Meal prepping is a great way to save money but it’s also helpful in sticking to healthy eating goals. Personally, I am far more likely to stay eating healthy if I have food that is already prepared making it easier to make good decisions. One of my favorite ways to meal prep for lunches at work are salads in mason jars. I had seen posts on Pinterest for them here and there and eventually thought I would try my hand at my own mixtures. They are quick and easy to make, and last much longer than a salad put into a plastic container. The larger mason jars also make it so that you have a good sized portion so that you don’t get hungry or tempted to snack later in the day.

This particular salad recipe is one of my new favorites, but you can make any sort of combination you want with salads in a jar. The main trick is to make sure that all of your wettest items are stacked towards the bottom. This keeps the items that you want to stay fresh from getting soggy. In each case, you always want to have your dressing at the bottom of the jar. This keeps it from getting mixed up with other ingredients like your fresh greens. The items you place on top of the dressing should be more solid resilient vegetables that can stand up to a little bit of moisture. For example, this salad has raw broccoli stacked on top of the dressing,and then blueberries on top of that. I did not want to mix the beets with the dressing since the liquids of each would mix together. The way it’s layered here gave the broccoli and berries a tasty dressing without making them soft or soggy. Greens always get placed at the top of the jar, or furthest away from the wettest ingredients, to keep them fresh. I hope you enjoy this salad recipe. Let me know in the comments below if you have any mixtures that you like to put into jars for the week!

Blueberry Broccoli Salad in a Jar

Arrange the ingredients in this order per jar. If you’d like to swap any items feel free, just remember the stacking rule!

1-2 Tbsp of dressing per jar

1 handful of raw broccoli florets, chopped

1 handful of fresh blueberries

Approx. 1/2 cup of canned shoe string beets (I used one can across 3 jars)

Approx. 1/2 cup garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained (again, 1 can across 3 jars)

1 large handful of fresh baby spinach (stuffed into the top of the jar)

Keep in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. Dump jar into a bowl or plate and enjoy!