Dino-Nugget Salad

My oldest daughter is one of those super picky eaters (read: hot dogs, salami, crackers and pancake diet. Maybe a banana if she's feeling a bit of rickets coming on.) It drives me nuts and makes meal planning hard.

Our doc recommended a book called 'How To Get Your Kids To Eat, But Not Too Much' by Ellyn Satter. I read it and I'm on board. She hasn't really eaten any more, but we don't have mealtime battles or reverse psychology mind melts over vegetables. My approach is to make kid friendly versions of the stuff that my husband and I eat for dinner. It's not really working, but I'm beyond trying. Riley however will eat pretty much anything you put in front of her so we did something right with the second one.

I had the hankering for a big salad for dinner. The kind you get at one of those chain restaurants but without the bacon, avocado, cheese and ranch dressing. WITH however, the yummy breaded chicken. All Moms have to keep a running tally in their very full filing cabinet of a brain, what is in the freezer, fridge and cupboards that will feed my family a healthy balanced meal. I was imagining a nice breaded chicken breast sliced length ways over a big salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumber etc.. The kids would have dino nuggets, some ranch dressing with a bit of salad in it and something else that I would find in the cupboard.

After a crazy day of running around and obligations, meal time and bath time are looming closer and it's time to get dinner started. Confidently I stride to the garage to get the dino nuggets and chicken breasts. Um... only dino nuggets. Okaaayyy- I headed to the kitchen to wrestle with the very full freezer of mystery zip locks. After being attacked by an open bag of shelled edamame, it's apparent that Jeff and I will not be having diagonally sliced breaded chicken breast salad, but instead the oh so gourmet - dino nugget salad. Oh yeah, nothing but the best at our house.

As I arrange Kate's plate so that the dinosaurs are attacking each other and put enough ketchup on the neck of the downed dinosaur to represent a mauling, I tell my husband the news. We are having dino nugget salad. (In the tone of course that says Don't Fork With Me, Just Eat the Salad and Say Thanks.) He says nothing because he is a smart man.

I'm still waiting for Food Network to call.