Super Salad!

Okay, so the title of the post is from a little family joke that we have.  One day My Dad, Step-mom  Brother and I were out to dinner.  My brother ordered and the waiter asks "Soup or salad?"  My brother answers "Yes."  The waiter asks again "Soup or salad?"  My brother responds a little louder "Yes."  This happened so long ago that I can't actually remember how long this went on, but you get the idea.  But, eventually it got resolved and my brother told us that he thought the waiter was asking if he wanted the "super salad," so that's why he kept saying yes.  So, there you go.  A funny little story from the Perkins history that really doesn't have much to do with this post aside from the fact that it's about salad.  :-)

Instead of a super salad, I'm talking about my adventures in mason jar salads.  A while back, when I still worked outside the home, we had some training sessions and one included a talk on wellness.  Now, the guy who spoke ultimately was trying to recruit everyone to use his chiropractic services, but aside from that, I really liked what he had to say.  His philosophies were pretty much in line with my own - eat healthy, non-processed foods, eat as organically as you can, eat grass-fed meats, and use heart-healthy oils.  Love it!  Most of it was review for me, but I really do enjoy when people reinforce my beliefs.  Haha!  But, there was one thing that he said that I had never considered before.

He talked about all of the different nutrients in foods (protein/fat/carbs/etc.) and how our bodies use them.  He explained that carbs give us energy and the average American diet has it all wrong.  We eat super carb-heavy dinners and then go to bed shortly after that.  We don't use much energy in the evening or while we sleep.  He said that the way we should be eating is to have our carbs in the morning and afternoon, when we need the energy and our dinners should be low carb.  I had never thought of it like that before!  But, it made a lot of sense!  So, I discussed this with Russell and we decided that we should start eating salads for dinner (since that would be something easy for him to take to work).

Enter Pinterest where mason jar meals are running rampant.  I even have a Pinterest board devoted to mason jar meals.  I am, however, not so keen at following directions.  I often take a recipe as inspiration and then put my own twist on it.  The problem is, very rarely do my creations turn out the same twice.  Ask my college roommate, Kellie.  I once made this delicious concoction out of the leftovers from taco night.  I do remember that it consisted of rice, cheese, sour cream and taco meat.  We scooped it up with Doritos (hey, this was college, remember?) and it was freaking AHHHHH-MAZING!!!! Sadly, I have never quite been able to recreate it.  (That really doesn't have anything to do with salad, does it?  Oh well.)

Anyway, I read up on the basics of the mason jar salad.  You put the wet and sturdier ingredients on the bottom, like the dressing, the meat, fruits and/or veggies.  Then you put the things that need to stay for the most part dry at the top, such as the lettuce.  Then I put the things that you want to stay crunchy in a baggie - like croutons or nuts.  Then I perused the menus of some of my favorite places to get salads (like Panera, Runza, or Green Belly) and used that as a starting point.

My first go at this mason jar salad thing was two weeks ago:

#1 is an Asian salad - toasted sesame dressing in the bottom, chicken, green onions, Russell's had mandarin orange (or clementines, maybe?) segments, & greens. You can see the rubber band on that one, that held a baggie of chow mein noodles and slivered almonds to it. 
#2 is bruschetta on the bottom (tomatoes, garlic, basil, and balsamic vinaigrette) and lettuce. I did an Italian-style breaded chicken breast cut up and I made some croutons out of a leftover piece of garlic bread. 
#3 is poppy seed dressing, chicken, blueberries, strawberries and the "7 super foods" salad mix from Costco. 
#4 is buffalo chicken, blue cheese, diced celery & carrots, and salad. I added some ranch on the day of. 
#5 is chicken with a Thai peanut sauce, red bell peppers, cucumbers, green onion, salad mix and the day of I mixed in cashews and chow mein noodles.

I was quite pleased with the results!  The jars actually kind of sealed themselves!  You had to pop the lid off to eat them.  It was nice to just grab a jar, dump it in a bowl and dinner was done!  Plus it looks so pretty and colorful in the fridge.  I ate the last salad like a week after putting them in the jars and it was just as fresh as the first one...seriously!  I love, love, love this!  And my second go at it was much less cumbersome than the first one.  :-)

I do have a couple of repeats this week:
#1 Asian Salad, like above.
#2 Bruschetta salad, like above, but I forgot that I did the breaded chicken last time, so I added diced chicken breast.
#3 The poppyseed dressing with berries, like above...except Costco didn't have the "7 super foods" salad mix, so I just used lettuce.
#4 Once I realized that I was going to have extra Italian chicken, I threw together a Caprese salad (fresh mozzarella  basil, balsamic vinaigrette) with some lettuce and I'll add the chicken and homemade croutons on the day of.
#5 Salmon in balsamic vinaigrette and spinach.  On the day of, I'll add walnuts and dried cranberries.
I made 2 of each (I at one for lunch, leaving 9.  :-)  I should be set for the week!

And then, because I'm a show-off, you can see the smoothies that I have for breakfast on the right.  In case anyone is wondering, that includes: frozen berries, Greek yogurt, tart cherry juice (I SWEAR by this!!), and a scoop of protein powder.  I used to add either chia seed or flax seed, but I ran out and keep forgetting to get more.  So, there you go!  My adventures in mason jar salads!  I have a whole list of recipes that I want to try, so I'll keep you all updated!!  :-)