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

Turkey and vegetable casserole

 

  

I thought about making meatloaf.  Then I got a whole bunch of vegetables into the mix.  And this turned into more of a vegetable medley with a little meat thrown in.  Somehow that seems to keep happening. 

Makes: 9x13 pan (12 servings)

6g carb, 11g protein, 1g fat per serving

 

Ingredients:

1 lb (16oz) ground turkey

1 egg or 3T liquid egg whites

3 large roma tomatoes halved (~300g)

2 large carrots, sliced (~200 g)

1 Anaheim pepper, sliced

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

1 small zucchini, cubed

1 small onion, chopped

Directions:

* Preheat oven to 325 F

* Place tomatoes, peppers and carrots on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Spray or coat lightly with olive oil.  Place in oven and cook for 40-45 minutes.

 

* After 45 minutes, place mushrooms, zucchini and onion on baking sheet and add place in oven with other vegetables.  Continue cooking for an additional 15 minutes.  

* Increase oven temp to 350F

* Chop tomatoes and peppers into small pieces.  

* Mix vegetables with ground turkey and egg in large mixing bowl.   

* Spread evenly in a 9x13 pan. 

 

* Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. 

 

Variation... 

* This holds together moderately well.  You could easily double the meat and it would hold together much better and be more "loaf" like.  

* Add some seasoning.  I did not season this since I have 12 servings of it to eat myself I like that I can top it with some of my Apple BBQ Sauce one day and herbs the next.  If you wanted something more 'ready to eat' you could easily add it BBQ sauce, A1 sauce, ketchup, etc. or herbs and seasonings of your choice. 

* Mix and match your vegetables.  I picked an assortment of what I had on hand.  They went well together and are to my taste (thus what I keep on hand...) but is by no means the only way to do this.  Note that I resisted adding pumpkin (though it was a close call and I baked some to go with it...)

Italian Vegetable Soup

Tomato-based vegetable soup with italian inspired seasoning and vegetables

 

 Makes: 12 cups

 Ingredients:

300g carrots, peeled and sliced

400g celery, sliced

200g green pepper, coarsely chopped

10 oz mushrooms, quartered

10 oz zucchini diced (~1 medium)

6 oz (~1/2 medium) eggplant

1/2 white onion, coarse chopped

40 oz (2.5 lbs) tomatoes; peeled, seeded and pureed

28 oz (1.75 lbs) crushed tomatoes

8 cloves garlic, minced

2T balsamic vinaigrette

1T dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp rubbed sage

1/2 tsp salt

6 1/2 cup water

Directions

* Chop and prepare ingredients as above

* Combine tomatoes with 6 Cup water, oregano, rosemary and sage in soup pot.  Place on medium heat and simmer.

* At same time, heat 2T balsamic vinaigrette in saute pan.  Add carrots, garlic, celery, pepper and onion.  Saute until tender.

* Add vegetable mix to pot with tomatoes

* Deglaze saute pan with 1/2 cup water.  Add remaining vegetables - eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms to pan.  Siummer approximately 10 minutes or until tender

* Add vegetables to pot with tomatoes and continue heating to boiling.Once boiling reduce heat and simmer 5-10 minutes.