Quite some time ago I was introduced to salads in a jar or mason jar salads. I thought the idea was interested, saved some recipes, and didn't do much with it. Then a little over a year ago, I participated in a meal planning challenge and actually made some salads in a jar as well as overnight oats in a jar and some others items. While I enjoyed these items and had a few cookbooks on my kindle about mason jar salads, I was having difficulty being consistent about making them AND only had about two recipes I was using. Both recipes were very good but there were only two. So, instead of salads, my packed lunch usually involved leftovers from the night before, a frozen meal, or noodles in a cup.
One day I spotted some interesting looking recipes that I saved to Pinterest. I noted the recipes were excerpted from the book 150 Beset Meals in a Jar: Salads, Soups, Rice Bowls, and More. My interest was piqued and like any self-respecting librarian, I headed to the library catalog to find a copy to borrow so I could "look before buying." I found my local public library had a copy so I quickly checked it out. I was delighted to find the book chock full of a variety of recipes that sounded intriguing and tasty. I immediately noted several that I wanted to try.
As I studied the book to determine if I needed my own copy, on first impression I found that there was a wide variety of recipes that featured many different ingredients. I also enjoyed that while there were definitely salads, there were numerous other items included such as a lentil soup. At first, I was slightly disappointed that most of the recipes are for a single serving. My immediate reaction "Why would I want to make multiple different recipes where you need different ingredients?" and "I'll need to double the recipes to make this worth my while." Doubling or tripling recipes would be very easy in most instances and definitely would be one method of helping with the shopping list. However, as I studied the recipes more thoroughly, I found that the single serving sizes were useful as they would provide a variety to my lunches rather than the same salad multiple days in a row. I also found that I could locate 2-3 recipes that used similar ingredients and then use the one type of green for the bulk of my shopping list. For example, this week I picked three different salads that used arugula. One of the salads also called for pasta and I happened to have leftover pasta on hand. Having similar ingredients made shopping a breeze yet provided variety in my lunch and even my breakfast options.
If you find you need to pack a lunch or that you want to begin packing a lunch for financial or health reasons, I highly recommend 150 Best Meals in a Jar. The variety of options which include both cold and hot meals allows you to take control over the ingredients in your lunch but reduced dependence on the cafeteria or vending machine and doesn't require eating last night's leftovers.
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