Using My Pins - Mason Jar Salads ♥

I heard of this new food fad - preparing salads in mason jars and storing them in your frig for up to a week or two.  Being a huge salad eater - and making a salad for my family nearly every night - I surfed the web to see what people are doing.

source: kblog.lunchboxbunch.com

How pretty these look!  And supposedly they stay crisp as long as the dressing is on the bottom, and hard vegetables that can take the marinade lie on top of the dressing.  There are tons of photos and salad ideas on pinterest and the web.

I've been trying my own this week and took one to work every day - it was GREAT - they remained fresh and good and I'm figuring I must be saving money by not going to the salad bar every day.

Since I make so many salads a home I usually wash a lot of lettuce at once and store it in tupperware or plastic zip locks.  Unfortunately I often get really brown unusable leaves.  I used to give those to our ducks. But our ducks have left us (another post for sure), and I've been throwing out a lot of veges.

If I wanted to store a weeks worth of salad for my family of 4 (now that the boys are home), I'd have to have 28 jars lined up in the frig.  I'm not sure how practical that would be.  But for work?  For work they are awesome!

And what about for gifts?  I'm thinking these would be great for someone not feeling so well, or someone who needs a little pick me up.

These are my four.  Not as pretty as the ones above, but they'll taste great.  Yes, that's a pickle jar in the back. Works just fine.  This isn't rocket science. :)

I'll share my dressing "recipe" that everyone LOVES.  It's the only dressing my boys would eat for years.  My mom told me about this little secret - don't laugh - it's so very easy:

Real Easy and Good Salad Dressing

Take a pouch of Good Seasons Italian All Natural Salad Dressing & Recipe Mix.

Make as directed on the package using BALSAMIC vinegar for the vinegar ingredient.

That's it!