Quick & Easy Salad In A Jar

Looking for a quick and easy lunch idea for the hubby, the kids or yourself? How about a make ahead salad prepared right inside a mason jar? These salads in a jar are fun, they’re quick and they’re easy to throw together! The key is to layer the ingredients correctly to keep the ingredients as fresh as possible. These can be made at the beginning of your week and you can simply grab one each morning on your way out of the door! Easy-peasy and most of all super healthy! Or as healthy as you’d like for them to be. 🙂 We all know that some salads can be more calorie-laden than your juiciest cheeseburger if you know what I mean! 🙂 There I go drifting into burger land again! Ok, ok, I’ll rein it in and keep it healthy! Back to these lovely, delicious salads. Make them your own and at least try to keep it healthy…at least for today! 🙂

There’s really no recipe for these, just use what you have! I decided to make a couple different options with homemade salad dressings. One of my favorite dressings is a sun-dried tomato. I love the tangy sweetness of it all. I combined the dried tomatoes with the juice from an orange, garlic, honey, apple cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and pepper in a food processor. I layered everything in a quart size wide mouth Mason jar in the following order: Dressing, cucumbers, sweet peppers, kalamata olives, mozzarella, roasted chicken, hard boiled egg, pasta, honey roasted sunflower seeds and mixed greens. Use what you have!

I also did a honey mustard dressing to tenderize collard greens. Super yummy if you’re into raw collards! The trick is to marinate them for at least 3 to 4 hours or even overnight in the dressing. I made the dressing with Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, honey, extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. I layered this one a little differently because the greens needed to marinate in the bottom but I didn’t want to squish them with the roasted potatoes (hearty enough to handle the dressing anyway). I started with the roasted potatoes, collards, hard boiled egg, chicken, cucumber, gorgonzola, bacon and walnuts. Once your ready to serve, you can either shake the jar to toss or simply pour the contents into a salad bowl. So get creative, toss in your favorite, yummy, on-hand ingredients then Say Grace and enjoy!! )

Quick & Easy Salad In A Jar

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

 

A quick and easy salad in a jar; perfect for when you're on the go!

Author: Felesha Bell

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• Sun Dried Tomato Dressing
• ½ c. sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 orange, juiced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 T. apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. honey
• 3 T. extra virgin olive oil
• kosher salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• Spring Mix Salad (amount in each quart wide mouth jar)
• ½ c. cucumber, diced
• ½ c. red pepper, diced
• ½ c. yellow pepper, diced
• ¼ c. kalamata olives, halved
• ¼ c. shredded mozzarella
• ½ bone- in chicken breast, roasted and diced
• 1 hard boiled egg, diced
• ½ c. pasta, boiled and drained
• 2 T. honey roasted sunflower seeds
• ¼ lb. spring mix greens
• Honey Mustard Dressing
• 1 T. Dijon mustard
• 2 T. apple cider vinegar
• 1 and ½ tsp. honey
• ¼ c. extra virgin olive oil
• kosher salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• Collard Green Salad (amount in each quart wide mouth jar)
• ½ lb. fingerling potatoes, roasted and diced
• ¼ lb. collard greens, sliced thin and tossed in honey mustard
• 1 hard boiled egg, diced
• ½ bone-in chicken breast, diced and roasted
• ½ c. cucumber, diced
• 2 T. gorgonzola
• 2 slices thick cut bacon, cooked and chopped
• 2 T. walnuts, toasted

Instructions

1. Sun Dried Tomato - Pulse all ingredients for dressing together until pureed and thick.
2. Pour 4 T. of dressing into the bottom of the mason jar
3. Layer in the following order: Cucumbers, peppers, olives, mozzarella cheese, chicken, egg, pasta, seed, and mixed greens. Cover with lid. Say Grace and enjoy!
4. Collard Green Salad - Shake all of the dressing ingredients in a tightly closed container until combined. Pour over greens until covered completely.
5. Layer in the following order: potatoes, collards, egg, chicken, cucumber, gorgonzola, bacon, and walnuts. Cover with lid and allow to sit for at least 4 hours or overnight. Say Grace and enjoy!

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