It's super common for moms to want to take good care of their children, and it's also incredibly common for moms to experience mom guilt for not doing enough, especially when comparing themselves to other moms on social media.
In all honesty, a lot of moms out there might find themselves feeling some kind of way if they come across mom of nine Melanie Cade's Instagram—especially since she decided to do something about her children's fruit and vegetable intake.
With nine children to care for, Cade knew that she needed to do something that made healthy foods easily accessible, but she knew it would be extra helpful if the foods were presented in a fun way.
So Cade made a surprising decision to purchase a restaurant-grade salad station bar and installed it in her kitchen, giving her children an immersive experience every time they make a side salad, fruit salad, or want to grab a small serving of fruits or vegetables on the go.
In a restock video of the salad bar, Cade showed many of the fixings for an American salad bar, including lots of romaine lettuce, chopped broccoli, a variety of nuts and meats, and other vegetables.
There are also chilled fridges underneath the bar, so on one side of the bar, Cade keeps healthy drinks, additional snacks, and sandwich options, and on the other side, she keeps bowls and plates chilled and ready for use.
You can watch the restock video here:
Cade explained that she had noticed that she and her children had started to opt for easy options that were much less healthy and higher in calories, so she began introducing the concept of a salad bar by repurposing a single shelf in her fridge and sorting all of the ingredients into affordable containers from Walmart.
Once she saw that they were frequently using that shelf and saw a positive change in her household, Cade decided to go bigger and purchased the restaurant-grade salad bar. She refills it approximately twice per week, depending on how often the family is home.
It was also a great option for evenings when the children were not in the mood for a full dinner or if they did not like the ingredients from the dinner. They could opt for a salad or fresh sandwich instead.
You can watch a second video with more information about the bar here:
Some followers applauded Cade for being such a wonderful mom.
@raisingcades10/Instagram
@raisingcades10/Instagram
@raisingcades10/Instagram
@raisingcades10/Instagram
@raisingcades10/Instagram
Others agreed and said they were adding a salad bar to their dream kitchen designs.
@raisingcades10/Instagram
@raisingcades10/Instagram
@raisingcades10/Instagram
@raisingcades10/Instagram
@raisingcades10/Instagram
Though installing a salad bar might not work for everyone, Cade made a great point that this could be done using one shelf in anyone's standard kitchen fridge with affordable storage containers.
Meal-prepping can simply mean pre-cutting a bunch of ingredients to make it easier to take healthy meal options and salads on the go, rather than cooking entire meals for the entire week all at once.
Creating a salad or healthy snack shelf in the fridge would be a positive and doable form of meal-prepping that would encourage anyone to choose healthier options.
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter