Jumpin' Jar Salads!!!

About as long as Pinterest has been in existence or at least as long as I joined it anyways, I have wanted to start making mason jar salads, so this week I decided no time like the present! Here are the first 4 I have concocted and they were all fabulous! I may be sending a bunch of these your way in the next few months! I bought a rotisserie and chopped it up to use for these. Ideally it would maybe a little more variety but I used chicken for all these this week.  All the salads which are packed with produce ended up being between 200-300 calories and were super filling! First up....

Red White and Blue Berry Chicken Jar Salad

 

 

Layers bottom to top:

Homemade Greek Yogurt Poppyseed dressing - 2 Tbsp

4 chopped strawberries

3 Tbsp chopped chicken

2 Tbsp crumbled feta

1/4 cup blueberries

1 cup romaine lettuce

1 Tbsp almonds

 

263 calories per jar

 

 

Homemade Poppyseed Dressing

1/4 sweet onion

1 cup vanilla greek yogurt

1 Tbsp Honey

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp poppy seeds

salt and pepper to taste

  

 Next....

 

Southwest Jar Salad with Avocado Cilantro Yogurt Dressing

Layer from bottom up:

Avocado Cilantro Yogurt Dressing - Tbsp

Black beans - 3 Tbsp

Corn - 3 Tbsp

Chopped tomatoes - 3 Tbsp

Chopped orange bell pepper - 2 Tbsp

Chopped rotisserie chicken - 3 Tbsp

Chopped Avocado - 2 Tbsp

Chopped cilantro and green onion - Tbsp ea

Chopped Romaine - 1 cup

4 Tortilla Chips

(my kids had a sprinkle of shredded cheese - totally not necessary)

 

291 calories per jar

 

I love that these salads offer portion control by the confines of the jar but are such a large filling spread on your plate!

 

 

Also my magic bullet has been getting some action making these homemade dressings

 

 

Avocado Cilantro Yogurt Dressing:

1/2 avocado

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

handful cilantro

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1/4 sweet onion

salt pepper garlic salt to taste

3 Tbsp milk

2-3 Tbsp olive oil (I did 2 to save calories but it was thick dressing)

 

 

 Next...

 

Apple Cherry Chicken Jar Salad

 

 

Layer bottom to top:

3 Tbsp Homemade Poppyseed Yogurt dressing

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/3 chopped apple

3 Tbsp chopped chicken

2 Tbsp dried cherries

3 Tbsp chopped green onion

1 Tbsp shaved parmesan

1 cup baby spinach

1 Tbsp pine nuts

 

295 calories

 

 

My oldest is going crazy for these salads, she wants me to pack them for school now! Probably won't do glass though!

 

Seriously eating this at work makes me so cheery!!

 

Lastly...

 

Peanut Ginger Jar Salad

 

 

Layer bottom to top:

Peanut Ginger Dressing - 2 Tbsp

Broccoli/Carrot/Purple cabbage coleslaw 1/4 cup

Sugar snap peas roughly chopped - 5 peas

Red bell pepper chopped - 1/4 cup

Green onion - 3 Tbsp

Cilantro - 3 Tbsp

Chopped Chicken 3 Tbsp

Cooked vermicelli noodles - 1/3 cup

Baby spinach 2/3 cup

Honey roasted peanuts - 1 Tbsp

 

302 calories per jar

 

 

 

This was such a colorful beautiful plate!!!! The salads this week were all incredible but this one got voted #1!

 

 

Don't have a picture of just the dressing for this one but the recipe:

 

Peanut Ginger dressing

 

3 Tbsp sesame oil (or olive oil)

1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp peanut butter

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp minced/pureed ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp lime juice

2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp siracha (didn't do because of kids but I added a pinch of red pepper flakes to adults salad dressing)

 

There you go, 4 delicious salad recipes just for you!  Even though it is snowing this spring break here in bleak Michigan, I have sunshine and spring in my heart with all of these colorful produce packed recipes! Feeling great! And today is another important holiday in this house so I'll leave you with this greeting: