Greek Mason Jar Salad

Hello again.  When I started this blog I kind of envisioned posting a salad a week, but clearly I have been doing a bit more than that. I have been sharing salads with the people in my life which accounts for the rapid consumption of 5-6 salads in 3-4 days. Mom is the Maven's chief disciple, and so far, none of my projects have killed her (or my aunt who has also been a guinea pig).

I have been making lists of salads I want to try and ingredients to experiment with, and probably have at least four salad ideas backed up.  However, because Rachel S. tagged me in a facebook comment about making Greek salad, I had to get my Greek on.  

I adore Greek salad.  There is just something so fresh and perfect with it and all it's simplicity.  When I visited Greece, I ate it pretty much every day.  I reveled in the fresh tomatoes, crisp cucumbers and the slabs of buttery feta. zxerycvibuonpom',;xrycvibuoinp;ml (sorry, had to wipe the drool off my keyboard).  So, once Rachel put Greek salad in my head, nothing else would suffice.

The biggest possible pitfall got Greek salad is, of course, the dressing, it seems to be comprised of olive oil, more olive oil, some herbs, olive oil, lemon juice, and then a bit more olive oil.  Remembering the lesson learned in the Cobb salad experiment, the wrong dressing can elevate a would-be healthy jar salad into the same category as a trip to McDonalds, thus defeating the purpose of making the salad.  I did some research, and I stumbled across a Weight Watcher's Greek Salad Dressing recipe.  Weight Watchers has never been my diet of choice, but I will admit that they have some damn good recipes- sometimes they seem unconventional, but often they are very good.  Observe:

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 garlic clove
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fat-free chicken broth

I was wary of the chicken broth and opted to use vegetable broth instead, and I was rather impressed with the result.  My only issue is, it does separate rather quickly, so before eating the salad, I had to be more vigorous with my shaking.

With the dressing prepped and calculated, I set about readying everything else.

I was actually able to acquire a rotisserie chicken this time, but my aunt was not around for dismemberment detail, so I had to destroy the corpse myself.  From a $4.95 Market Basket rotisserie chicken I was able to get just over a pound of meat.

Next I tackled the tomatoes, halving them lengthwise to vary things a bit.  I decided to seed the cucumbers, because often the pulpy part gets very soggy.  I chopped up some red onion, and began assembly:

Dressing

Tomatoes

Cuke

Onion

Olives (except in my mother's because she is a Communist)

Chicken

Romaine Feta

A word about feta.  I love feta.  Did I mention that?  It is just such a delightful cheese, and pretty protein-packed.  For time reasons, I bought Athens's pre-crumbled, but intentionally bought the full-fat variety, because as much as I love feta cheese, I hate, in equal measure, low-fat feta.  For whatever reason I can tolerate many reduced fat cheeses, but let my feta stay fat!

This salad was delightfully filling and refreshing, and I cannot wait to have it for the rest of the week!  There was maybe a tad too much dressing, but I suppose, given that this was not bad calorically speaking, I wasn't too worried about it!

Enjoy!

~The Maven

Recipe

For 6 Quart-sized Jar Salads

Ingredients

Dressing

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 garlic clove
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fat-free vegetable broth

1 rotisserie chicken (dismembered)
10 oz. Cherry Tomatoes (halved)
2 cucumbers (seeded and chopped)
1/2 red onion (chopped)
1 head romaine lettuce (chopped)
10 oz feta cheese (crumbled)
6 servings sliced Kalamata olives

1. Mix dressing in a vessel of your choosing and distribute into the bottom of 6 mason jars.  The dressing may separate, but will be fine when you shake and serve the salad.
2. Assemble the salad: tomatoes, cukes, onion, olives, chicken (about 2.8-3 oz per jar), lettuce, topped with feta.
3. Seal and store upright in refrigerator.
4. To serve: shake to distribute contents and dressing, dump into a bowl to serve.

Thai-Inspired Shrimp Jar Salad

Here we go again! (I know it may seem soon, but I left 2 of the 4 cobb salads with my Aunt, so I needed something else for lunch) After the somewhat epic failure of our last salad (it was delicious, but too high in calories AND fat), I have gone to the opposite extreme this time. For whatever reason, I was just standing down at work the other day, and carrots, edamame, red peppers, shrimp and peanut sauce popped into my mind. To I whipped out the iPhone and made a note, and thus this salad was conceived. The only issue was finding the time. Between dog sitting, trivia, real work, and getting back into the dating saddle, the most opportune time to make this salad was between midnight and 1:00 this morning. But, as I said in the intro, this is about finding the time, so that was the time I found.

I started with the dressing first this time, making sure that it was going to be both tasty and lower in calories. I based it off a recipe I found online at the "Skinny Fork," and mixed it all up in one of my absolute favorite vintage kitchen tools:

Yup, a vintage 1990's Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing shaker. This is one of my favorite tools, and my preferred method for making chocolate milk (with Quik Powder, of course). I ended up grating the ginger with a micro-plane, and skipped the sesame seeds. Either way, I added a little extra rice vinegar, and ultimately a little bit of water to thin the dressing a bit, and that seemed to taste pretty good without being obscenely high in calories.

For whatever reason I decided that I needed to roast the edamame, because I believe that sleeping is for squares. I roasted 2 cups of thawed, shelled edamame at 375 for about 17 minutes with a dusting of cumin, garlic salt, onion salt, dried basil leaves and a splash of olive oil to coat them (I literally dumped everything into a tupperware container and shook it vigorously before dumping it onto a baking sheet).

Next I tackled the shrimp. For cost reasons, and because I think they taste better, I bought raw shrimp, peeled them and sauteed them with a clove of garlic (pressed), some salt and pepper, and the most minuscule ration of olive oil imaginable (yay for OO in a can)! I absolutely LOVE how quickly shrimp cook up.

I let both the shrimp and edamame cool while I cut, washed and dried the lettuce, and chopped up the scallions and red pepper (I was a lazy cook and bought shredded carrots in a bag).

I did cut up the shrimp a little bit (thirds and halves) and then it was assembly time:

Dressing
Carrots
Scallions
Red Peppers
Edamame
Shrimp
Cilantro
Lettuce

The hardest part of the process was the Shrimp Shucking, that took a good portion of forever, but otherwise, an easy salad with very delicious and LIGHT results!

Recipe for 6 salads (Quart-size)

Dressing:

1 1/2 T Brown sugar
3 T Canola Oil
4 T Rice Vinegar
1 T Sodium Soy Sauce
2 T Jif Reduced Fat Peanut Butter
1 T Ginger Root, Grated
2 Garlic Cloves, Pressed
1 t Sesame Oil
1/2 t Salt
1/2 t Sriracha
2 T Water

Salad:

1.14 pounds raw shrimp peeled
1 clove garlic pressed
Salt & Pepper to taste
Spray Olive Oil

2 c. Frozen Edamame thawed
Cumin
Dried Basil leaves
Onion salt
Garlic salt
1 t Olive Oil

10 oz shredded carrots
6 scallions chopped
2 red bell peppers chopped
1 head romaine lettuce chopped
Cilantro leaves (fresh) chopped

Directions:

1. Mix dressing ingredients together (I prefer the shake in a container method) and portion into the bottom of each of six 1-quart mason jars. 
2. Season edamame to taste and sprinkle with olive oil. Spread on a flat baking sheet and roast for 13-17 minutes turning once. 
3. Peel shrimp and season with salt a pepper, cook with little olive oil over medium heat turning often until pink and tender. Cut shrimp into bite-sized morsels. 
4. Once cooked ingredients have cooled, assemble the salad: dressing, carrots, scallions, peppers, shrimp, cilantro, lettuce. 
5. Store upright in sealed jars. To serve, shake lightly to distribute dressing and contents, pour out into bowl and enjoy! 

I was very pleased with this salad. It is very light, protein-packed, and easy. I would probably throw a lime wedge in the top in the future and squeeze that over the salad just before eating to just add an extra shot of flavor.

Dressing Calories

Salad Calories

For whatever reason MyFitnessPal does not let you use your recipes as ingredients in other recipes, so I have had to display the calories separately for the dressing and the actual salad, but total calories is 296 for the jar!

Turkey Cobb Salad

So, sadly, the taco salad is gone.  It was very yummy, though.  How did I get through seven salads in five days?  I am currently staying with my aunt, and so we both took the salads for lunch.  To the sad news is, no more taco salad for me… the good news is… ON TO SOMETHING NEW: Turkey Cobb Salad!

So remember that time I said that I would make mistakes… this is one of those times, sort of.  So I decided to make cobb salad because I had left over corn, some older eggs (ideal for boiling), my aunt had bacon, and I usually grab a rotisserie chicken to save time. 

Mistake/Problem #1: When you go to the store at 9:30 on a Wednesday night, they are likely out of rotisserie chickens.  Not a huge deal, because they did have ONE rotisserie turkey breast left, and in my mind, fowl is fowl.

So I grabbed the rest of my ingredients: tomatoes, scallions, Romaine Lettuce (yes, Dan, I remember what you said about iceberg having ZERO nutritional value), avocado, a carrot, cheese (mistake #4), and some Dijon mustard, and headed to my aunt’s.  I arrived at about 10:10, and started my timer (trying very hard to obey the 70-minute rule).  I boiled the eggs and cooked the bacon first; four eggs (because that’s what I had) and five slices of bacon (one for each jar- or so I thought). 

A word about bacon.  I read a good deal of railing against pre-cooked bacon, and though it’s ok in a pinch, it isn’t as good as the real thing.  Also, I will forever be grateful to my youngest sister’s ex-boyfriend for teaching us the right way to cook bacon: IN THE OVEN!  No grease splatter, no burns on your hands, easier to clean up, and perfect, crispy bacon EVERY time.  Just throw it on a foil-lined baking sheet, pop it in the oven at 375-400 and bake for 20-ish minutes depending on your desired level of crispness.  WIN!

On cooking hard-boiled eggs; I suck at this, hard.  I have tried a million ways to do this, and am seldom completely successful, so PLEASE help me!  I usually do the: put eggs in a saucepan, cover with cold water (about an inch over the eggs), bring to a boil for about 1-2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let stand for 11-12 minutes and then dump into an ice water bath.  I’ve tried adding vinegar and salt, and even tried oven boiling once (DISASTER), and they are always IMPOSSIBLE to peel.  So please if you are a wizard at perfect hard-boiled eggs, PLEASE instruct me in the comments below.

While the bacon and eggs were cooking I set about tearing/cutting and washing the lettuce.  (I do a combination of tearing/cutting as the muse moves me, I like bite-sized pieces.; one day I will own the device we had when I worked at Wendy’s; it was a lettuce chopper that reduced a whole head into 1” square leaves; it was amazing).  

At this point I decided to hunt down/line up my jars…

Mistake/Problem #2: I planned for five jars but could only find four… One of us left a jar at work or something; not a huge deal, but I was planning on five jars and purchased accordingly.

Next up: dressing!  I decided to make my own this time, because, well, there is no real because, I just did.  I decided to try a honey mustard-balsamic vinaigrette.  There are those who will tell you that vinaigrettes need to be done in stages, first you do your spices and vinegar, then you slowly add the oil whisking constantly.  I’m on a deadline, no time for that.  I am a big fan of the dump-everything-into-a-jar-and-shake-the-bajeezus-out-of-it Method.  My aunt had one of those Shakeology Blender bottles which was temporarily reassigned to salad dressing detail.  I tried to use as little oil as I could, but…

Mistake/Problem #3: Even ¼ of oil is RIDICULOUS calorically.  So going forward I need to find dressing recipes that just don’t have oil.  This is an issue, because there are many out there using Greek Yogurt, and Greek Yogurt is one of the SEVEN DEADLY THINGS I DO NOT EAT.  Note to self: calculate dressing calories BEFORE mixing in future.

With the bacon and eggs now cooked and cooling, it was time to dismember the turkey breast and cut the rest of the veggies.  My aunt volunteered to deal with the turkey, which was fine by me; when I am stripping a carcass, I just feel gross and am compelled to wash my hands multiple times in the middle of the process, which is just asinine.  My grandmother used to love doing that; picking the turkey/chicken carcass after a meal.  She used to get every morsel with the efficiency of a carrion bird.  I clearly missed out on that familial skill.  I can’t stand the slimy feeling of fat and sinew on my hands.  Ew, this is a food blog, stop writing things like “fat and sinew.”

While cutting the carrot I discovered that my aunt has a Julienne Peeler.  WANT!  It was really fun to use, even if it did waste a bit of viable carrot.

With all that done we began layering:

Dressing

Tomatoes

Carrots

Corn

Scallions

Turkey

Eggs

Lettuce

Avocado

Bacon

Cheese

Mistake/Problem #4: Cheese is my Achilles Heel.  I argued with myself in the store about the cheese.  I knew that with three types of protein AND avocado, this salad would be higher in calories and fat that usual (at that point I also had not considered the oil factor).  But NO… my inner cheese-fiend overruled my weak health-conscious self and we bought the cheese, AND put in on top of the salad.  Ugh. 

So, this is not the healthiest of my salads… but lesson learned.  Here’s the recipe without all my silly commentaries:

Servings: 4 pint-jar salads

Ingredients

Dressing:

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

¼ cup EVOO

I clove garlic (pressed/minced)

2t Honey

2t Dijon mustard

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 container cherry tomatoes (a small pint)

1 large carrot (chopped, julienned, whatever)

¾ cup frozen sweet corn

1 bunch scallions (6)

2 cups roasted turkey breast shredded/cubed

4 eggs (hard boiled)

1 head Romaine Lettuce (about 3.5 cups)

5 strips think-cut bacon (it’s what I had)

1 avocado (quartered and cubed)

1 cup Cabot reduced fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Cook bacon to desired level of crispiness using the method of your choosing.
2. Hard-boil eggs and set aside to cool.
3. Mix dressing; I used a blender bottle, but you can do what you like).
4. Dismember turkey breast
5. Halve tomatoes
6. Cut veggies
7. Assemble
1. Dressing
2. Tomatoes
3. Carrots
4. Corn
5. Scallions
6. Turkey
7. Eggs
8. Lettuce
9. Avocado
10. Bacon
11. Cheese
8. Seal and store upright in the refrigerator.

Very tasty, but higher in calories and fat than I wanted it to be.  Oh well, better luck next time!

~The Maven

Taco Salad in a Jar

Taco salad was a staple growing up.  It was introduced to my family in the 1990's when someone brought a bowl of it to our annual Superbowl Party.  Take the perfect food (tacos), convert it to a salad and then crush DORITOS on top!?  I could eat that 3 meals a day, seven days a week.  So here it is Jar-ified:

Servings: 7 Jar (Quart-size) salads

1.25 pounds 96% lean ground beef
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
1.5 T Marjoram
1 t Paprika
Garlic Powder (I never really measure spices to be honest)
1 t thyme
pinch cayenne pepper


Salsa of your choosing
Kraft Fat Free Catalina Dressing
2 containers Nature Sweet Cherubs (or any cherry tomatoes, these just are my preference; I used a container of traditional reds and one of orange because I was feelin' fancy)
2 bunches scallions, chopped/sliced
1.25 cups frozen sweet corn kernels, thawed
1 can Bush's black beans, drained and rinsed (feel free to use reduced sodium or a brand of your choosing)
1.75 avocadoes (I ate the remaining quarter in a moment of weakness)
1 head iceberg lettuce, chopped
1.75 cups Kraft 2% milk fancy shredded cheddar cheese
Cilantro (options- since some people think it tastes like soap, which is actually a genetic mutation)
Doritos! (I used Spicy Nacho cheese, but feel free to pick your favorite or use plain corn chips)

Directions:

1. Season the beef generously with salt and pepper, and let it sit for about 10 minutes, then cook it in a skillet over medium heat (I don't add any oil).  As the meat browns, add the spices (I am big on tasting as I go- make sure the meat is cooked though, before you taste), and set aside to cool when done.

2. Put 2T (one serving) of the Catalina into the bottom of each jar, and top with 1/4 cup each of salsa (My original salad was too dry, so I added the salsa component).

3. Halve the cherry tomatoes* and distribute them among the jars. Top with corn (a bit over 1/8 cup per jar).  Next layer: scallions then beans; hopefully the beef has cooled, distribute approximately 1/4 cup into each jar.  Top with lettuce and chopped cilantro (if that's your thing), and finish with 1/4 cup cheese.

4. Store jars upright in the refrigerator.

5. Take six zip-lock baggies and put 7 Doritos (about half a serving) into each.  Then get in your anger management therapy by crushing them up.  Do no refrigerate.

Serving: Gently shake salad to distribute contents, pour into a bowl and top with crushed Doritos.

* I prefer to use cherry tomatoes because in MY MIND (no basis for scientific fact here), the skin-to-flesh ratio helps prevent them from turning to soup while they marinate in the dressing.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Mason Jar Maven. I guess you can tell that I am jumping on the Mason Jar Salad bandwagon. But let's be honest; there are far worse wagons to jump on (the leggings in lieu of pants bandwagon being one of the most egregious. But I digress.

As I begin this blog I am 5'10" and weigh 238.2 pounds which is slightly heavier than a baby elephant, but less than I weighed 4 months ago when I tipped the scales at 264.2. Overall, I would like to get out of the infant pachyderm weight class entirely, and in my experience, diet and excise are key; with diet being the lion's share (keeping up with my zoological theme here) of weight loss. As was said last season on The Biggest Loser, "you can't out exercise a bad diet." Preach. I've definitely tried and failed.

So I am committed to eating healthier! Yay!!!!! The only problem is, I don't have time for that. I have five jobs, literally. I teach full-time Monday-Friday, host trivia two nights a week, work as a tour guide (for two Boston-area venues) on weekends and vacations, and seasonally referee and umpire basketball and softball respectively. Realistically, I work 60-70 hours a week.

My biggest challenge is time; I never get enough sleep, and just don't have enough hours in the day. I often leave home at 6:00 AM with multiple outfits in the car, and don't get home until 10:00 PM or later. Food is ALWAYS on the fly unless I decide to start cooking when I get home, which is usually ridiculously late. So I have tried to make better dinner choices, I've found healthy and quick breakfast solutions, but lunch has been an issue. I got into a bad pattern of eating in the school cafeteria or grabbing a bagel with peanut butter at Dunkin on my way to school. Basically I was eating crap, and my waistline showed it.

When I really committed to eating healthier, I needed a quick, easy lunch solution that wouldn't require a lot of prep. I hate lunchbox sandwiches, they ALWAYS get soggy (even peanut butter gets weird). And anything requiring a microwave turned a 22-minute lunch into a 15-minute or less lunch (not including trying to get to the restroom or copier), because usually there was a wait to heat up lunch. Thus, for the sake of time, I turned to protein bars. I tried EVERY brand under the sun. The ones I liked were expensive, fat-heavy, and weird ingredients that I didn't recognize. Also, I never felt satisfied, and then I'd binge-eat something crappy after school, negating the "healthy" wrapper-clad lunch I'd subjected myself to. So after a year of eating essentially chocolate-covered Play-Doh for lunch, I decided to get back to eating real food.

I word about food. I love food. Breakfast, lunch, supper, hors d'oeuvres, snacks, desserts; I love it all. Sometimes I betray my feminist tendencies and long to be a 1950's housewife, cooking three delicious meals for myself and my family all day, every day. Love planning it, cooking it, and EATING it. So, I needed to find a way to get real food back into lunch.

FINALLY I get to the point. A friend (Shout out to Jen C) was eating mason jar salads at work this summer and explained them to me. The rules seem simple enough:

1. Dressing on the bottom.


2. Store them upright


3. Layer ingredients from wet to dry (tomatoes on the bottom, lettuce on top)

I've added the rule of having cooking/assembly take 70 minutes or less (10 minutes a day if it were spread out over the week). Because who, other than the president maybe, DOESN'T have 10 minutes a day?! Cut back on Facebook trolling or YouTube surfing, and carve out that 70 minutes a week, and then lunch becomes as simple as grabbing a jar out of the fridge!

So I've been doing these for a month now and I'm a huge fan! So like fans of things are wont to do in the modern era, I've decided to blog about it in the hopes that others may reap the benefits of my trails and errors and join in on this awesome life-style change.

I will make mistakes, and some of these recipes will flop. Some of them will be originals, others will be adaptations of salads I already know and love. I will be calculating calories with MyFitnessPal, and I will share that info. My goal/plan is to post one recipe a week. So here we go!