I LOVE to take salads to work – that way I’m not tempted to scoff a fatty (but delicious) ham and cheese filled quiche from the cafe.

But I never seemed to be able to get around how messy they were to prepare, how quickly they wilt and how many Tupperware containers I’d lose in the office kitchen. That is, until i discovered JAR SALADS!

The trend of salad jars has spread across the foodie blogosphere like wildfire, even going so far as to be coined ‘The Mason Jar Salad Movement’. Type Salad Jar into Pinterest and just see how many recipe ideas come up.

The premise is simple –

• Instead of mixing together your salad in a tupperware container, ‘layer’ your ingredients in a clean jar instead.
• The benefits include being able to make two or three jars in advance at the start of the week (they stay fresh!)
• no more lost Tupperware containers (you can recycle jars from olives, gherkins and sauces )
• You will get super food envy from everyone in your office because they look fab.

Here are some tips: 

• Put your more liquefied ingredients at the bottom, like your dressing.
• Your next layer will be submerged in the dressing so choose ingredients like broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, tomatoes, capsicum and chickpeas
• The greens go on top of this – spinach, lettuce or arugula
• On top of that comes the feta cheese, corn, and avocado.
• If you’d prefer not to put dressing in, your salad jars will keep even longer. Instead, mix it up and bring it along in a smaller jar.

Suggestions for ingredients include: 

• Tinned Corn
• Tinned Tuna
• Lettuce
• Red Onion
• Spinach Leaves
• Capsicum
• Tomato
• Avocado
• Feta Cheese
• Mung Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Tabouleh

Don’t limit it to savory salads – a healthy breakfast with nuts and seeds, oatmeal, fruit and yogurt are great also!

Try it for yourself…