Protein Packed Mason Jar Salad

Confession.  I don't love salads.

I mean, I love salads at restaurants.  But of course, those aren't always the healthiest.

When I eat a salad, I want it to have a lot of different "stuff".  Not just lettuce and veggies. 

I have been watching YouTube videos for some healthy eating ideas and one that kept popping up was the salad in a mason jar.  The pluses include that they could be prepped 3-4 days in advance and stay fresh, easy grab and go, and you could really put anything them you want.

So in an effort to continue with the healthy start to the new year, I decided to give it a go.  I got 2 liter size mason jars at Michael's (those are the good size, it's a great size for a 'meal' salad), and I bought a nice big container at The Container Store to dump it into.  You can eat it right from the mason jar, however it's difficult to mix so you'd likely only get 1-2 ingredients at a time.

Then, I assembled the ingredients.  Side note - you can put your dressing right in the jar at the bottom (usually with the 'sturdiest' ingredients) but I had also bought tiny dressing containers at The Container Store so I decided to leave mine on the side.

I prepped 2 of these on Sunday and had them Monday and Wednesday.  The Wednesday one was fresh and delicious!

I started with about 2 oz. of chopped precooked roasted turkey breast from Trader Joe's.  Only turkey, salt and pepper so nice ingredient list, and precooked to save some time!

Then I threw in a 1/4 cup of rinsed and drained chickpeas.

After that, about a 1/2 cup of the steamed broccoli and cauliflower I had done for my meal prep.

Then a 1/4 cup of quinoa.

Then 1 chopped up hard boiled egg.

Then I basically stuffed it with baby arugula.  I really packed it in so that all of the ingredients would have a nice "bed" to fall out on.

And I topped it off with some sea salt pumpkin seeds for crunch!

I had mine with 1 tablespoon or Asian Sesame Ginger Dressing from Trader Joe's.

And here was the result!  I had this and some fresh pineapple and was totally satisfied!

I really love this concept and am looking forward to trying some different varieties!