Just keepin’ it real with the bottle brush, high chair tray & toy, and drying bib on the bottle rack in the background. Ha! Last week I was able to prep all 8 of these salads and clean up the kitchen in under an hour – not too shabby!
Since good ole’ Aunt Flo decided to come back yesterday for the first time in 700 days, I am haaaaarngry. Like, I want to eat ALL THE CHEESY THINGS. This is obviously not great when I’m trying to eat healthily and lose weight, so I’m doing my best to keep sticking to my mason jar salads for my lunches at least! Today I figured I’d do an update on a couple of new types of salads I’ve made since my original post last month. Next time I need to save my receipts and I’m going to give y’all a cost breakdown of what I spend to make these, but for now, here are a couple of new recipes to tide you over.
*Note, after six weeks, the only modifications I’ve made to the recipes I started with is to skip the red onion (I just don’t like it raw really, no matter how much I try to make myself like it) and to use 2-3oz of tomatoes instead of 4oz in the bottom of the jars. I decided I wanted a little less tomato and a little more salad greens!
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Steak & Blue Cheese Mason Jar Salad – 360 calories
I am a sucker for blue cheese and steak salads, and this one didn’t disappoint! In the picture you’ll see I didn’t include blueberries, but that’s just because the little local grocery store was out of them when I went to pick up supplies on Sunday. The calorie breakdown will INCLUDE blueberries, because that’s how I intend to make them in the future. 🙂 Also, I’ve been a little full with the volume of the 400 calorie salads, so I only put 3/4 oz of cheese and 3oz of meat in these. If you want 400 calories instead, add an extra ounce of lean meat.
- 2T blue cheese yogurt dressing
- 2 oz. cherry tomatoes
- 1 oz chopped bell pepper (you could skip this completely – I just wanted more distance between my dressing and fruit)
- 60g sliced strawberries
- 60g blueberries
- 3/4 oz (21g) blue cheese crumbles
- 3 oz grilled top sirloin steak
- 3oz spinach (or spinach & spring mix)
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After my first batch of salads, I really wanted to try a couple of recipes that incorporated quinoa as the protein instead of a meat. These are nice to eat later in the week, since I usually try to eat my chicken and beef within the first 3 days after it is cooked. Later in the week I usually stick to salads that used deli meats or quinoa for the protein. This one below has been my favorite quinoa version thus far! It’s the far left jar in the first picture on this post – I forgot to take an individual photo of it. Oops!
Quinoa Burrito Mason Jar Salad – 364 calories
- 2T salsa (I used black bean & corn)
- 1T sour cream (you could sub plain greek yogurt here if you have any)
- 1/2 oz shredded cheese
- 1T bacon bits
- 1/2 oz sliced avocado (drizzle with lemon to keep green)
- 1/5 can organic black beans
- 1/4 cup cooked red or white quinoa
- 3 oz baby romaine or spring mix
This salad is really filling and incredibly delicious! I actually put 3oz of rotisserie chicken in mine as well, but I was so full that I think I’ll skip that component next time. I also found a fun variation of this type of salad here that includes sweet potatoes and some more seasonings. I’m trying to keep mine super simple, but I think I’m going to try this next time I have some fresh cilantro and lime on hand!
Stella LOVES to help in the kitchen, so she is always my right hand gal when I’m assembling these salads. She loves to load the ingredients into the jars, and I love that she is learning more about eating healthy!