I am so excited to have my friend, Dusti, share her knowledge of making these convienent, beautiful, and frugal salads! Dusti is always showing off her beautiful pictures of these salads and I’ve been intrigued by them. I shared one of her pictures on my Facebook page and everyone LOVED them. Lots of people had questions about them…how to store them, how to stack the salad, how long they last…so I asked Dusti if she could share her wisdom with us all!
Mason Jar Salads
Thank you to my friend Jackie from “The Paleo Mama” for allowing me to write a guest blog post for her! It’s my first ever guest post, so please ignore my lack of writing skills!
Like most families, we continue to battle the “convenience” monster that hits the house between 11-1pm for lunch and 5-6pm for dinner. Since we like to eat fresh, whole foods, we have to prepare our foods and not being prepared adds to frustration and poor eating choices of grabbing something…anything…too quickly.
Having a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter can make prepping for meal times challenging. I work from home (i.e. working during naps when I could be prepping meals and after kids are in bed at night) with my photography business (Dusti Lynn Photography), my husband stays busy with full-time work as a firefighter for the City of Savannah, a Crossfit coach, and he, also, started up a new business, as of six months ago, called RetroFit Custom Design. We are very busy, but it’s so important to us to eat good, whole foods, so we try to find foods that we can prep all and at once, and foods that will last several days at a time.
One thing I continued to see over and over again on Pinterest was these meals in a jar – specifically “Mason Jar Salads“. We are always trying to increase our raw produce consumption and although we love salads, to stop and prep a salad each meal wasn’t working out too well.
So one week I decided to give it a go. I was skeptical of the freshness lasting beyond 1-2 days. I continued to read that they stay fresh for up to 5 days. I was very pleased to discover that on day 4 after making the salads, they were still very fresh!
It’s SUCH an easy way to add variety to your lunches while taking in a large quantity of raw produce.
The Basic “Rules” of Mason Jar Salads:
Rule One: Make sure your veggies are fresh – try to buy local, fresh from the ground produce to ensure your veggies aren’t a week old by the time you buy them at the grocery store
Rule Two: Dressing goes in first. Do not get it on the sides of the jar. Dressing does not need to touch the lettuce, spinach, greens, etc. It will wilt and make it yucky.
Rule Three: Try to put the veggies in the bottom on top of the dressing that would do well with marinating – onions, mushrooms, zucchini, squash, etc.
Rule Four: Use the hearty veggies next to the greens to help buffer from the more moist veggies/fruits. Cherry tomatoes are excellent for this. Try not to use cut tomatoes unless they are at the bottom of the jar due to their higher water content!
Rule Five: For the dairy eaters – I do not choose to layer my cheese in the mason jars. Many recipes show that this is ok, but it’s a personal preference as I typically add stinky cheeses to mine and don’t want it in for a couple of days with the rest of my salad!
Rule Six: Store in the fridge until right before you are going to eat them.
That’s it! Use your favorite salad recipe and layer accordingly! You can’t go wrong!
Here’s a typical prep day for me…
1. I clean my prep area and get my jars out and ready.
2. I rinse/drain any veggies/fruits to allow them plenty of drying/draining time while prepping the other produce.
3. I make my dressing(s). This usually happens every other week due to the fact I try to make enough at once to last through two-three prep days.
4. I chop or grate all the produce and layer accordingly.
5. Toast any nuts I plan to toss with my salad when it’s time to eat and store in a tightly sealed container.
6. Prep any animal protein we plan to eat with our salads in portion sized containers to make it easy when it comes time to enjoy.
I’ve compiled a few of my favorite recipes. But I’m serious – almost every single salad recipe you enjoy can be made this way. Just be sure to keep the dressing at the bottom along with any watery fruits/produce and the greens at the top. It’s seriously that simple. You can use store bought dressings or make your own. It really is amazing how versatile this can be.
Rosemary White Wine Vinaigrette
- Rosemary
- white wine vinegar
- olive oil
- garlic
- ground black pepper
- salt
CLICK HERE for the Rosemary Dressing Recipe!
Here is my absolute favorite mason jar salad recipe. With leftover grilled steak and a tiny bit of gorgonzola, it tastes more like a special treat than a super healthy-for-you meal!
– 2 tablespoons Rosemary White Wine dressing
– shredded carrot (I use around ½ cup)
– thinly sliced red onion – about ¼ cup
– well-drained mandarin oranges
– handful of blueberries
– arugula
– sometimes chia seeds are added on top of the mandarin oranges
Here are some links to other salads I’ve loved…
Chunky Mediterranean Mason Jar Salad
Enjoy! And please make sure to ask any questions and share photos of your mason jar salads along with your favorite recipe to The Paleo Mama’s Facebook page!!
These look great! My family is going to start a garden this year (yay!), so this is a great idea for when those veggies are fresh from the garden. Thanks for sharing (Dusti & Jackie)!
Thanks, Paul! Make sure to post a photo to The Paleo Mama’s FB page to share what you put together!!!
Great job Dusti!! Question……would you add avocado to the bottom or keep it separate till ready to eat? Also, do you eat the salad from the jar or dump it out to eat? Love this!!
Dusti doesn’t put avocado in the jar when she preps the salads. She prefers to eat avocado fresh and cut the avocado at the time of eating. I’m sure you could probably add avocado but make sure you put lemon juice on it to keep it from turning brown. My guess would be to put the avocado near the bottom where the dressing is.
Thank you, Jackie for answering about the avocado!
I dump it out on a plate to eat – I shake it gently to get the dressing on the greens and then put it on a plate. Thanks!
I’ll be honest–I clicked on this because I thought, “Why would you put a salad in a mason jar?” But you sold me. I’m trying this out a.s.a.p. Thanks for sharing!
Yay! Thanks! Be sure to share a photo or two of what salads you put together on The Paleo Mama’s Facebook page 🙂
Love this ! Great way to get my husband to eat better!
Thanks! I’ve found that we all eat healthier if things are made for us to grab quickly and that are very appealing to the eye. These salads in a jar are definitely very pretty to look at when I open my fridge! Makes it easy to make a smart choice!
What size mason jars do you use?
Quart sized with wide open mouths.
Do you “seal” the jars with a vaccuum sealer? Do you cut the lettuce with a knife or tear it? Thanks!!!
No vacuum sealer is needed! Just cut the lettuce!
I just tear the lettuce. I try to spin it in a salad spinner first to get as much water off as possible!
Love this idea! Dusti, your photographs are beautiful!
Thank you, Shauna! Food photography is new to me – I’m used to chasing toddlers to photograph 🙂
I love this idea! I shared it on Facebook.
This might seem like a silly question, but do you eat the salad out of the jar or do you have to put it into another container? I’m thinking abt doing this idea for a baby shower
When I take it on the go, I eat it right out of the jar. Just give it a shake and a stir!
Can you store of all the salad ingredients in the mason jar without any dressing? Would it stay fresh as long?
another dressing idea… https://www.amazon.com/BNTO-Cuppow-Canning-Lunchbox-Adaptor/dp/B00DUF5DRM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384802081&sr=8-1&keywords=cuppow++bento
This is SO brilliant. I love to have a salad every day for lunch, but it really is time-consuming to pull out all the veg and chop and chop and chop. But to do several days’ worth one evening and ta-daaa! Lunches ready for the week? Brilliant, I say, brilliant! Thank you!
Thank you Amy and you’re welcome!
Thank you for the recipe, I used it on my Whole 30 blog! https://mekwhole30.blogspot.com/
I didn’t see anything about it but aren’t you supposed To vaccum seal the jars?
Not necessary if you plan to use within a few days.
Not necessary when using within a few days
I want to do this! This would be great to take to work for lunch! Hope your having a fabulous week!
I love this! I am going to try this this weekend! I have white plastic mason jar lids. Can I use those or is the traditional 2 piece mason jar lid a MUST to keep the salad fresh? thanks
I think as long as the lid keeps the jar airtight you should be OK with it.
This looks so yummy, I’m heading to the store now for ingredients!