Salad In A Jar

I think this was one of the first things I pinned on Pinterest. I like salads, but I don't have them at home very often. I buy the materials, get them home, make one awesome salad, then put everything away. In a few days, the lettuce is all brown and gooey (seriously, why does this happen?) and I wind up throwing everything out. It makes me sad and a little angry to have wasted food and money like that.

It took a few months, but I finally bought some mason jars and decided to give it a try.

The instructions say to put your dressing in the bottom of the jar, then start layering - things like carrots, peppers, cabbage, celery - are recommended to go in next. I dropped a few sliced tomatoes in because I like that they take on the flavor of the vinaigrette I used. Then, stuff the lettuce in the jar and seal it. The original poster said these would last for a week. I was skeptical but thought if this works, it is one of the smartest things I've found on the Internet in a while.

This was a salad I dumped out of the jar and onto a plate six days after I packed it. It was still crunchy, crisp and tasty! I ate the jarred salads I took to work right out of the container. Every day, it was like I had just made that salad!

I suppose it's something about the air tight seal on the jars. When I assemble salads in a plastic container, they never last this long. So now, I'll be packing salads to have ready to eat whenever I want. I'm sure I'll test just how long you can go before these salads go bad. I did find that seeing those pretty salads in a jar made me want them more than if I had all the ingredients in a drawer in my refrigerator. I also wanted them more than when I know a plastic container has a salad already made. Maybe it's the novelty of something new? Whatever. My salads in a jar are way cheaper than buying a salad from a restaurant. Plus, I get to use my favorite dressings instead of whatever's available. SCORE!