Ah, the old salad in a jar that went viral years ago. It’s been on my mind lately as I was contemplating a better quick lunch option for both David and me as a goal of mine for us lately is more produce and fiber. Protein I’ve pretty much had down, but I was noticing it was starting to come at the cost of veggies and quality fats, so I’ve modified our breakfasts and lunches to improve in these areas.
If you weren’t around during the salad in a jar craze, let me give you a brief introduction to the concept. You prep all the ingredients you need for you salad, then layer them upside down to how you might normally in a salad bowl for the benefit of longevity without sogginess in the fridge so you can eat them all work week long.
Steps to Make Salad in a Jar
- Pour your salad dressing in the bottom of the jar.
- Add hearty beans, grains, or pasta.
- Add your chopped vegetables, hearty ones like cucumber or carrots.
- Add a layer of crumbled cheese if you so desire.
- Add in your chopped chicken.
- Add any softer vegetables or fruits, like avocados or tomatoes.
- Add any nuts or seeds.
- Fill the rest of the jar with salad greens (or keep these separate if you prefer).
- Screw the lid on the jar and store in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.
Easy enough, right? We’ve been eating this Greek salad this week and ate all five jars within 4 days and it stayed tasty fresh and delicious. Mostly importantly for me though, lunch prep was done, all we had to do was dump it in a bowl and eat, and I knew we were getting a great nutrient blend, balanced macros, and a satiating midday meal.
I’m recording it here to share with you of course and to be able to refer back to myself since I calculated the macro breakdown and both David and I thought they were delicious. I’ll definitely be making these again.
You can use your own dressing of course, but I went with Primal Kitchen’s Greek Dressing and really liked it. Also, if you have large jars, you can put your salad greens in the jar last as part of the salad in the jar, but I opted to keep mine separate because I had pint sized jars and I really like how crisp my greens keeper keeps my chopped romaine.
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For my chicken, I baked a couple breasts seasoned with salt and pepper, then let them cool completely, then diced them to add to the salad jar.
A funny thing I noticed, too, is that it had been so long since I measured food or checked portion sizes, that I didn’t really realize how much protein is packed into a relatively small portion of chicken. And that feta added decently to the protein count, too! It was a happy surprise. I made all the jars the same, and for David’s lunch, I had him add another 1/2 c of chicken that I stored, prepped, next to the jars, for the added boost he needs.
These fit perfectly into my favorite dinner bowls. I calculated the macro breakdown for the exact portions I used, but feel free to adjust the amount of ingredients to best suit your tastes. Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!
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Greek Salad in a Jar
Yield: 5 lunch salads 1x
Description
Prep ahead and enjoy a tasty, crisp, hearty Greek salad for lunch all week long! Layered in a way to prevent a soggy salad; I hope you love these as much as I do!
2 Tbsp Greek dressing
1/3 c chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 Tbsp finely diced red onion
1/4 c chopped cucumber
1 heaping Tbsp of sliced kalamata olives
1/4 c quartered grape tomatoes
1/4 c crumbled feta cheese
1/2 c (85g) chopped cooked chicken breast
1 c chopped romaine
Instructions
Wash and chop your ingredients, then layer into the jar in the order listed above: dressing, chickpeas, red onion, cucumber, olives, tomatoes, feta, chicken, then lettuce.*
Notes
*If you are using smaller jars, feel free to keep the lettuce separate. When ready to eat, add a handful of lettuce to a bowl, then dump the jar on top of it.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 jar
- Calories: 432
- Fat: 25
- Carbohydrates: 20
- Fiber: 8
- Protein: 35
