I love salad! I always pile my plate high with salad, to the point of feeling embarrassed when three quarters of my plate is salad. At weekend BBQ’s where everyone is asked to bring a plate to share, I feel like everyone is looking at me and thinking , “She took too much!”

I haven’t always loved salad though. I was fed a lot of naked salads growing up and have had my fair share served to me as an adult. What is a naked salad, you ask? Lettuce, tomato, cucumber and maybe some mushrooms- without-any-dressing. Just plain ‘ole rabbit food. Naked. Now, if you like salad that way, great! I don’t. I am sure we can be different and still be friends, right? All that changed when I was introduced to homemade salad dressings. My salad eating career took off!

My mum found a little cook book dedicated to just salad dressings. It also came with it’s own little bottle with measurements and 4-5 different dressings printed on the side. You just had to follow the instructions in order, shake it up and there was your very own, delicious dressing. I used the bottle so much it broke. I really should get another one.

Why did I tell you all that? Well, we all really should eat more salad vegetables but, it takes too much time to wash the produce, cut it up, mix it with some dressing and then eat. And the biggest dilemma is when we are running to work, or from picking up the kids from this or that activity, or any one of the reasons we find our selves not at home with as much time as we need to make a gourmet lunch. (Phew, just writing that sentence is exhausting.)

Enter, ‘Salad in a Jar’. These little time and sanity savers are all over Pinterest. One of things that attract me the most is how pretty these are. I love pretty things and I love pretty food. It makes eating so much ore enjoyable. I am an emotional eater. We all are and I encourage you to embrace that. Not fight it. I’ll right a post on that topic soon.

Now, not all Salad in a Jar recipes are assembled with Trim Healthy Mama guidelines so I wanted to help you convert those tempting Pinterest pictures in to something you could use. My talented husband, inspired by a picture on Pinterest, drew his own Salad in a Jar picture and has turned it into a printable chart that you can use when making your own. There are the three fuel types to choose from. You can chop and change the ingredients to your own liking and add your very own, favourite salad dressings.

The best thing about Salad in a Jar? They can be made up to 5 days ahead of time and make quick, easy, filling, and healthy lunches…perfect for a grab-and-go lunch for the busy Trim Healthy Mamas. Just grab the jar from the fridge, pair it with some protein and you have lunch done!

For Aussie Mamas on the Run, you can make several ‘Salad in a Jar’ meals at the beginning of the week and just grab one out of the fridge when you need it. If you do all your preparation work on a Sunday afternoon, you won’t need to prepare your lunch each day. Think of the time saved by cutting, slicing, and dividing once, instead of doing it each day!

Most recipes call for the dressing to be placed at the bottom of the jar, requiring you to give it a little shake just before eating.  Some of you might like to add your dressing right before you eat.

Salads lend themselves well to warmer weather but don’t let that put you off making them during colder weather. Salad in a Jar is great with a hot cup of soup!

Give Salad in a Jar a go and let me know what some of your favourite combinations are – they might just become my favourite! Check out one of my favourites here.