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Dreaming of an easy way to be SUPER Mom

Easy and Tasty Burrito Bowl Jar Salad- THM E

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Weekly Mason Jar Salad logo

I love starting my week with a fridge stocked full of jar salads.  There is nothing better than rushing home for lunch to find a good refreshing and tasty salad ready to go for me.  This burrito bowl jar salad is a wonderful Trim Healthy Mama (THM) E meal.

Burrito Bowl Jar Salad

Burrito Bowl Jar Salad

Again I’m stuck on creating more E meal options that I love.  I’ve found that eating THM E meals which are lower in fat and higher in healthy carb content are helping with my weight loss so much!  When it comes to jar salads it’s so easy to make THM S jar salads because they are higher in fat content bringing on the yummy creamy dressings.

I have to say this salad will leave you fat and happy.  It’s a GREAT THM E meal and good even if you are not following the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) eating plan.

Make some up

It’s a great time to get to work on these for your lunches this week.  They only take a few minutes and are SO worth it.

I started by cooking my chicken in the crockpot.  Just throw it in, nothing else needed.  When it’s done I shred it up and let it cool.  While this is going I also make my brown rice up and put my peppers and onions in a pan with some coconut oil until they are soft.  If your rice is done I like to combine my peppers and onions with my rice and add my favorite taco seasonings.

Once all three of these things are done you do have to allow them to cool. After they are cooled you can begin assembling your Burrito Bowl Jar Salads.  First, you put in the rice mixture, then the chicken, beans, corn, salsa, and finish it off with a bunch of lettuce.  These salads have LOT in them so you do not need a lot of lettuce.

Printable Recipe

Burrito Bowl Jar Salad
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Burrito Bowl Jar Salad

Makes four jar salads

Ingredients

  • 3-4 Chicken Breasts cooked and shredded
  • 2 Cups Cooked Brown Rice
  • 1-2 Green Peppers
  • Your Favorite Taco or Burrito Seasonings
  • 1 Onion Diced
  • 1 15oz Can of Black Beans Drained
  • 1 Cup Corn
  • 2 Cups Salsa
  • Lettuce

Instructions

  1. Start by cooking your chicken in the crockpot, shredding and then allowing to cool.

  2. Cook up your brown rice and allow to cool.

  3. Brown your diced peppers and onion together with coconut oil if needed.  Then allow to cool also.

  4. Combine the rice, peppers, and onions.  Season with your favorite taco seasonings.

  5. Begin to layer into your Mason Jars.  Starting with the rice mixture, then chicken, Black beans, corn, and salad.

  6. The last step is to stuff your jar full of lettuce.  This jar salad has a lot of stuff in it so you will not be able to put in a lot of lettuce.

Enjoy!

Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy because you are prepped and ready for the week!  Thanks for joining me today!

Apple Feta Jar Salad with Chicken and Apple Pear Dressing- THM E

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Weekly Mason Jar Salad logo

Everyone knows that good healthy food isn’t always fast or easy to find.  Jar salads are an easy and great way to prep some lunches for the week.  Now I know, I know you do have to do the prepping yourself but once they are ready you are good to go for a week or so.  I try to make a different kind of jar salad each week.  Yes, that means I eat the same salad for 4-6 days but then the next week I do a different one.  I have really enjoyed doing this.  It’s great for me during the busy lunchtime routine.  They are easy to pack and take with me too.  I also feel good and full after eating them because they are a large salad!

Apple Feta Jar Salad

Chicken Apple Feta Jar Salad


Lately, I have been experimenting a lot with my Trim Healthy Mama (THM) eating and have found that the more E (Energizing) meals I eat the more weight loss I see.  Now for those of you that do not know much about THM these are the meals that are lower in fat but higher in good healthy carbs.  When I say carbs I do not mean white bread or croutons but rather fruit, quinoa, oatmeal, brown rice and things like that.

Of course this should make complete sense since the other THM meal is the S (satisfying) meal and those are the meals high in fat.  This should have been obvious to me since obviously if I’m eating E meals I am consuming overall less calories but you know some things take some time…even years to figure out.

Anyway with that being said I’m obviously on high alert for great new E meals and this week I wanted to try a new E jar salad.  Now this does have feta cheese in it but i think if you keep it low you are fine with the amount of fat content.  If not then you are in crossover mode which is STILL on plan!  Sometimes I have to remind myself of this.

Apple Feta Jar Salad

Without further ado let me introduce you to the apple feta jar salad with chicken and apple pear dressing.  Is your mouth watering yet?  First you need to start by making your dressing which I found over at thehealthymilestone. Once you have that all prepped and ready you can fill your mason jars with 1/4 cup of it. With that dressing you add the rest of the ingredients in order as listed below in the printable recipe and make sure that lettuce is packed in there tight!  Put your lids on and you are ready to go.

Printable Recipe

Chicken Apple Feta Jar Salad
Print

Apple Feta Jar Salad with Chicken and Apple Pear dressing THM E

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup Prepared Apple Pear dressing from thehealthymilestone http://www.thehealthymilestone.com/pear-apple-salad-dressing/
  • 2 Apples Sliced into bite sized pieces 1/2-3/4 per jar
  • 2 Pears sliced into bite sized pieces 1/2-3/4 per jar
  • 4 T Feta Cheese 1T per jar
  • 3-4 Cooked and shredded skinless bonelss chicken breasts 1 breast per jar or so
  • Your choice of lettuce Stuff each jar full
  • I sometimes top with a few pecans for some crunch but not too many!

Instructions

  1. Prepare your apple pear dressing and put 1/4 cup into the bottom each jar.

    http://www.thehealthymilestone.com/pear-apple-salad-dressing/

  2. Cook and shred up your chicken.  I like to do mine in the crockpot!

  3. Cut up apples and pears into bite-size pieces and place into the jars.

  4. Next put in the feta.

  5. Chicken goes in next.

  6. Follow up by stuffing your jar as full as you can with your lettuce.

 Mason Jar Salad tips and tricks 

If you haven’t ever made these salads before do not be afraid.  They are so easy and are a lifesaver to my eating plan each and EVERY week! I absolutely love having them ready in the fridge.  I have written a post about mason jar salad tips and tricks that you will definitely want to check out if you are just getting started! Make a plan to be successful today and let these wonderful salads help you along your way.

 

A New Look for Mason Jar Salads: Vacuum Sealed lids

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Weekly Mason Jar Salad logo

Does lunch time sneak up on you?  You think you have so much time and all of the sudden the hunger pains start.  They start when you are in the middle of something so you brush it off and suddenly the attacks are a category 5.  Before you know it you are in the drive thru at Mcdonalds making a choice you don’t want to make YET AGAIN.  Or maybe you are at home and you find every little crumb from making lunch for you kids.  Little leftover peanut butter, cheese stick, go gurt, cookie crumbs.  You throw things into your mouth as you are getting them fed and before you know it you’ve consumed 500 calories and you haven’t even “eaten” yet.  Let alone feel any sense of FULL. I’m speaking for someone else of course because I NEVER fall into this habit…wink…wink.

Enter the Mason Jar Salad

This was definitely me. I’d get done feeding everyone and I would still be hungry but I would also feel gross and guilty for all I consumed WHILE making everyone else’s lunch. I wanted to eat better but you all know how they say you shouldn’t go to the grocery store hungry. I feel it’s the same thing when making lunch for your kids.  If you are hungry and don’t have a plan you are bound to fail.

Mason jar salads have helped me so much in this area!  Each week I make a different jar salad for the week.  For instance this week I made 5 BLT jar salads, BAM, lunch for the week is just there and ready.  Last week I made 6 taco jar salads and the week before that I was camping and I took along 4 strawberry chicken jar salads.  It’s easier to make all the same kind for the week but each week I change it up so I don’t get sick of them.

Mason jar salads are not rocket science they are nothing to be afraid of but I do have some tips and tricks to share with you.  If you haven’t made them before definitely check out my post about making them. On that note, I also want to share with you some NEW tips on mason jar salads!

NEW Tips and vacuum sealed lids!

Normally my mason jar salads last a good 6-7 days.  Those last two days if the lettuce in the middle is touching anything wet it will start to get soggy but for the most part, they do last that long.  Someone recently tipped me off to the fact that vacuum sealers now offer a mason jar lid sealer.  REVOLUTIONARY!!  She told me they keep the salads good for up to 14 days.  Now I have to say I was VERY intrigued!

I went to Amazon and ordered up the things I would need to try this out. Here is what I got.

You need the items pictured above.  The first item is the jar lid sealer, the next is a handheld vacuum sealer (you do not need this if you have a full-size vacuum sealer), the attachment for the handheld sealer (again you do not need this if you have a full-size sealer), quart size mason jars and lids (no rings are necessary).

Once you have those parts you just make up your salads and make sure the jar lid is clear. I usually just wet my finger and rub it around the edge. I boil my lids just to make sure they are clean and I think it gives a better seal.  Once they are boiled I place them on the jars and cover it with the plastic jar sealer. Then I attach it to my handheld machine and push the button.  Just like magic, the sealer does its thing and the salad is air tight.  This does NOT mean you can keep them out of the refrigerator but just that it will last longer.

Testing it

I, of course, was hesitant on how this would help but I made a bunch of jar salads up and thought I would test it.  I couldn’t wait the full 14 days because I needed my salad but the last one I used was 12 days old and when I popped it open it was just as crispy as the day I made it.  The lettuce was not brown (and I used bagged shredded lettuce) and it was not soggy.  Some pieces that had direct contact with the dressing may get soggy but when you mix it up those get lost in the mix. I’m VERY pleased with this new process!

Recommendation


I would definitely recommend these items to help with keeping salads longer in the fridge. I have found that keeping the dressing from the lettuce also helps a lot and the placement in your actual fridge makes a difference too.  Keeping them in a door or not on the top shelf are best.  Sometimes the lettuce also is wetter than other times which can cause it to go bad faster too.  Please go buy, try it and report back to me!! Hope your salads last a long time too!

Thank you!

Thank you for joining me today I hope my posts are helpful and encouraging.  Come back next week to hear about my Trim Healthy Mama (THM) Fuel Cycle!  I’m in the middle of a two-week cycle and I’m SO pleased with my results so far.  I hope to share my results and also my fuel cycle menu that I followed.  Hope you have a great weekend!