salad in a jar

I know, I know–I’m getting a little too much into variations on the same theme. But people, I’m telling you: this salad in a jar business is going to change the way you think about meal prep and salad. If you haven’t tried it yet, here’s another take on this idea.

While I’m thrilled that we only have four weeks of school left, I’m taking a deep breath this evening before we descend into four weeks of testing. You read that correctly: four weeks. This is all over Georgia, not just at my school. State politics aside, let’s just say that I speak for many teachers when I say that education shouldn’t be this way. Without getting too far into a standardized testing rant, let’s just say that I’ll need lots of good energy for sustained patience this week…and the next three.

This salad is a total crowd pleaser; it has accessible ingredients for less-than-adventurous palates with honey mustard, grape tomatoes, chicken, and bacon. It also features several local ingredients: raw corn kernels, green peas, and beautiful salad greens.

I used my go-to shortcut for the chicken this week: skinning and picking the meat off of a Kroger rotisserie chicken. I had about 1/2 cup of chicken leftover that I may use for dinner later this week, but at $5.99 for a whole chicken that’s been recently cooked for you, it’s a steal! The only thing I actually cooked was the bacon, then I threw together the dressing in about 60 seconds.

Send good thoughts to public school teachers for the next month–testing season is upon us!

Chicken BLT Salad with Homemade Honey Mustard Dressing

1 whole rotisserie chicken, skinned and shredded

8 slices of bacon

1 cup fresh green peas

4 corn cobs, corn sliced off of the cob

1 pint cherry tomatoes

5 cups salad greens

For the dressing:

2 Tbsp. dijon mustard

1 Tbsp. honey or agave nectar

2 Tbsp. champagne vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)

1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

Cook the bacon, let cool, then crumble. Add the dressing ingredients to a small jar, shake vigorously, then divide evenly between five large jars. Next, add the green peas, then the corn, then the whole grape tomatoes, then the bacon, chicken, and salad greens.