Salad-in-a-Jar: A Year Later

Breaking News: In addition to graduating college, my sister also recently got a new job and leased her first apartment!  Talk about some major life changes, huh?  My mom mentioned she was worried about not having money now that she has to pay rent and my mom told her “soon you’ll have to bring salad-in-a-jar to work for lunch!”  Um rude, Mom.  Because, here we are over a year later still rocking that salad-in-a-jar habit and I kinda LOVE it.

In case you, like my mom, think this is a sad times lunch that’s holding you back from what you really wanna do (ahem, eat tacos with guac at Chipotle every day), then I’m here to tell you that’s so not the case and if you’re into this salad-in-a-jar thing with me, here’s 5 more we’ve added to our arsenal since that post I wrote a year ago.  (But totally check out that original post for salad-in-a-jar tips!)

Superfood Salad // A very new addition but it’s a winner because it has what a salad needs to succeed… LOTS of stuff!  The more mix-ins, the better!  Make this in spring/summer when avocados are their creamiest selves… and also their cheapest selves.

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Greek Farro and Chickpea Salad // Fact: I adore a Greek salad.  It’s probably a combo of all the different textures and the salty feta that ropes me in every time.  You can really use any grain for this one.  We usually do barley because of that one time I accidentally bought two bags of the stuff and we’ll be eating it for the rest of forever.  

California Caprese Bowl // I wait all winter for this one that just tastes so much better in the summer when tomatoes are actually in season.  I once made it with thick-cut bacon and honestly preferred the regular stuff.   

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Spinach Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Apricot // The contrast of savory roasted veggies and sweet dried apricots is killer (in a good way!) plus this is one of my very favorite salad dressings.  

Fall Harvest Chopped Salad // I’ve mentioned this one before because the dressing is incredible but the roasted butternut (or sub something more in season), goat cheese, apple, dried cranberry combo is not to be overlooked.  

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In other news: I went on my first pre-work outdoor run this morning and it made me INSANELY happy.  That, plus hammock napping, garden inspecting, iced coffee sipping, Memorial Day planning and actual summer time temps means I’m on track to becoming my happiest self.  Howboutyou?

Weekend Things

Sometimes it takes a few days away from home to fully appreciate your bed, your kitchen and your routine.

Sometimes it takes a few weeks of hail, rain and snow to fully appreciate sunshine and warm temperatures (even if it’s only in the 50’s).

Sometimes it takes a wild and indulgent Grub Street Diet to fully appreciate your comparably uneventful and healthy* weekend.

*Not even trying to define the word “healthy,” but reading everything Alan Yang ate in a week definitely made me feel extremely virtuous.  But also jealous 🙂

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Staying in on Friday night to cook a BOMB dinner & watch a movie is my love language.

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Walked to Black Eye Coffee for avocado toast beauty & Memorial Day BBQ planning.

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Joey had been dying to get in the backyard and clean up the mess from the hail storm and would you look at that pile of twigs?!  That was just one of the THREE piles we cleaned up.  P.S. Our garden just keeps on keeping on!

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Post grocery store, fridge restock lunch.

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We popped over to an open house (it was a bust!) then made a stop at Whole Foods and get this, they don’t even sell cheap club soda there!  Luckily, we had some at home and Moscow Mules + shrimp tacos + Y Tu Mamá También are the makings of a perfect Saturday night.

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Ran 5 miles on Sunday morning and totally ran into the Colfax Marathon!  I knew it was happening that day, but hey, I just kind of figured they actually ran on Colfax?  Afterwards, I got us iced coffee and came home to waffles.  Never been happier ♥

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Prep a salad, eat a salad.

But seriously, this weekend was a good one 🙂