Sanity Salad Anyone??!

I was having dinner with my children yesterday.

It was a normal tea-time, you know the one.... negotiating mouthfuls with my four year old, negotiating staying sat in her seat with the 2 year old (she is like Houdini with any highchair straps – it’s quite incredible!), trying to listen to my 6 year old who was telling me all about his day at school, fielding requests for more drinks, and sauces, and food, and oh yeah, trying to eat a few mouthfuls myself in between too!

My 4 year old, as part of one of his ‘too busy to eat any dinner’ moments, started making up a song and wanting a bit of audience participation.... ‘What do you want in your salad?’ he called it.
Every time he sang ‘what do you want in your salad, what do you want in your salad’ he would then choose one of us to reply with something.

‘Sweetcorn’ offered my four year old as a starter example... blimey I thought, that’s a vegetable... progress on the eating front indeed!

But then.... ‘Chocolate’ replied the 6 year old!............ Ho hum.

And when it came to my turn.... and before I could think...

‘Sanity’ just tripped off my tongue before I could take it back!

Childish I know.

And yes I did set myself right up there for a pang of mummy guilt as my two boys replied in chorus “What’s sanity mummy?’ which then put me in the position where I had to decide whether or not to explain that they were all combined driving me crazy! I am at least pleased to say that I didn’t tell them.

However, it did get me thinking about what exactly a sanity salad would look like, and what would be in it?!

Here is what I came up with....

In place of the lettuce leaves, rocket and spinach, a good helping of relaxed quality family time, doing something that we all think of as fun.

In place of the grilled chicken, some concentrated time with my lovely husband. He is good for me and tasty too!

In place of raw peppers and sweetcorn, a regular run to blow away the cobwebs

In place of the croutons, a sprinkling of visits to see my favourite bands play, to give life a bit of crunch!

In place of the dressing, a covering of nights out with my girlfriends to laugh, confide and play together, helps bind everything else together!

It’s not the wildest salad I’ve ever seen... it won’t get any awards for creativity or originality, but it would keep me healthy and happy. And the best bit is that my life isn’t that far from that already.

What would be in yours??