If you’ve ever ventured to Pinterest, you’ve seen that Mason Jar meals have been a hit for the past couple of years.  In fact these meals are the reason why I bought a case of Mason Jars about two years ago.  A couple of summers ago, pretty much everything I ate came out of a mason jar.  I was obsessed.

Then the obsession sort of died down a bit and I started using these jars to store stuff, like flour, and sugar and spices and stuff.

For my meal plan this week, I decided to make an Italian Chopped Salad, but I wasn’t sure how to store it.  I knew I wanted to make a whole weeks worth of salads on Sunday (because we know if I do it daily, it won’t happen) so that I can just grab the container and go in the morning.

Then I remembered my Mason Jars! The whole purpose of mason jar salads was that they were meant to be made in one day and enjoyed throughout the week.  Perfect!

So my Italian Mason Jar salad was born.

There is a method to stacking mason jar salads properly so that nothing wilts from the dressing.  Even though I opted to not put dressing in each jar (I actually keep a bottle of dressing at work, so I didn’t need to put it in the jars) I still followed the stacking pattern. You want to put your heartier veggies on the bottom. meats and cheeses in the middle and anything delicate (like lettuce) at the top.  I’m going to be adding croutons, but didn’t put them in the jars because they won’t last in the fridge.

When I was making this, I even thought that this would make a great pasta salad.  Just add some rotini with the lettuce (or instead of the lettuce) and it’s a different kind of salad.  You could also change out the salami for some spicy ham, or maybe do a provolone cheese instead of mozzarella and it would be delicious.  I used a combo of romaine lettuce and iceberg because I like the crunch, but you can use whatever greens you like.