Salad in a Jar

Today what I really really wanted and nearly made the stop on my way home from work was Wienerschnitzel, yes, you heard me I love Wienerschnitzel LOTS.  I know hotdogs are made out of really random crazy parts but you know what?  I like um.  So it wasn’t so much the hotdog I had in mind but the chili cheese fries, not just the original but their new bacon, ranch chili cheese fries.  I saw their add laying in the break room and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  I’m here to tell you that changing your life style and eating better does not come easy for me.  It’s really hard and it takes much effort.  This is how it feels to me.  I’m still learning basically. Now is the time where you give me a big applause because this time I made a different choice  I went against my desire and stopped at the market to get some veggies to add to things I already knew I had at home to make a salad.  I had seen on someone’s Pinterest page this idea.  So it’s not my idea, I didn’t come up with this brilliant plan.  However I’m adopting it and it’s been made, tested, tasted and it’s a for sure a winning idea. Below see how I built my salad in a jar.  It’s a lot of work.  It is!  Lots of washing, chopping and making a nice big mess in the kitchen but since it’s done all at once it makes it worth while.  I made a half-dozen jars of salads that are now easy to grab on the go and super full of goodness.

So these are the jars I began with, 6 clean pint & half sized jars with a wide mouth

Then I cut up some leftover chicken and some cucumbers

Rinsed some black beans, just one can

I love cilantro, so I cut up some of that

Cut up some broccoli (small) this is from my home delivery

Radishes (also from home delivery)

Carrots (again home delivery)

orange bell pepper and red tomatoes

kale (home delivery)

Spinach and not photographed but a little butter lettuce (that was also from my home delivery)

I put a little olive oil and balsamic viniager at the bottom of the jar

I began to layer

This is what it looked like when I finished packing it all in.

Give it a good shake

Dump it on a plate

It fills about this much of the plate and the dressing covered all the crunchy yummy salad parts perfectly (see that heart on the jar lid?)

But you see what I mean? Big Mess

All the lettuce I didn’t use I will bag in a large ziplock

Okay confession, not all these dishes are from this days chopping and preparing.

So I plan to crank some music and clean up this mess next

Then I put the extra’s in my fridge, the fridge in the garage, that’s why this looks so bare;)  TaDa!  I highly recommend this!