Salads-in-a-Jar

Have you heard of these?? In an attempt to eat healthier and save some money, I've decided to try out something that I've seen on Pinterest. My mom actually paved the way. She has been making some of these Salads-in-a-Jar for awhile now and taking them to work with her.

My motivation is that on the weekends, I tend to get very limited breaks at work and have to run off to the lactation room for most of it. On Sunday’s especially, I have almost no time to eat lunch between working in the church nursery until 12:30 and getting to work at 1:00. I thought these Salads-in-a-Jar would be a perfect solution!

These two jars pictured are my first attempt. For those of you who may not have heard of Salads-in-a-Jar before, the idea behind it is pretty simple. Basically you are layering your ingredients so that your salad doesn't get mushy and gross between the times you pack it to when you eat. I’ve read varying accounts of 3-5 days that these will keep nicely in the refrigerator. I’m only going to be doing two days a time.

You just need to remember a few basic principles like:
• always place your dressing on the bottom
• put a hearty veggie next (carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, etc) as a barrier
• lastly add your more delicate ingredients like lettuce
• I have heard that anything that you want to stay crunchy, like croutons, need to be brought separately

If you follow these guidelines, you can supposedly add just about anything to your jars!

My Salad-in-a-Jar includes:
• Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
• Organic grape tomatoes
• Baby carrots
• Shredded cabbage
• Tyson grilled chicken strips (If I was thinking ahead I would have just baked my own... but I didn't)
• Cucumber quarters
• Feta cheese crumbles
• Red leaf lettuce

All packed into a wide-mouth canning jar and ready to go! Yum!