This is a guest blog by Kaylie Chrismon.
One of the worst things about packing a healthy lunch is having a soggy salad. When your salad sits in salad dressing all morning, the spinach and lettuce become wilted and you may even throw it out and choose a not-as-healthy option.
Putting your salad in a mason jar and layering the toppings appropriately can keep your salad crisp, fresh, and perfect at lunchtime. Mason jars are also convenient and reusable.
How to build your mason jar salad from the bottom up:
Bottom layer: your dressing – putting dressing in the bottom keeps it from making other ingredients, especially your greens, wilted – try the simple combination of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, or add some cottage cheese, or choose your favorite healthy salad dressing
Next layer: other wet ingredients that can make your salad wilted, like chopped tomatoes
Next layer: drier ingredients that will not affect your greens, like carrots, bell peppers, radish slices, cheese, olives, cucumbers, artichokes, hard boiled egg slices, celery.
Next layer: completely dry ingredients like nuts, seeds, and croutons
Top layer: greens – try spinach, mixed greens, or even baby kale!
You can either eat these straight from the jar if you are taking them to school or work, or you can pour them onto a plate and eat them this way if you are at home. If you decide to eat them straight from the jar, just give them a good shake to get your salad dressing evenly distributed.
Making salads in a mason jar also makes for easy meal prep. Once a week, sit out 4-5 mason jars and layer your ingredients so that you have salads you can grab in a hurry.
Challenge: Try to think of ingredients that are seasonally appropriate, like apples and butternut squash in the fall. Chop apples to put in your salad or roast butternut squash cubes to add sweetness or dried cranberries. In the winter season, you could add roast turnips, parsnips or other root vegetables along with pomegranate seeds. In the summer season, you could add fresh blueberries and fresh figs.
About our Guest Blogger. Kaylie Chrismon Teague is a registered dietitian nutritionist who loves to cook and eat vegetables.