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Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Chew On That

Looky what I found on Pinterest! Okay, maybe you've seen this idea before but it's totally new to me. Mason Jar salads that can be made up in bulk four days in advance and they don't wilt and get nasty.


My husband is going to love this idea! No, not because he loves salads, because he doesn't and he would never choose to have a salad if given a choice. He's going to love this idea because *I love salads and now I'll be eating salads every day for lunch and will be less likely to serve him a salad with his entree at dinner time. Heh.   


Of course the main idea is to get all those great, healthy vegetables in each day, but it's also possible to add protein rich foods like eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds, shrimp, etc. Leftover grains like rice or pasta can find their way in there too. 


I'm late on this particular bandwagon apparently. I haven't yet unearthed the original source of this great idea, but it seems to have become popular with the health conscious or dieting crowd that must "brown bag it" during the work week. 

I'm just looking forward to being able to pull a healthy, complete lunch from the fridge thereby resisting the temptation to grab something less appealing and less nutritious but "fast and easy". I may not work outside the home but I am always busy with one thing or another. Stopping an interesting project to make a good lunch for just one person can be such a bother.


2 comments:

Gene Black said...

I am curious as to how long they will last without getting yucky.

Marlene said...

I read a lot of blog posts by various authors and watched a lot of YouTube videos Gene. The consensus seems to be that they easily remain fresh for 4 days and some have eaten one 7 days old and everything was still crisp and fresh looking.

My own opinion before actually trying it is that anything that would stay fresh and edible for 4 days in the refridgerator, packaged separately, should be fine combined like this. The whole idea of making it in this particular manner is that the wet ingredients stay on the bottom separated from the lettuce or other greens but a layer of crunchy, hardier vegetables. Most sources recommended that small whole tomatoes like cherry tomatoes or small grape tomatoes be used rather than cut up larger tomatoes.

My concern would be about putting ingredients in there that would likely spoil in short order even if they were separate. Things like meat, poultry, fish and eggs. For this go round I have used eggs only in the containers that will be eaten today and tomorrow. The rest of the week it's just cheese for the protein. I may try black beans next week.