.

Yes, salad in a jar.

I could eat salad for lunch and dinner every day and not get tired of it. I order it at restaurants when I’m feeling confident about the restaurant, though I’m usually disappointed with brown lettuce and tomato butts. I HATE TOMATO BUTTS.

I have been wanting to do this for years. I first came across Paula’s blog (aptly titled Salad In A Jar) in 2009, not long after I moved my own stuff over here to Heather’s Bytes. I was instantly intrigued because if there’s one thing I love more than sweets, it’s salad.

Is that messed up? I don’t even care.

My biggest problem with having salad at home, though, is that it goes bad so quickly. I could buy a head of lettuce or a bag of pre-chopped salad and just a few days later it’s wilted and brown. We have some with dinner for a night or two, and Mike takes some for lunch, but there’s always half a bag left over that I have to toss. (It’s not a Mary Poppins carpet bag of lettuce or anything — I buy the huge bags at Sam’s for under $2 each).

Anyway, salad in a jar just makes sense. You use a FoodSaver machine with a mason jar attachment and voila, you’ve got non-wilting salad for two weeks without having to run to the store every other day. You do it in a jar because they’re portable, and the FoodSaver bags would crush the salad. Plus, the jars are reusable and those bags are ridiculously not.

(Of course, you still have to keep it in the fridge.)

I picked up the quart-sized, wide mouth canning jars at Walmart for $10 for a case of 12, and four bags of salad from Sam’s for under $8. I could easily get heads of lettuce and do it myself but come on. I’m apparently too lazy for that. I get iceberg lettuce because, while I know it isn’t as nutritious as Romaine, the whole family approves of it, so whatever works.

I also get the big containers of grape tomatoes at Sam’s, which don’t even last as long as the salad does, but that’s because I eat them, not because they go bad too fast. I want to experiment with them and see if they’ll last longer in a jar too, but I’m afraid of wasting them if it doesn’t work.

Topping ideas are endless. If you’re making dinner with it, I like to use leftover chicken, shredded Parmesan cheese, whatever dressing, tomatoes and baked croutons. For a light lunch you could use mushrooms, sunflower seeds and raisins (it’s not as weird as it sounds, I promise).

This is why I will never get tired of salad. Put anything you want on it.

Which I’m going to go do right now.

Posted in Dinner, Gadgets, Tips, Tricks & Ideas, Vegetarian/Veg Option

Tags:foodsaver.mason jars.salad.salad in a jar