Mason jar salads: healthful meal prepping, quick and easy!

I'm obsessed with easy-to-make, healthful mason jar salads! It's the best way to keep your greens from getting soggy with dressing on them, since the dressing stays on the bottom.

These salads will stay fresh in your fridge for up to a week, although I recommend consuming them more quickly if you do choose to make them with a soft cheese, like I did in this video.

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When you make a mason jar salad, here are some guidelines:

Step #1. Put dressing on the bottom
Step #2. Add hard veggies and fruit (I used zucchini and baby beets, but other good ones are carrots, peppers, onions and celery)
Step #3. Add beans and legumes, you could also throw in grains/quinoa
Step #4. Add soft veggies and fruit such as avocado, tomato, mushroom
Step #5. Stuff your greens on top! Pack it in there!
Step #6. Top with nuts and seeds, and sometimes I throw in some bacon bits and/or green onions

When you're ready to eat your salad, if you have a runny-type dressing like the first salad I made in the video, you can just shake it up then dump it all on a plate. However, if you have a creamier dressing like the second salad I show here, then you may have to scrape the bottom out with your fork and spread the dressing around.

Have you ever tried making a mason jar salad? If so, what is your favorite recipe? Let me know in your comments below!

Ladies' Lunch, and Paleo-ish dieting adventures

This has been such a great month for me, I've been bubbling over with happiness. There's no other way to put it, and I am aware that it sounds cheesy and silly... but I'm full of joy. No explanation-- I didn't get a raise, I'm not preggers, I haven't won the lottery or anything-- just JOY over living in a beautiful place, surrounded by good people who make me happy, with a fulfilling career and a wonderful husband and sweet dog, along with a home (albeit rented) that's in an amazing community.

One good aspect of today was "lunch with the ladies" Michelle, Maria and Lauren at Field of Greens on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, Florida. OBSESSED-MUCH!! My favorite lunch spot!

L to R: Me, Lauren, Maria and Michelle

I can't get enough of their salads, which is saying something because those salads are HUGE. I love the "Create your own" deal for $7.95. I get a hard-boiled egg on mine for protein, and I love choosing different veggies and some of their delicious dressing. I also love their cucumber-infused water, on tap at the side of the restaurant.

This time, though, I got the Classic Cobb salad, because I was craving avocado and chicken. I love the Gorgonzola cheese for that added flavor.

Field of Greens Classic Cobb Salad, to-go... nom nom nom

This is the restaurant Michelle and I love to hit up during lunchtime and take wheatgrass shots. She was bold today, and drank hers DOWN. You go, girl! I love how the servers hand the shot to you with two slices of orange, to chase down the grass taste. So helpful. :) 

I guess people have discovered my secret, because that restaurant was packed for lunch and the line was almost to the door. At least the service was still great, although Michelle did have to wait a few minutes for her wheatgrass. Understandable, because the demand is HIGH now.

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Today, I decided I would give it a try eating Paleo-ish. I had a green smoothie for breakfast with green tea afterwards instead of coffee, the Field of Greens Classic Cobb salad for lunch (although the cheese and dressing were not Paleo), and an apple plus some homemade Chocolate "Crack" which is really just a combination of cocoa powder, stevia and coconut oil. Dinner was another salad of mixed greens with Standard Egg Salad on top.

Now, I'm chowing on a delicious recipe I found of a Cinnamon-Apple 2-Minute Mug Cake from The Paleo Mom. I replaced honey with agave nectar since I didn't have honey-- plus it gives me too much energy this late in the evening (it's past 8pm as I type this). I also replaced the walnuts with pecans, because, again, that's all I had. The final result was truly DELICIOUS!

My ground-up almonds made almond flour in my Magic Bullet blender

Here's what it looked like dumped out of the mug onto a plate after microwaving

Topped it with Go Veggie cream-cheese alternative, sugar free blueberry preserves-- BLISS!!!

Jewelry for today's OOTD

Here is my easy-peasy outfit that is super-comfortable, even if the fact that the waist is not defined may not be the most flattering silhouette, LOL! I love the jewelry that I finally got to wear from the Old Navy outlet shopping spree at Sawgrass Mills mall. The turquoise earrings pop with the necklace's purple and turquoise colors. Plus I love the purple in the lindsay phillips shoe jewelry!

My lunch salad today was a mini-cucumber chopped over mixed greens, with two boiled eggs, bacon bits and half of an organic tomato, dressed with my homemade ranch. Yummy and healthful for less than 350 calories!