Mason Jar Salad Party

You probably have seen this pretty & smart meal prepping trend on pinterest.

Simply pack up some greens & salad toppings in a strategic stack to use throughout the week for your lunch needs.

It’s fun, eye-appealing, uniquely delicious, and impeccably nutritious.

Some of us may struggle to get the trend started just because it’s hard to break our usual routine, maybe we don’t know what to do, or maybe we tend to use the same ol’ greens and fixins’?

That’s when you through a Mason Jar Salad party!

I first heard of this while I was back home during vacation. I thought, what a great way to get friends together while being productive and preparing ourselves something healthy to use later?!

We all gather over food. But why not gather over healthy food that also teaches, encourages, and inspires?

So here’s my step by step process to throw a low-key, low stress, successful salad-in-a-jar party!

1- Send out invites to guests.

I used a quick facebook event invite &included when, where, and what to bring.

If it’s hot and humid out, keep it indoors, but if the weather’s nice, make it even easier by hosting at a local park.  As the hostess, I offered to bring the mason jars and dressing, and everyone was asked to bring a container of greens plus two toppings. We didn’t get too detailed into who was bringing what, and it turned out everyone brought a few different options and extra amounts so there was enough to take home for themselves elsewhere.

For fun, I also set up two drinks (unsweet brewed mango green tea + cucumber lemon agua fresca) and made a watermelon salad appetizer. That puts a bit more on your to-do list, but it’s definitely not a must.

2. Prepare the jars and party flow.

I washed the jars and lids and determined the flow for the salad-making process. My “drink & appetizer” station was set on a separate table. Meanwhile, along my counter tops the order went:

empty jars

dressing

toppings

greens

I used little chalkboards to designate stations and also the order of how to build the salads:

dressing on the bottom

followed by hardy-toppings that won’t absorb much liquid quickly

finished with delicate greens

 Of course, having an 18 month old helper is always useful and highly encouraged. =)

When it was time, I prepared a sample salad to show everyone how to get started.

Here’s some of the toppings we had to share:

options of store bought and make your own dressing

      black beans        shredded cabbage         bell peppers

currants       toasted pecans      sunflower seeds        shredded coconut       toasted pistachios

mixed greens           spinach            kale

Here is a favorite combo of mine [actually shared years ago by a friend}:

    bell peppers   currants    pecans    with a basic vinaigrette

And one of LEM’s Godmother suggested this combo {which we all thought sounded deliciously brilliant and just so happens to be the same friend who created my previously mentioned favorite combo- she’s quite the salad connoisseur apparently}:

walnuts    dried pineapple    shredded coconut

But who am I kidding, everything looked great, so I added a little bit of everything to each of mine (ooops)!

 

It turned out that no one used the “make your own” dressing station I had set out. My advice would just be to provide some versatile but delicious ready-made dressings.  I’d suggest to keep it simple with a quick homemade lemon & honey vinaigrette and a balsalmic vinegar dressing just based on the type of ingredients we had available. The store bought option we had was this low sugar and only 15 calorie per two tablespoon option that everyone used Bella’s Blackberry & Fig.

Our protein source was some black beans, but you could also keep it simple with other no-salt-added canned beans like white beans or chickpeas. Even hard boiled eggs or some tofu would be great. I’m loving this Hemp Crusted Tofu recipe from fellow recipe redux blogger Dixya from her Food, Pleasure, Health blog.

I hope this inspires you to gather with your friends and make these beautiful and healthy salads-to-go!  I hope we get to do this monthly! After all, I’m all about multi-tasking these days!

muah!

Becca