The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: hybrid on May 29, 2014, 10:39:56 AM
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A friend of mine turned me on to the beauty of assembling salads in ball mason jars as quick and easy meals. I could stand to eat healthier and need to lose a few pounds, and I've always liked a dinner salad. The issue I had was salads are an awful lot of work for just one salad, and making a large salad bowl tended to get wilted and soggy in a day or two. This is where the beauty of the jar salad comes in. The recipe is whatever you want it to be, but it goes like this.....
Figure out how many salads you want to make and line up your mason jars for an assembly line process
Pour your dressing into the bottom of the jar first
Next add your bulky veggies and other stuff you don't mind marinating in the dressing
Then add the rest of your ingredients
Then add your lettuce - notice it is above the dressing! Pack it in some, but not too much
Lastly I like a bit of diced cheese in my salad, and I put that on the very top.
Do not add croutons, they will get soggy. Keep them separate.
Put the lid on top of your jar and stash several of these bad boys in your fridge, pull them out as needed.
When ready to serve, shake the jar vigorously upside down to spread the dressing and pour into a large bowl (this is a lot of salad)
I have found that the lettuce stays very fresh in these jars for as long as a week, so I have zero issue making five or six of these at a time. Lately I have been grabbing one out of the fridge just before work and I don't have to waste any time in the mornings prepping lunch. These are so perfect for work.
But wait, there's more! Since I am making these salads in bulk, I am buying the ingredients in bulk from Costco including romaine lettuce hearts or baby spinach, red, yellow, and orange peppers (sold in six packs of two each), eggs, bacon bits, grape tomatoes, a can of chuck peas or kidney beans, etc. As I like some meat in my salad I also like to get a $5 rotisserie chicken from Costco. I use the dark meat and wings for a separate meal and then put the chicken in the fridge. After it has chilled the breast meat easily comes off and is perfect for cubing for salads. My daughter came over Sunday and we made nine of these salads for $23, or about $2.55 per salad. We figured out the calorie count per salad checked in at about 500-600 calories using regular dressing. She absolutely loved it.
I have been spreading the gospel about this and a coworker of mine is bringing these in regularly now too. Daughter and I are making another big batch this Sunday.
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Love this idea. I'm going to try this after I go grocery shopping this weekend!
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I do this too! Everyone at work makes fun of me for it, but it's a great lunch and so easy to prepare on Sundays. Plus you can mix it up. Last week I used Greek Yogurt and salsa as my dressing and it was delicious.
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One note, there is not nearly as much dressing in those jars as there appears to be in the picture, the veggies are taking up a lot of space near the bottom of the jar. That pushes the dressing higher up from the bottom.
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I do this too! Everyone at work makes fun of me for it, but it's a great lunch and so easy to prepare on Sundays. Plus you can mix it up. Last week I used Greek Yogurt and salsa as my dressing and it was delicious.
Good idea about salsa and Greek yogurt. Yep, you can pretty much do whatever woks best. The salads pictured are from a previous batch. This Sunday I think we will do spinach salads with boiled egg, bacon bits, grape tomatoes, etc.
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If you have a jar attachment you can go one step further and vacuum seal the jars, stays fresh quite a bit longer!
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So Mustachian Daughter informs me that her coworkers saw the jar salad on Friday and absolutely raved about it, especially when she shook up all the dressing and poured the salad into a bowl. Her coworkers want to do this now.
We are making more salads today for the coming week.
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I have three jar salads in my fridge right now. The Ball jars they're in were ones I found in the attic of my house when I bought it at auction in 2004. ;)
Thanks Hybrid!
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I think I have another convert at work. She loved the idea. And then I started talking to her about badass frugality, as she has a lot of ways to optimize her spending habits as I once did though she has some fundamentals down and just needs to kick it into a higher gear. Spreadin' the frugal gospel....
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Made Greek "jar" Salad for this week. Had one yesterday. Amazing. Can't wait to show it off at the lunch table today! This has changed my life.
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What size jars are those?
Thanks!
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What size jars are those?
Thanks!
Looks like quart jars to me.
And now I know what food I'm taking with me when I take a long road trip in a few weeks. Even cheap supermarket salads are ~$6 each, and they're too small and come with crappy dressing. Shopping and doing salad prep while on the road is a pain. So thanks for bumping this thread! Problem solved! \o/
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Adding links to jar salad recipe ideas:
http://www.recipecorner.com/recipe/article/easy-and-quick-recipe/5-affordable-mason-jar-lunches-under-500-calories (http://www.recipecorner.com/recipe/article/easy-and-quick-recipe/5-affordable-mason-jar-lunches-under-500-calories)
https://www.pinterest.com/katlthomas/mason-jar-recipes/ (https://www.pinterest.com/katlthomas/mason-jar-recipes/)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/06/mason-jar-salads_n_5452313.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/06/mason-jar-salads_n_5452313.html)
http://www.phillymag.com/be-well-philly/2014/02/12/instagramable-lunch-ever-14-healthy-mason-jar-salad-recipes/ (http://www.phillymag.com/be-well-philly/2014/02/12/instagramable-lunch-ever-14-healthy-mason-jar-salad-recipes/)
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Brilliant idea, thanx!
I've been known to buy the little four pack salads at Costco when I work a lot of hours...trying to do all home made prep now but get bogged down on having to wash/slice/dice nightly and therefore not eating as many salads as I should...this should help.
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I love this idea! I've been looking for a way to incorporate more fruits and veggies into my diet. I'm going to give this a try this weekend! Thanks!
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I'm likin it! I'm thinking greek salads would be excellent this way.