The contrast of sweet tomatoes, crisp cucumber and tangy feta gives this salad a bright, refreshing flavor. You can whip it up in one big bowl, but for family meals with picky eaters in attendance, we recommend you arrange it on the table salad-bar style, which allows each family member to create their own unique version of this Mediterranean classic. Olives and cucumbers only? No problem. Cheese on the side, not touching the other foods? You’ve got it! Finally a salad recipe everyone in the family will love!

Ingredients

For the salad:

  • 2 plum tomatoes, diced
  • 1 1/2 English cucumbers, diced
  • 1 red pepper, finely diced
  • 3 tablespoons red onion, finely diced
  • 1 cup pitted kalamata olives, whole or halved
  • 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

For the dressing:

  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • 1 teaspoon dried Italian Seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

To complete the Greek salad:

  • 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
  • 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Method

To make the salad:

Kid: Place the diced tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper and red onion together in a large bowl. Fold in the olives and parsley and toss together until well mixed. Or assign children the task of putting individual vegetables into small, separate bowls.

To make the dressing:

Together: Whisk the red wine vinegar, mustard, honey, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper together in a small bowl.

Together: Slowly add the olive oil to the dressing, whisking constantly.

To complete the Greek Salad:

Kid: Pour the dressing to taste over the salad and toss to ensure all the vegetables are evenly coated. Crumble the feta cheese on top, sprinkle with parsley, divide into 6 portions and enjoy!

We’ve teamed up with the Kids Cook Monday initiative to bring you a weekly recipe that encourages families to set aside the first night of every week for cooking and eating together as a family. Be sure to check out their website for more great ideas on how to empower your kids in the kitchen!

The start of the new year inevitably means trying to stick to that new year’s resolution of fitness and dieting so you can finally fit back into your pre-baby jeans. From liquid diets to only drinking slim fasts to the cabbage soup diet (oh, and don’t even get us started on all of those apple cider vinegar cleanses), all of us at Red Tricycle have tried them all. Admittedly, we’d much rather indulge in a juicy cheeseburger or some red velvet cake than ingest watered-down cabbage soup for days on end, but in reality, January just wouldn’t feel complete without us taking a stab (most of the time unsuccessfully) at a slimmer waist line.

While our team has tried some eye-brow raising and at times, downright disgusting new year’s diets, we thought we’d open up the floor to our readers. Let us know in the comment section below the most bizzarre and craziest diet you’ve ever done and one lucky dieting mama will win a month’s supply of Baby Gourmet baby food. With baby food in hand, you can then join the ranks of Jennifer Aniston, Lady Gaga and Gwyneth Paltrow who have all been rumored to take up the baby food diet to lose weight.

Congratulations to “Danielle Dwyer Ruzicka” on winning a month supply of Baby food with trying one of the craziest diets we ever heard: black coffee, orange peel and sardines packed in oil. Water(64+oz.) a day and add a pinch of red pepper to the water… yikes…

photo credit: inmagine