Salads in a Mason Jar
I’ve seen these mason jar salads all over Pinterest and Instagram, and have been wanting to make them myself for quite a while now. I love the idea of just grabbing a jar and having a healthy lunch or snack right at your fingertips.
These jars took just minutes to make. I decided to keep mine simple, which helped make the process super easy.
I wanted to use ingredients that all members of my family would eat, as I hoped that having some beautiful jars of goodness in our refrigerator would encourage my 3 girls to grab one and eat up their veggies.
It worked, especially on my oldest girl who is a cross-country runner and is quite motivated to get her veggies in! She loved these so much that she asked if she could take them in her school lunch instead of a sandwich.
Salad in a Jar
I’ve seen quite elaborate salads- in- jars all over the internet, but I knew simple would work best for our family. Most that I’ve seen put the dressing at the very bottom, then add veggies, a protein (beans or hard-boiled eggs) then the salad at the top.
Putting hearty vegetables in-between the dressing and the lettuce keeps the lettuce dry and makes them last 5-7 days in the refrigerator. It is great for a to-go lunch or snack.
My family members all like a different dressing, so I skipped putting the dressing in the bottom. We ended up eating most of these at home, where we could easily grab the dressing we liked, dump the jar onto a plate, and add any other toppings at the time of eating.
Really, for my family, the salad jars were a great way to present enticing, healthy, grab and go food. I think it is worth the little bit of time to put the jars together to make this happen.
Sometimes when veggies just sit in their bags in the refrigerator, my girls are less likely to grab them and eat them. Having them in such pretty jars really made a difference in the number of vegetables we consumed that week.
I’ve written before about keeping fresh veggies cut in jars in our refrigerator. Most weeks when I am making a salad for dinner, I will cut up extra vegetables and put them into jars–again–worth the extra time for my family to see healthy foods in our refrigerator.
They will not grab a cucumber and cut it up to eat it, but they will grab a jar of sliced cucumbers and munch away.
The week I made these jars, I made sure I had hard-boiled eggs peeled and chopped, ready to go as it is one of my families’ favorite salad toppings and a great way to add protein.
I also had red pepper slices and cooked peas, both in separate jars, which are two of my favorite salad toppings.
In my pantry, I had a large jar of croutons, a jar of dried cranberries & a jar of sunflower seeds, all of which are great salad toppings.
Jars a wonderful way to keep healthy ingredients at your fingertips, store ingredients so that they last a long time, and make the refrigerator and pantry look beautiful and organized. I just love them!
Below is a list of salad ingredients that can be stored in jars to top your Simple Mason Jar Salad, or to make more elaborate Mason Jar Salads.
If you are wanting to make these with the dressing and all of the ingredients layered in the jar, make sure you buy large mouth jars and layer the ingredients in the right order.
Best Order:
Dressing, hearty vegetables (ones that can marinate in the dressing without breaking down like carrots, peppers, grape tomatoes, cucumbers), fruits, protein/carb (beans, pasta, chicken), dry toppings (seeds, croutons, dried fruit) then lettuce.
Ingredient Ideas for Mason Jar Salads
Peas
Simple Mason Jar Salads
Here is how I made mine:
Cucumber
Shredded Carrots
Shredded Broccoli Stalks
Baby Spinach
Lettuce Mix
*all of my ingredients (except cucumber) came prepped in bags from Trader Joes- easy!
Directions:
Add ingredients in jars in the order given. Put a lid on and store in refrigerator 5-7 days.
When ready to eat, take out, add whatever extra toppings you would like, add dressing & enjoy!
What about you?
Do you like the idea of having these available in your refrigerator ready to grab and eat? Do you think it would motivate you to eat more veggies?
For a very detailed article on Mason Jar Salads, click here.
Laurie
April 23, 2016 at 6:20 pmNew to your blog. This is my adventure to lightening up my life. And I my goal is to rid plastic of any sort in my life. I am glad I find you. Because of your goals keeping simple & clean fridge. So, I have bought my 1st set of 12 mason jars quarts size for salads, fruit with yogurt & storing. I am also a big on having smoothies for breakfast person. So I can already see an abundant of articles you have written I will read. Thank you so much for sharing. I keep up with you via google. Blessings, Laurie
AmyNewNostalgia
April 25, 2016 at 1:57 pmThank you for your sweet comment! So glad you have found the site useful. I would love for you to sign up via the form in sidebar to be on my email list, that way you will never miss a post. Comments like yours are so encouraging and keep me posting!