leaf the next day, the caterpillar felt much better and turned into a beautiful butterfly. Just using a favourite story of my sons in that way, gave me the shock of my life, as he helped me prepare lunch one day and out of his own mouth came the words “I want to try some greens” and ever since then he often asks for some on his plate. He doesn’t eat very much of it, but the fact he even eats any is a miracle.

I now try and include my son in making food with me where ever possible. As I think it is important that he sees how food is prepared, and I love that he can recognise so many different varieties of fruit and vegetable. Of course he still loves all the usual things that kids do, like cookies and cakes etc. But I figure it all balances out, by teaching and seeing him learn about fresh produce. Even just making your own cookies and cakes instead of buying ones already made from a supermarket, makes such a difference.

Anyway the point to this post was because today we made lunch together, a nice mixed salad for me and a smaller version for my son, just to show how easy it is to include your family into the Slimming World way of eating.

Now I have tried to get my son to eat cucumber before and he wasn’t keen at all, but helping me prepare the food and seeing it on my plate, he asked to have some on his and to my surprise he loved it.

Here is my lunch for two:

For my plate I had:

a mixed salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, beetroot and sliced red apple

some savoury rice

and a homemade potato salad – see recipe here

On my son’s plate was:

Ham slices

lettuce, apple, cucumber, tomatoes

then some crackers with cheese on top

All of which was prepared with in minutes and best of all, enjoyed by both of us

Filed under: below 2 syns, Extra Easy, Green, lunch, main course, salads, vegetables