Perfect Mason Jar Salad Recipes for Road Trips

Once I consider my life-changing moments, it’s a brief listing. The possibility to maneuver overseas for the primary time as an elementary college scholar. Holding my new child twins as a first-time mom. And discovering mason jar salads. You could snigger (or roll your eyes in case you dwell with an adolescent as I do), however mason jar salads really reworked my consuming habits.

By prepping every week’s price of salads at one time, I’m extra prone to seize a salad for lunch or dinner as an alternative of a high-sodium, saturated fat-filled, usually unhealthy frozen meal. And in case you haven’t heard, of us living past 100 in “Blue Zones” world wide are selecting a Mediterranean weight-reduction plan of greens, fruits, lean protein, and wholesome fat, not frozen burritos, frozen pizzas, and modern-day TV dinners.

What Is A Mason Jar Salad?

Mason jar salads layer elements right into a wide-mouth glass jar in a particular order, making certain that the entire elements will keep contemporary for as much as 5 days. And whereas anybody might spoon potato salad right into a mason jar and preserve it at its peak for every week, mason jar salads maintain romaine lettuce, contemporary spinach leaves, child kale, and different leafy greens crisp.

Professional Tip: These 32-ounce, wide-mouth mason jars work greatest for mason jar salads.

How Do You Make And Retailer The Excellent Mason Jar Salad?

Hate getting out a pile of fruits, veggies, and leafy greens each time you wish to make a salad? (I do.) That’s why mason jar salads had been so life-changing for me! You solely have to clean, slice, shred, and chop elements as soon as to organize every week’s price of wholesome meals!

Though I share a few of my favourite mason jar salad recipes beneath, you possibly can simply convert any salad recipe right into a mason jar salad by filling the mason jar in a chosen order.

Begin by pouring your required dressing on the backside of a big wide-mouth mason jar. Then add the hearty elements, like proteins and crunchy greens, adopted by any eggs or cheese. Subsequent come extra delicate elements like tomatoes, peas, fruit, and berries. Then fill the remainder of the jar with greens. (I shoot for at the very least 40 to 50 p.c greens in my mason jar salads.) Tightly safe the lid and retailer the salad jars in a fridge or cooler the place they’ll keep contemporary for as much as every week!

When you ought to at all times dry leafy greens as a lot as potential when making a salad, it’s particularly necessary to take action when assembling the proper mason jar salad. Along with including the greens as the ultimate layer within the mason jar, eradicating any lingering water will assist maintain the lettuce crisp.

Professional Tip: What in case you (or somebody you like) isn’t into lettuce or different leafy greens? You possibly can nonetheless make the most of handy mason jars — with a substitution. A protein-packed, high-fiber different to lettuce is quinoa. Every of these four salads focuses on it (as an alternative of greens) as the first ingredient.

Different Suggestions for Making Mason Jar Salads

Listed here are a number of different suggestions that may assist you to grasp mason jar salads very quickly:

• Whereas it’s straightforward to see the advantage of spinning lettuce simply as soon as for every week’s price of salads, save much more time through the use of pre-washed bagged lettuce, spinach, spring combine, or different greens.
• For those who’re changing an everyday salad recipe right into a mason jar salad, don’t fret the order an excessive amount of. Simply don’t put something that may get soggy, mushy, or slimy on prime of the dressing (like croutons and nuts) and be sure you add the leafy greens as the ultimate layer.
• Mason jar salads are a good way to breathe new life into leftovers. Have some further rotisserie rooster, shredded pork, taco meat, salmon, black beans, or chickpeas? Use these elements to your protein layer!
• Quick lower the creation of your protein layer by tossing a bit of fish, flippantly seasoned rooster breast, or frozen breaded rooster patty into the oven or strain cooker when you wash and lower the opposite elements. Or pace issues up much more by buying a rotisserie rooster or defrosting pre-cooked rooster strips to cube or shred. Canned tuna and rooster are fast choices for meat lovers, and a can of rinsed black, cannellini, or garbanzo beans will do the trick for vegetarians and vegans.

How Do You Eat A Mason Jar Salad?

When it’s time for lunch or dinner, merely give the mason jar a couple of good shakes and invert the elements onto a plate or into a big bowl. The greens can be on the backside, adopted by your whole favourite mix-ins, and the dressing tops all of it off. And, whether or not you choose romaine lettuce, spinach leaves, kale, or another choice, the salad greens will keep crisp and contemporary for as much as 5 days (supplied you add them to the mason jar final)!

Street Tripping With Mason Jar Salads

My household loves testing the native meals scene once we journey. In reality, we spend as a lot time researching the place we’re going to eat as what we’re going to do within the cities we go to! However we additionally attempt to eat at the very least one meal a day with meals we’ve packed from house or bought at a neighborhood grocery retailer, often breakfast or lunch. Not solely does that assist us stretch our journey funds, however it additionally permits us to make wholesome decisions in a rustic the place restaurant portion sizes are persistently super-sized.

A collection of mason jar salads suits properly in our giant cooler together with wholesome breakfast and snack choices like boiled eggs, yogurt, cheese sticks, and contemporary fruit. It’s straightforward to clean out the empty mason jars every night time, and, to save lots of area as we proceed our adventures, we frequently refill them with extra wholesome snacks we purchase alongside the way in which.

My Favourite Mason Jar Salads for Street Journeys

Mason Jar Taco Salad

Whoever invented the taco salad is a genius! Like all mason jar salads, it’s straightforward for every member of the family to customise a mason jar taco salad. Browning one pound of floor beef offers protein for 2 to 4 mason jar taco salads. My meat lover enjoys often substituting canned chunk rooster or a shredded rooster breast to make her taco meat, and I often open a can of black beans for mine. And every of us can customise the remainder of the mason jar meal to our coronary heart’s content material.

Burrito Bowl In A Mason Jar

Starting with a tasty chipotle cream sauce, I like layering the elements of this easy burrito bowl recipe into mason jars utilizing the useful dandy graphic above in order that I’ve every week of grab-and-go choices out there.

Mason Jar Greek Salad

The identical mix-and-match flexibility is on the market with this mason jar Greek salad. It’s straightforward for us to customise proteins like slices of packaged gyro meat, rooster breast, and chickpeas earlier than layering in our desired mixture of tomatoes, cucumber chunks, slices of crimson onion, and crumbled feta cheese.

Mason Jar Cobb Salad

With a creamy blue cheese dressing base, crunchy greens, and loads of deli meats, boiled egg, and bacon bits, a classic cobb salad is a really filling meal packed right into a mason jar.

Strawberry Spinach Mason Jar Salad

Nothing indicators that summer time (and summer time street journeys) are on the way in which like seasonal strawberries and garden-fresh spinach. That’s why this strawberry spinach salad is one other favourite. Begin by pouring the poppyseed French dressing right into a mason jar, then layer the crumbled goat cheese, pecan items, quartered strawberries, and spinach.

Professional Tip: Make this salad sooner through the use of pre-packaged candy and spicy pecans (I like those at Dealer Joe’s) and ready poppyseed dressing.

Rainbow Salad In A Mason Jar

You’re positive to get a rainbow filled with contemporary veggies making this salad in a mason jar. Begin with the dressing of your alternative after which layer in orange carrots, crimson tomatoes, inexperienced cucumbers, and different veggies earlier than topping the jar with spring combine lettuce.

Mason Jar Chef Salad

Together with simply suiting every diner’s style, a mason jar chef salad helps you clear out the fridge as you prep to your street journey. Obtained a couple of leftover slices of turkey, half of a rooster breast, or some shredded pork? These are good proteins for a mason jar chef salad.

Have a child that hates tomatoes or a hubby who can’t get sufficient olives? Put out a collection of veggies, cheeses, fruits, and different salad elements and let every individual construct their salad as desired. Keep in mind, the primary rule of success is layering the elements within the order talked about above, ending with the lettuce on prime.

Grilled Vegetable Mason Jar Salad

Because the climate turns colder and veggies similar to cauliflower, candy potatoes, and pumpkins are in season, this grilled vegetable salad hits the spot. Roast or grill the veggies, then layer them between balsamic dressing on the underside and child spinach or one other leafy inexperienced on the highest.

Mason jar salads are a quick and straightforward method to make every week’s price of salads at a time and pack your road-trip meals with leafy greens, veggies, and fruits.