Salad in a Jar

Today I said I would post about how to make the salad recipes from yesterday easier for people eating lunch from work... The Salad in a Jar concept has been popular these past couple years, and I'm a fan. There are a few tips on how to go about it successfully and I want to show those to you here, while giving you the specifics on how to make yesterday's salad recipes in a quart-size jar.

This photo is from the salads I made when I first learned how to do this. Obviously, from the meat and cheese sticking out at the sides, it was before I started eating lower calorie salads. But, it still gives you a good visual of what to expect.

NOTES:
- The important part about making salads in a jar is putting the ingredients in the jar in proper order. 

     - You want to start with all your "hard veggies" at the bottom. So, in my recipes that would be:         
       onions, peppers, carrots and cucumbers. (For purposes of keeping well, I would chop the  
       cucumbers for the jar, instead of shredding.)
     - The next thing to go in would be the "dressing." So, for the Mexican salad - the salsa, the Greek 
       and lentil salads - the balsamic, and the Asian salad - the Bragg's or soy.

     - Next  you'll want to put in some specific ingredients for each salad... for the Mexi - add the 
       beans, but reserve the avocado to slice fresh into your salad since they brown so quickly; for the 
       Greek - add the olives; for the lentils - add the lentils; and for the Asian - add the oranges, and 
       snap peas. 

     - Then you shove the greens. Fill the rest of the jar up as tight as you can because the less air there 
       is, the nicer these keep.

     - The last thing to go in is anything you want to stay crunchy or free of liquid, so for these recipes   
       I would suggest the feta cheese in the Greek salad, and the almonds in the Asian salad. (You 
       could also just take the almonds in a little baggie and sprinkle them on top.)

- The great thing about layering this way is two-fold: 1) the veggies get marinated in the liquid 
       and it adds a nice punch to the flavor!, 2) when you want to have your salad, you dump it into a 
       bowl and the greens come out first, followed by your toppings. Perfect!

If you take the time to make these on a Sunday, they will keep for the week in  your fridge and you can grab out a new one each morning on your way out the door!