The Poor Mom Revolution

I had it set to post a quick and easy one pot recipe. I had all the ingredients and veggies to make a dinner with leftover lunch for myself and the kids… but if I’m being honest, we had a very late lunch, no one wanted dinner and I didn’t feel like cooking anything! So here I am… thinking to myself about how so many of you are probably in the same position on most days of the week. Exhausted, potentially a little stressed and feeling like you’d rather sit down than make someone food. Now thankfully in this house everybody loves a good salad and as you know I’m all about quick and easy. I’ve come across a ton of these salad mason jar lunches and if I’m being honest… they’re so quick, easy and I’d make them every damn day if I could.

  Growing up my dad used to make these giant one bowl salads which I called the garbage salad. As fantastic as it was, it was a huge variety of whatever we had in the fridge and whatever cans were in the cupboard. He threw in chickpeas, canned green beans, hearts of palm, beets any fresh veggies we had in the fridge and some kindtimes he’d add tuna or whatever was from dinner the night before. And balsamic vinaigrette was always his specialty. These were the best salads ever! So then I started thinking, why not make a mason jar salad with whatever I like and whatever I have. So meet the “Garbage Jar!” I do promise it tastes better than it sounds and I’ll tell you what I add in mine as a little motivation and potentially guidance in how this amazingness works!

Ingredients:

*Spring Mix

*Chickpeas

*Balsamic Vinaigrette

*Assorted Peppers

*Carrots

*Sunflower seeds

*Cucumbers

*Assorted Nuts for added crunch

*Jalapenos

  This is the easiest lunch/dinner for you or the whole family. You can mix them all in one giant bowl and serve or put them in a jar for later. As long as the dressing is on the bottom with a bunch of veggies and you add the lettuce last it’ll keep all week long. Five of them on Sunday evening and they still taste delicious on Friday! I think as parents we put so much pressure on ourselves that everything has to be perfect. You want to make sure everyone’s fed and you have leftovers even though we barely ever do. Even when you make the best meal ever, somehow they are still hungry 10 minutes after eating. Sometimes it’s all about what you can do in between driving the kids to and from practice, surviving the work day and still having the energy to workout, read and do at least something for yourself. Sometimes it’s salad and it’s a staple I add to the grocery list every week! What’s the one thing you would have to have in your garbage salad???