Monthly Archives: June 2013

Greek Mason Jar Salad

Life has gotten very busy around here.  Having our house on the market has meant less time in the kitchen and more time ensuring the house is in showing shape every time we leave the door.  Spending less time at home hasn’t been all bad though.  Last weekend we were away from the house most of Saturday and Sunday.  We filled those days with 6 month pictures, lots of time at the park, and visiting with friends.  After feeling like Matt and I needed to be very productive during every second at home it was so nice to have an excuse to have to be out of the house and to have lots of family time together.

I skipped making salad jars last week.  I didn’t know that I would miss them as much as I did!  So this weekend I grabbed all of the supplies to re-do my favorite salad in a jar – Greek Salad!  If you’re looking for a salad with more of a cohesive feel this is a great one to try.

I’ve made these with chicken or vegetarian with chickpeas.  Both are excellent!

Greek Mason Jar Salad

IMG_1940It is really important to make sure your jar and all ingredients are dry before layering so you don’t end up with a soggy salad.  I used the wide mouth quart-sized jars.

Ingredients:

IMG_1937Marinated, cooked and chopped chicken breast
Pitted green olives
Cucumber, chopped
Red onion, chopped
Pepperoncini peppers
Grape tomatoes
Greek salad dressing
Feta cheese

Directions:

  1.  Place chicken breasts in a baking dish and cover with Greek Salad dressing.  Bake in an oven at 350 for 30 minutes or until cooked through.  Let cool before dicing into bite-sized pieces.
  2. After all vegetable are washed, cut, chopped and dried layer your salad in this order:
    1. Bottom layer – dressing (seriously – put it on in the jar)
    2. Second layer – all hearty veggies (olives, cucumber, red onion, peppers and tomatoes)
    3. Third layer – chicken (or chickpeas if you are omitting meat)
    4. Last layer – greens.  I typically use a combination of spinach and romaine.
    5. If not eating the salad that day, bring your feta in a separate contatiner to add to the salad before eating.  The first time I made these salads, I put the cheese at the top.  It was acceptable but the cheese had taken on too much moisture by the end of the week salads.

Jack was my helper this weekend.  He kept me company and practiced his percussion skills while I chopped and layered.IMG_2122

If you are meal planning for the upcoming week, make sure to add this to your menu.  What a perfect salad for summer!

5 Replies

6 Month Update

6 months ago we welcomed this little man into our lives. IMG_6717And in such a short amount of time he has made our lives so much more full.

IMG_1944

(Matt with his new “Jack Pack”)

I think the biggest change this month is that Jack really feels like a kid now.  Whether it is how much older he looks in his clothes or how he “talks” to us like a kid, Matt and I look at each other and ask where our baby went.  And I have a feeling I am going to say this every month but this has been my favorite so far.  Jack is just so much fun that I can’t believe I got so lucky.

I don’t think I realized before becoming a parent how babies’ little personalities really appear early.  He certainly lets us know when he thinks we are funny.  He also is not hesitant to let us know what he doesn’t like.  Right now the big offenders on his list include:  diaper changes, putting on clothes, and having morning snuggle time cut short.

His likes this month include:  bath time (still loves kicking around), chewing on tags and his shirt, silly faces and funny voices, and  this toy from Grandma and Grandpa

IMG_1912Last week he and a little friend worked on passing a ball back and forth.  I love to see his interactions with other little people.  This weekend he cracked up as another friend’s dog kept running by him.  I think it melted Matt’s heart a little.  Maybe a dog (or two) will be in our future?

Sitting is going really well.  His only recognizable word right now is baa-baa (directed at nothing in particular), and he rolls all over the place.  He still only has the two bottom teeth.

We have our 6 month doctor appointment this week so we will get his height and weight stats then.  I feel like he had a big growth spurt in the last couple of weeks though, so I’m pretty interested to see where he falls.  We bought some baby cereals over the weekend and plan to start those soon.

IMG_2000IMG_2009

Quick comparison of the past monthly shots:1Mnth2mnth3Mnth2IMG_1594IMG_1763I feel like Matt and I have changed a lot over 6 months too…probably in ways that are too deep for me to think about today.  But seeing how silly Matt has become (no one can make Jack laugh like Matt) makes me understand why so many friends said they fell even deeper in love with their husbands after children.

Thanks for sharing in the past half year.  I’m sure the next half year will be full of lots of adventures.

 

2 Replies

Boilermaker Baby

 

IMG_1934Daddy and Mama said I can officially announce that we are going to be Boilermakers starting this fall.  Boiler up! (please don’t mind the drool on my shirt.  I’m working on some more teeth!)

Mama has been thinking about being a professor for a long time and says that seeing me grow is showing her how quickly time is going.  The three of us think its time to go for it!  She is pursuing her PhD in Engineering Education and our family is making the big move to West Lafayette, Indiana.   Daddy is working remotely with his company after the move until October and is looking for good leads for his next gig.  If you know of any great companies in the area please let him know.  Besides being the funniest person I know, I hear he is really good with computers.

I am so excited to be in a college town!  I suggested we all move into a frat house together.  They sound like fun, and Mama makes me giggle when she gets home from work and says, “This place looks like a frat house!” about all of my neat toys that we keep throughout the house along with all of their big people things.  I love toys and I love their big people things so a frat house sounds perfect to me!  I think I could show those college boys a thing about style too.IMG_1976

But Daddy went to check out a house for us over the weekend.  He assured me we can take all of my toys and that we can still take a blanket outside to look at the trees and sky together.  AND he said there is an extra bedroom so we can have our favorite people come stay with us.

Mama and Daddy said that we will go to lots of football and basketball games.  I have been very busy this last month passing a ball back and forth between my hands.  I don’t know if they will want me to play on the team but I am going to try to be ready.

I am so excited to live closer to our family!  I have 4 grandparents, 5 great-grandparents, 2 of my aunts and uncles and lots of extended family a much shorter drive away.  We would love lots of visitors!    

I’ll admit I am having some mixed feelings about the move. IMG_1929I have made lots of friends here in my six months and I’ll be very sad not to see them.  Plus, I hope it will be ok to sport Illini gear at Purdue because I have quite an extensive collection of orange and blue.

We will be very busy these next couple of months.  Classes start in the middle of August, our wonderful Brookside house will be on the market tomorrow,  and we are working on enjoying every last precious minute that we can in Kansas City.  We’ve had some visitors in the last week to help prep for the move.

Grandpa Dave came last week to play.IMG_1950

Grandma Laura and Grandpa Mark came last weekend to play too.IMG_1955IMG_1963

Thanks for reading my first guest post.  I might occasionally contribute to the blog if Mama gets busy with research.

3 Replies