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

It 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:

Marinated, 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.

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

I might be a little late to the Mason Jar salad party (salad party…whaaat?) but I am happy that I finally tried it out this week. Isn’t this beautiful? (Well, not my photography skills. I have a lot to learn and need a lot of practice. )

I take a salad to work for about 80% of my lunches. This has meant cleaning and chopping veggies nearly every Sunday, and dividing those veggies into multiple separate containers. You see I don’t like to premix my salads. There is just something unappetizing to me to have all of the beautiful colored veggies and proteins at the bottom of a bowl of wilted lettuce. So I typically portion out a daily serving of protein in one container, and then all of the mixed veggies for the day in a separate container, and my greens in a third container. For 4 days of salad this meant 12 containers (Impressed with my math skills? Why, yes. I AM an engineer)hogging room in my fridge, not to mention the constant experiment of how to best bring salad dressing.

This week I did the same prep of cleaning and chopping but layered my ingredients nicely in a jar for my Monday-Thursday lunches. The lettuce was still crisp and the salads were very fresh. Here’s a quick how-to for Mason Jar Salads.

Mason Jar Salad Directions:
It 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. It might not look like a huge jar but it completely fills a restaurant size bowl. I also dump my jar into a bowl rather that eating directly from the jar. Seems easier to eat and I like having the layers mixed together.  After some research and planning this is what I have found to be the optimal layering method:
1. Bottom layer – dressing
2. Second layer – hearty vegetables (think cucumbers, peppers, beets, carrots, onions, etc.) These vegetables will marinate in the dressing so keep that in mind when picking your dressing and veggies.
3. Third layer – proteins (beans, eggs, or meat). You could also do a grain here if you wanted.
4. Last layer – greens.

For my first salad I used:
1. 2 Tbsp of a homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing
2. Cucumbers, peppers, red onion, grape tomatoes
3. Chickpeas
4. Chopped romaine lettuce

I didn’t think cheese would be great in the jar so cheese is one of your favorite ingredients I would recommend brining it separately. I love avocado on my salads but it is definitely an ingredient that I like fresh so I will bring it separate when I decide to incorporate it.

Very easy way to get lots of fresh vegetables in your week and a very easy lunch to grab from the fridge on your way to work. Matt likes salads too but rarely takes one to work. He said I could sign him up for a couple next week. I think this will become a regular lunch in our house, so again I would love suggestions. What are your favorite salad combinations?