I am a busy person who loves salads, and for long time I faced difficulties of having salads during the weekdays as I couldn't prepare them ahead of time to avoid eating soggy lettuce that would sit in a salad in my fridge for over three days. It took a month researching for knowing how to add more salads into my weekly meals. Luckily, I found the below video that taught me the right way of preparing fresh and nutritious veggies in the salads and store them for one week by using a glass pot.
With that pot, you can stack everything up by having the salad dressing at the bottom and the leafy all the way at the top. This prevents the leafy greens from getting soggy in the salad dressing. I use the wide mouth container, so that I can easily add in the veggies and easily pour them out when it's time to eat.
Supplies Needed
Best Glass Mason Jar with LidSteel Fry Pan with Lid for Multiple Types of Cooking
Tablespoon
Olive oil
Chicken
Leafy greens
Fresh cucumbers
Grape tomatoes
Sliced almonds
Cheese
Garlic powder
Ground black pepper
Step by Step Instructions
How to prepare a week's worth of salads in just a few minutes?For preparing a delicious diced chicken salad with fresh cucumbers, grape tomatoes, sliced almonds and goat cheese with a homemade clean honey-mustard dressing we would need to heat a tablespoon of olive oil, season the chicken a little salt, some garlic powder and ground black pepper and then put them in the hot frying pan. Cook, until the chicken is browned.
Next, you need to dice up the cucumber. In case the skin of the cucumber is too bitter you can peel it ahead of time. Dice the cucumber into small pieces as well just like with the chicken.
Make your mustard salad dressing. Then, mix the fresh lemon juice, yogurt, mustard and raw honey.
You have to whisk this until it's very smooth. Now, you have all the pieces you need to assemble your salads. In case you want it for the whole weekdays, I recommend preparing about three to five jar salads at a time as it doesn’t take more than 30 minutes.
This is going to save you a lot of time in the future because you'll have ready to go salads that you can eat. It will also save you money because you won't be wasting any of that additional produce because you're more likely to eat the already food.
With pot salads, the first product we put at the bottom is the salad dressing to allow us adding in other items and keeping the lettuce as far away as possible from the dressing and preventing the lettuce from getting mushy by the dressing. After the dressing layer put ingredients that are non-absorbent vegetables.
The quantity of dressing you add depend on the quantity of additional ingredients you have and some time on how much of it you prefer. But, in most of cases, one to two tablespoons should be enough for a god taste.
For this salad, that means you can use your grape tomatoes. This could also include carrots, green beans, and bell peppers. On top of this layer, you can add any proteins like beans and meats.
Now, add in that diced chicken into the next layer and make sure when you add it in that it is completely cool. We don't want to be accidentally cooking any of the salad when it goes in.
For the following layer, you add in any absorbent fruits or vegetables which include fresh fruits like blueberries, strawberries, peaches or vegetables like mushrooms, corn, broccoli, beets, peas, sprouts or zucchini. These fruits and vegetables are all absorbent and would get super mushy and absorb way too much of the dressing if it were put right on the dressing layer.
So, you want to make sure that you separate them using the protein layer. For this salad, you'll be adding in your cucumbers. You can also add in any nuts, seeds or cheese into this layer as well.
Next, add in your sliced almonds and your cheese on top of the cucumber.
Finally, and always on top is our leafy greens layer. This includes spinach, arugula, mixed baby greens, kale or other greens that would easily wilt or get soggy, and you don't want that. These salads will last a good four to five days in the fridge and make the perfect grab and go lunch or dinner for during the week.
For eating your salad, just remove the cap and jiggle the fillings out into a plate.
As you could see this project took less than 30 minutes, and meal prepping ahead of time is a great way to not only save time and hassle during the week, you'll have that ready to go food that's healthy for you to stay on your healthy lifestyle. So, please check out the supplies in the blue links if you want to try this easy and cheap project to start benefiting from healthy salads while you can consistently accomplish all your weekly tasks.