Another week, another jar salad! I’ve come to find that the more you spice it up and add different lettuces and ingredients the less bored with salads you will be! Here is a real winner that is very healthy…

This week I made a pecan and apple chicken jar salad.  The key is to keep the wet ingredients in the bottom and away from your lettuce. Some people suggest keeping the meat away from the dressing also but I feel like the dressing makes a marinade for the meat and I enjoy it soaked up in that!

To make this salad Trim Healthy Mama (THM) friendly I use the slim belly vinegarette from the cookbook but those of you that are not THM friends I have also used a raspberry vinegarette (Aldis brand works great).

First up you want to cook your chicken.  I like to do mine in my crock pot or air fryer but you can use whatever works best for you or even use canned. After my chicken is cooked I just layer in this order and stuff the jar FULL of lettuce!

Pecan Chicken Jar Salad

– Dressing

– 1/4 cup chicken

-2T chopped apple

– 2-3 strawberries chopped up

-2T pecans

-1 stalk of celery chopped

-Stuff full of lettuce

You may be wondering what kind of lettuce to use? Well, you can honestly use any kind.  My favorite is shredded (yes bagged) lettuce that I get from sams club or Gordon foods.  I realize many times this type of lettuce goes bad the next day after you open it but I have been making these salads every week for months and it definitely lasts a week.  I have also like iceberg lettuce ripped up, romaine ripped up, and spinach.  Really you can use whatever kind you love and you can mix more than one kind.

This salad is great and refreshing! For my THM friends if you use the slim belly vinegarette it can be a fuel pull because it does not have cheese for fat and the apple is very minimal!  If it’s not a complete fuel pull it would lean towards an E because of the apple. Bonus it’s delicious and filling too!  Do yourself a favor and get prepped for the week with this delicious salad!!

I know you laughed when you saw that title!  Laughing is so good for the soul but to the point… do you find yourself searching in the pantry when it’s close to meal time? I always tell my husband (and remind myself) the good food we should be eating isn’t found in the pantry. The fresh healthy good stuff has to be in the fridge. This week we also have chicken Cesar jar salads ready to go!

With that being said I challenge you to do some easy prep this week and try some jar salads. These do not get soggy because you put all the wet ingredients in the bottom and stuff the lettuce full at the end…so easy peasy and a blessing when hunger comes on strong.

This weeks jar salad is a chicken Cesar salad.  You won’t regret having these ready when you are lost in the pantry searching for a quick fix. Go to the fridge grab out the jar and dump it into a big bowl. I use a big Tupperware bowl so that I have lots of room to stir that dressing all over each bite.  These salads keep good and crispy for at least a week so make enough for the week and then try another kind next week!

To get these going I start by cooking my chicken.  I like to do this in my crock pot or air fryer because I can just throw it in and forget about it. When it’s done I drain it and then take my pampered chef “mash and chop” and shred it all up or scissors and cut it. While the chicken is cooking I prep the rest of the salad by layering them in a quart size jar in this order…

Chicken Cesar Jar Salad

1/4 cup Caesar dressing

2T bacon bits

2-4T parm cheese

1/4 cup cooked chicken

stuff full with romaine lettuce

For my Trim Healthy Mama friends, this is an S salad. I’m usually lazy and use the Aldi Cesar dressing but here is a good one you can make also.

I could eat these salads every day but sometimes I use them as a snack. They are large and filling and much better for me than other snacks I choose. This is another great way to keep healthy food ready to go and you will be so glad you have them ready to go this week!