Mason jar salads

I eat a lot of salad.  A lot.  It's my go to choice for lunches and portable, packable foods.  My fridge is often stocked with pre-cut produce and chopped lettuce, spinach, etc. so I can throw a combination of vegetables or fruit on something green and leafy and head out the door.  The problem with this is that I have to constantly go shopping for fresh produce.  This is not a terrible problem because for some reason I love grocery shopping but can be difficult when working long hours.  I've read a fair bit about vacuum sealing salads in mason jars and they're just so pretty I figured I'd give it a try.  Rumor is vacuum sealed lettuce with last for more than a week staying nice and crisp.  I'm not sure about that, and I don't know how salad making interferes with that longevity but I'll report back later.  

From what I've read the mason jar salad is pretty straight forward itself.  Basically wet things on the bottom and greens on top. From bottom to top:

Dressing (I use salsa).  

Tomatoes if they're chopped

Wet vegetables or those that may benefit from 'marinating' -- zucchini/squash, mushrooms... 

Vegetables that are crisp and serve as a barrier between wet and dry -- whole tomatoes, carrots, peapods... 

Protein or grains -- eggs, chicken, rice, pastas...

Lettuce or other greens

Finally any seeds nuts or final dry ingredients

I just used my standard go to produce and we'll see how these compare to my usual "day of" packed salads as we go through the week.  I had every intention of adding my grilled chicken and red onion but that seems to be forgotten.

1.  Mango salsa... One of my recipes I have apparently not yet shared here, but I often use salsa in place of salad dressing.  

 

Next veggie layers of chopped roma tomato, diced zucchini, sliced mushrooms and cucumber. 

Then a layer of carrots...

Followed by a ton of lettuce.  It's amazing how much it packs down...

Then sealing... I used the super cheap MacGyver method. Mostly because my stores don't sell the nifty vacuum sealing attachment.  More's the pity really.  I apparently can't get my fill of kitchen gadgets.   My method just requires jars and some vacuum sealer.  I used a Ziploc one I got for about $4 at Walmart.

First you'll need a hole in the top of the lid.  I poked a hole with a knife.  Then cover the whole with tape.  Something like electrical tape will probably hold up better.  I used masking tape because it's what I had in my kitchen and it worked.

     

 Then cover the taped hole with the vacuum sealer and suck out the air.  This should seal the jar so the lid is sucked down, is not easily lifted off the jar and "indented" rather than popped up and no long depress-able.  Repeat, repeat, repeat....

And, voila.  A weeks worth of neatly packed salads. 

 

To make 6 I used 6 wide mouth quart jars, lids and bands.  And added the following divided between the 6 jars in this order:

1 1/2 cups of mango salsa

1 small zucchini, diced

1 roma tomato, diced

10 oz sliced mushrooms

1/2 cucumber, sliced

 8 oz sliced carrots

1 head of iceberg lettuce

1 head of red leaf lettuce