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!
*****
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)
*****
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!
That Steak salad looks wonderful. Going to have to try that. And I love the combo of spinach and berries! Where does a person find bacon bits in a store? I’ve been making bacon and crumbling it, but it’s so hard not to eat it when I’m making it!
Ha! That is LITERALLY why I have a bag of bacon bits b/c I’ll eat the bacon as I make it otherwise! I guess I come by it honestly. 🙂 I think I just grabbed it in the produce section somewhere. They (creepily) don’t need to be refrigerated.
I am going to do the salads this next week. I was thinking about a steak salad and this sounds perfect! Stella looks like so cute and big in that photo!
I’m totally in love with these! We cooked steaks for dinner and had leftovers, so I diced them up and put them in my salads for lunches. It was perfect!
Those look great. Do they still taste fresh even at the end of the week?
Yep! As long as you layer them appropriately (check out the last post I did about that), I have had zero issues with them being fresh and delicious 5-6 days after I make them. It’s perfect since I prep them on Sunday in order to eat them throughout the workweek.
These both sound delicious!! We can’t get spinach or spring mix here 🙁 Which are two of the things I miss the most!! I love a good salad. Might have to try growing some this year! And also, gorgeous photo of Stells!!
Well you could use whichever greens you have around. 🙂 Those are just my favs! What do you have down there?
Unfortunately not much in the way of greens! 🙁 So when I make salads I just do the other stuff, for example a salad of just tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, onion, olives, cheese… or a broccoli based salad. You can sometimes get romaine and always iceburg but iceburg is a waste of space! I would think other stuff would grow.. I just havent tried yet. But maybe it is too hot here :/ Not sure.
Wth? That picture is AMAZING. You need to quit your job right now and start a healty cooking school for kids just so you can use that photo in all your marketing materials. Hell, I’ll do all your marketing for you!
Also, good job sticking to it with these salads. I am seriously impressed.
LOL, thanks. It’s actually a little blurry, but I love that SHE asked me to take a picture of her with the salads (I had just taken the picture above that for the blog). She is always so proud of helping me “cook.”
Stella is such a stunner. That is all. I mean I like your salad posts too! Goig to revisit once I decide to get back on the MFP bandwagon. 🙂 this would totally work for me. I love crisp salads and all the different flavors in one meal.
Honestly, it might be a good project to try a few of now! I struggled making healthy lunches with a newborn, but if you prep a few on a day your hubby is home, then they’re ready to pull out and toss in a jar when you’re hungry. You can also pack them full of protein, which is SO nice when you’re nursing and starving all the time!
I am so jealous of your salads! I made a half ass attempt the other day and was woefully disappointed. I think I need to set aside a Sunday to both grocery shop AND put them together otherwise I won’t do it!
I have been doing these for 2 weeks – just basic ones. LOVING IT. Thank you for the inspiration!!! Going to google some different veggie ones for next week.
I’m making some up for this week! So excited!