One of my secret weapons to keeping my healthy eating on track is preparation.  Having a mason jar salad in the fridge and ready at lunch time makes the choice, when I’m hungry, simple. When I’m really hungry I can make bad food choices, but when lunch is prepared ahead of time?  The potential for a bad choice goes way down.

Today I’m sharing with you 5 recipes so you can have a mason jar salad every weekday. All it takes is about an hour of prep on Sunday.  One hour of your week devoted to letting lunch time be stress-free, and the choice easy.

All of these recipes are vegetarian and can be adapted to be vegan.  Although I’m not a vegan or vegetarian, I often eat like Mark Bittman’s Vegan Before 6:00, mostly plant-based for my breakfast, lunch, and snacks before dinner.  Having a different salad-in-a-jar every weekday is a great way to get a wide variety of plants in your diet.

Yes, having a different salad with a different dressing every day is a little more work. But it’s worth it to keep your lunches interesting.  Healthy eating should not be boring.  Take a little extra time and you’ll have a fresh, healthy , unprocessed lunch for every day of the work week.  

Let’s get started!  First, here’s your grocery list.  I’m sure you already have many of these ingredients on hand and will only need to pick up the fresh ingredients to make your salads for the week. (Scroll to the bottom of the post for some links if you need help finding a few of the ingredients.)

Now I’m going to go through the prepping instructions, followed by the printable recipes. This will probably be my longest post ever, but stick with me and you’ll have all the information you need to make mason jar salads for lunch happen in your life. 

Mason Jar Salad Prep Instructions

1. 

You’ll need to start with the brown rice, since that takes the longest to cook.  Alternatively, you could use a precooked variety, such us this kind from Minute Rice.  You can make just the amount needed for the recipe, or more so that you have cooked brown rice for a dinner later in the the week.  Multi-tasking is always good.  For the salads, however, you will just need 1/4 cup brown rice.  Bring 1/4 rinsed brown rice (long grain or short grain) with 1/2 cup water or vegetable broth to a boil.  Immediately lower the heat, cover, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked.  If you are only cooking 1/4 cup rice, monitor your temperature carefully and add more liquid as necessary.

2. 

Once you have the rice started, start the hard boiled egg.  Again, if your family likes hard-boiled eggs, make more than just the one needed for these salads.  You can be prepping for more than just your own lunches here!  Work smarter, not harder, right?  To hard boil eggs, put the number of eggs you’d like in a saucepan and cover them with cold water.  Bring the water to a boil, and immediately turn off the heat and cover the pan.  Set a timer for 11 minutes.  Transfer them to a bowl of ice water and peel when they are cooled.  Chop the egg you are going to use for the salad.

3. 

Next, start the quinoa.  Rinse 1/4 cup dry quinoa and then put it in a small saucepan with 1/2 cup water.  (I don’t want to sound like a broken record here, but if you’re having quinoa later in the week, now would be a great time to cook some extra! Maybe quinoa for breakfast?)  Bring the quinoa and water to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and cook until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is cooked, about 15 minutes.

4. 

While your rice, quinoa, and eggs are cooking, it’s time to start chopping and getting your beans ready.

-Slice 4 carrots

-Dice 1 red bell pepper

-Slice 1 celery stalk

-Dice 1 cucumber

-Chop 1 large or 2 small heads of broccoli into small florets

-Chop 6 cups romaine lettuce

-Drain and rinse the cans of beans.  Measure the amount you need and save the remaining beans for another use.

5.

Make your dressings.  Mix the dressing ingredients (see recipes below) in a small mason jar and then transfer it to the larger mason jar.  The dressings will be the first thing you add to your jars, so go ahead and add them as you make them.  I just use one jar to make all the dressings. I rinse it out after each dressing I make.

6.  

By now, your rice, quinoa, and eggs are cooked and you are ready to assemble your salads.  For each salad, start with the dressing, then add the vegetables, then the rice/quinoa/beans/egg, and the top layer should be the greens.  (see recipes below for each salad’s specifics)

7.  

Store the mason jar salads in your refrigerator and your lunches are ready for each week day! When you are ready to eat one, turn the jar over and give it a little shake.  Then, transfer the ingredients to a bowl or plate and use your fork to coat all of the ingredients with the dressing. I always season the salad with salt and pepper just before I eat it.

Broccoli Mustard Mason Jar Salad

 

 

Lemon Tahini Spinach Mason Jar Salad

Vegetarian Chopped Salad with Yogurt Ranch 

Southwest Inspired Mason Jar Salad

 

Sesame Lime Mason Jar Salad

 

The calorie counts vary for these. Everyone has different caloric needs, so keep that in mind as you plan your lunches.  The lower calorie salads can be rounded out with a smoothie or by ending lunch with an energy bite (or two) for “dessert.”

Having a mason jar salad ready for every weekday is the best thing ever.  It can definitely help you to stay on track with your healthy eating intentions.  While prepping them can be a pain, it’s 100% worth the effort!

I can even help you with the shopping list part! I love Amazon for getting things I need shipped to my door in two days.  I’m guessing what most people will need is the tahini (a pantry staple over here-I love this stuff!), liquid stevia, and the mason jars. Follow the links to find what you are looking for.

There you go! Those are affiliate links, by the way, so if you order through them you are supporting me as I will get a small percentage of the sale. Thanks for helping keep Happy Healthy Mama running! 

Now, it’s time to keep those healthy eating goals in mind and get planning.  I hope this post inspires you and helps you!