Southwestern Salad in a Jar

Eating out is certainly a vice of mine. And with my job in food and my job in sales, I tend to eat out A LOT!

So, it’s not a surprise that lunches out are a thing.  And, because life is busy, grabbing a bite someplace is usually what I resort to as I barely brush my teeth and get myself out the door in the morning.

So many times I hear people say, ” I was too busy to make lunch today” or ” I got up late and wasn’t able to bring something with me for lunch”. All too often I’ve been one of those people too! We get stuck eating bad food with no nutritional value or we spend more money going to a proper restaurant to eat a $25 salad we could have made at home.

I realized that simple to-go recipes are vital.  Who wants to spend full day out of their already limited weekend to prep meals for the week?  So making a recipe where it takes little effort but can help you eat right, save money and and stress less is exactly what I aimed to do.

So, I created a Southwestern Salad that is full of goodies to keep you going throughout the day. The chicken is just thrown into the oven so  you can rest with your feet up and a glass of wine while it cooks. The salad can last up to a 4-6 days thanks to a bit of lime juice and properly stacking your salad in a jar. Better yet, it’s in a jar so all you need to do is grab it, shake it when ready, then eat it with zero waste.

You can make any type of salad so long as you keep the wet stuff at the bottom to avoid a dangerous soggy mess. You can also opt to put the dressing in a small container on top of the salad.

Take a look below and Happy Eating!

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a small baking pan with tin foil.

In a small bowl, mix olive oil, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper.  Add Chicken and evenly coat.

Place chicken in pan and bake until cooked (approx. 25 – 30 minutes). Once cooked, remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

In medium sized mason jars, begin to stack your salad starting with the Salsa. The wet ingredients on the bottom will ensue that the rest of the salad doesn’t get soggy.

Add the beans, corn, chicken, lettuce, avocado and goat feta in that order (from bottom to top).  Add lime juice on top covering the avocado pieces. This will keep the avocado from going brown right away.

 When ready to eat, Shake the salad until combined (or mix in a small bowl) and devour!