I’m excited to be partnering with Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen to share the Kids Fit Menu Challenge with you guys. Local high schools competed for a chance to have their culinary creation added to the Cheddar’s Kid Fit Menu. All opinions are my own.
“It’s okay, Mom…I won’t get mad. You can tell me! Did it actually have vegetables in it?”
Jack was questioning me, and hard. He’d just finished the Pizza Dippers at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, and the marinara sauce was full of veggies.
“It was pizza sauce, Jack! You know what’s in pizza sauce. You eat it all the time!”
“Yeah, but did it have extra veggies?” he asked. He was worried. When it comes to eating his veggies, he’s in anything-veggie-makes-me-gag camp.
“Just finish your lunch please.”
He did finish his lunch, but not without asking me about one million times if he’d eaten veggies in his Pizza Dippers.
Of course, he had. The marinara sauce is packed with veggies (and not just the regular ones). This is probably why is has an orange-ish tint to it. But I couldn’t tell him that until we left, unless I wanted our peaceful lunch to dissolve.
So, we ate our lunches in peace and on the way to the car I said, “Yes…there were extra veggies in the marinara sauce.”
Y’all. I consider this a little life lesson. He ate the veggies. He didn’t gag. He liked them.
Select Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchens are rolling out a new KidsFit menu with Pizza Dippers (described by our server as “bomb,” and I concur) and a Honey Lime Chicken Wrap (that we also loved, and I actually took home and polished off for dinner).
Back in April, I got to attend the coolest competition, hosted by Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen. Local high school culinary programs brought their best dishes for a chance to win a spot on the new, healthy Kids Fit menu. It was so fun to watch the kids prepare their dishes and see who won! To see their creations come to life in an actual restaurant was even cooler. Plus, my kids knew all about the event and were super excited to see the winning meals, which was a fun bonus.
The winners were Abelardo Villegas and Hope Cachay from Jack E. Singley Academy and Kaitlyn Flenker and Vivian Martin from Buinger Career and Technology Education Academy, and it was well-deserved (the competition was tough, and their recipes were excellent).
While we were waiting for lunch, I let the kids play printable tic-tac-toe. They normally play on the kids menus, but they fill them up so fast. While I am certainly not 100% consistent with this rule, we almost never let them have screens when we’re out at restaurant (and for what it’s worth, I am totally not judging any kid with a screen at a restaurant…on occasion, my kid is one of them…but this is a rule we try to stick to). At this point, they rarely even ask to see my phone or have an ipad when we go out to eat, and they’ll color and play games while we wait. So, I thought I’d make this and stick in my purse for occasions like this.
At first, I thought they wouldn’t be interested, but they were totally into it and played until lunch came (I made two game boards, so they could each play with us, too). You can download your own printable tic-tac-toe board and playing pieces below (print on card stock if you can…and then store in a ziplock bag).
Back to lunch!
We tried both of the new dishes and they were both excellent. Actually, I would like an adult version of the Honey Lime Chicken Wrap (which I suppose would be the same as the kid version, but maybe with some veggies on the side…although I’m not complaining about the strawberries and key lime mousee it came with!).
You can find the Kids Fit menu, which follows strict guidelines regarding the amount of sugar, sodium and trans fat in the dishes, at the following locations in the DFW area: Bedford, Garland, Allen, Dallas, Greenville Ave., The Colony, Little Road, MacArthur, Mesquite.
And while I can’t say we completely turned the tide on Jack’s anti-veggie stance, I would certainly consider his veggie-loaded marinara sauce a little win. And that’s how we conquer anything, right?!
One veggie at a time.
You can check out the menu here.
You can read about the Kids Fit Menu competition here.
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