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.