Salad Mason Jars…easy and delicious!

One thing that I absolutely love…it is finding new recipes and trying them out.  There is just something about the warm fuzzies that flood my whole body when I create something.  I just love it.  Well, I was chatting with a dear friend of mine and she mentioned that she was going to try a new idea for lunch.  Salad Mason Jars.  Have you heard of them?  I hadn’t but I definitely was intrigued. 

After asking a bazillion questions, I decided to try to create them on my own.  SUCCESS!!! 

If you haven’t heard about this amazing delicious goodness…let me share.  It is a salad in a Mason jar.  Seriously, in a Mason jar.  You can chop up all your veggies and layer them in a jar and they stay fresh all week long.  Do you think I am teasing?  I am not.  This is incredible.  In fact, I am so excited about it that it makes me giggle.

Ok…so the key to pack the jars is to pack from wet to dry, bottom to top.  I started chopping the vegetables that were wetter than the others and went from there.   I started chopping and chopping.  (I wished I would have taken a picture of my cutting boards that were on my counter.  It definitely was colorful and pleasing to the eye).  After I chopped all of the veggies that I wanted in my salad this week, I started to layer them in the Mason jar.  I started with the dressing and ended with the lettuce.  The key to keeping the lettuce crispy…it needs to be at the top away from the dressing. Oh…one thing that is important is to pack your veggies and lettuce.  You don’t want to add any extra condensation from open spots.  Does that make sense?

Bottom layer:  Spicy Ranch Dressing

1^st layer:  shredded cheese

2^nd layer:  green peppers

3^rd layer:  Olives

4^th layer:  Garbanzo beans

5^th layer:  shredded carrots

6^th layer:  lettuce

I am on my third day and the veggies are just as crispy as on day one.  I love this new concept (well, at least for me it is new).   I grab it out of the refrigerator in the morning and take it to work.  I don’t have to think about what I am going to have for lunch.  It is already for me.  At lunchtime, I grab my little Mason jar and dump out the ingredients. 

Isn’t this awesome?!  Aw…this just makes me smile.

Let me know if you try it, I would love to know what you put in your Mason jar. 

~Michelle