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The Perfect Dinner Salad – Let the kids cook for you! #MangiaTonight

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MangiaTonight #CollectiveBias

Around these parts, family is a pretty big deal. It’s the motivation for all we do.

I’m a bit territorial of my “domain,” aka, the kitchen. But some of my fondest memories are of learning at my mother’s elbow in the kitchen. It’s never too early or late to invite our kids into the kitchen.

Watching the bread broil

We decided to stir things up a bit in the routine and the kitchen. We wanted an easy, delicious, satisfying meal that our kids could help cook every step of the way. We didn’t want just dinner. We wanted Mangia! The experience of creating a memory, rather than just a meal.

To do that, we needed a few ingredients. First, we ran to Smith’s to get some Bertolli Chicken Florentine (my favorite!!) from the freezer section.

Find Bertolli in Smith's family meals freezer section

 

They have LOTS of options, so make sure you grab all your favorites. These are perfect to have on hand.

It says right on there, “meal for 2.” Luckily for us, two of our people only count has a half. Actually, one of them probably counts as like a quarter of a person because she’s so picky. 🙂 So it was plenty to satisfy.

Mangia Tonight with this delicious Bertolli dinner and hearty salad!

And what goes better with yummy pasta than a delicious salad? We didn’t want just any old bag of lettuce. We wanted a hearty salad that the kids could make all by themselves. So we ran to the produce section and picked up some essentials for a delicious dinner salad.

That night, we set out the fixings and the kids were in heaven!

Hearty dinner salad fixings

They sprinkled the parsley and garlic on the French bread –

putting on the parsley

Then topped it with grated Parmesan.

making parmesan bread

Next, we poured the Bertolli in the saute pan and let it do it’s thing while we worked magic on the dinner salad.

The Perfect Dinner Salad

1 head/bag romaine lettuce (washed, chopped)
1 roma tomato, diced
1 avocado, sliced
½ cup mushrooms, sliced and washed
1 hardboiled egg
1/4 cup chopped cucumber

Have all the ingredients ready. Let the kids dump them in any order, toss and enjoy.

Let the kids put the salad together however they want!

The salad was the easiest and funnest part. First goes the lettuce, then the kids had a blast dumping in the avocado and hard boiled egg. My son dumped in the whole bowl of mushrooms in one swoop. As you can see, it’s not the prettiest salad in the world.

It may not look like much, but this salad is delicious!

And our fingers were goopy and messy by the time we were done. But look at those smiles!

Messy hands, delicious salad, happy kids.

When everything was broiled, tossed and heated to perfection, we sat down at the table with a fancy runner. My kids kept saying, “It’s a feast!” with that child-like wonder in their voices.

getting ready to Mangia Tonight!

It was probably the easiest dinner to make, and yet it was so fun for the kids that they wanted to do it again the next night! And the best part was that they ate it all – seriously, everything! – because they were so involved in the process of making the food.

Hm. Now that’s food for thought.

The perfect dinner salad - let the kids cook for you!

Tonight is the night to create your own Mangia! Find Bertolli items at some of the lowest prices of the year in a Kroger or Kroger banner store near you. (Kroger banners include Fred Meyer, Smiths, Frys, Dillions, King Soopers, City Market, and QFC.) Find a store near you: http://cbi.as/22eph

What do you do to mix up your dinner? How do you make it special for you and those you love?

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Nicole

Tuesday 2nd of February 2016

That salad looks great! I really love avocado in salads!

bhupinder

Friday 29th of January 2016

nice salad especially when prepared by pretty kids. In order to make it more children friendly you can add some fresh mint and borrocoli.

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