Salad in a Cup...Genius!

I just hate putting a salad together. Do you? When I'm hungry, I want food now! And more often than not I pass on all the gathering of ingredients, chopping, and assembling required and just skip it altogether in favor of something fast (handful of cookies).

But the other day I saw THIS VIDEO and was amazed at such a genius idea...salad in a mason jar! 

I was so happy to have found such a clever way to store ready made salads that you make one time a week. No more pulling out bags of veg and containers, etc. I can just grab it and go (kinda reminds me of those old Salad Shakers that McDonald's used to have...remember those?).

But alas, I don't have mason jars. Bummer.

However I do have those cups that go with my Magic Bullet (that's broken). I wasn't sure what to do with them and hated to throw them out and am happy to say they work perfectly!!!

So, I assembled my salad ingredients and began cutting and chopping and layering.

A the bottom of the cup you need to add your favorite salad dressing. 

Then I added a couple tablespoons of carrot, then onion, cheese, ham, cucumber and a cup of lettuce on top. I put a few tablespoons of croutons in a sandwich baggie and layered that on top of the lettuce (in a baggie so it wouldn't get soggy in the fridge). 

Aren't they pretty? Of course you can use any ingredients you want, but add your dressing and tomatoes at the bottom so that your lettuce doesn't get soggy and wilted. I'd also add my cheese close to the top. If it's down at the bottom near the dressing, it would get gummy. ICK.

Then I covered it all with a piece of plastic wrap and sealed it with the rings that came with the cups. I couldn't find all 4 rings, so I used one of the sealed caps for the last one,
and I just placed them in the fridge. I am at home all day, but I could totally see grabbing one of these in the morning before work and popping it in a lunch bag. So easy!

When you dump it out on a plate, it comes out looking like a perfect salad..lettuce on the bottom and the dressing on top. Unless you like your lettuce on top and all your fixins on the bottom, then this would be a disaster salad, not a perfect salad. (ha!)

My salad has 225 calories and 10 grams of fat (didn't use low fat dressing or cheese, but will probably do that next time).

I love this idea and know that I'll definitely be eating more salads.

Let me know if you try it!