New Lunch Idea

It's been two weeks since I first started medical school and I love it. However, that's not to say med school does not have its challenges. Not only has it been quite an adjustment getting used to the courseload, but it's also been hard to figure out how to live a healthy lifestyle (I mean, in undergrad, I lived on campus and never had to cook or clean -- well, maybe occasionally :) -- or pay my own bills). Although it might seem like a small detail, one of the most challenging things for me to get used to was bringing my own lunch to school. At first, I brought leftovers from the night before. But I soon realized that it took half of my lunch break just to heat up the food because of the lack of microwaves in the cafeteria. I wanted to see if there was a way to pack a lunch without having to go through all that trouble and came across this brilliant idea: Mason Jar Salads.

Basically what you do is layer the ingredients from heaviest to lightest. For example, tomatoes on the bottom and lettuce on top. You might also want to add your salad dressing first so it doesn't get everything soggy. You can pretty much use any combination of ingredients you want, but I thought I'd share two of my favorites - Caprese Salad and Cobb Salad.

 

Caprese Pasta Salad

2 tbsp basil pesto (homemade or store-bought)

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1 ½ oz fresh mozzarella, chopped into bite sized pieces

2 oz cooked penne pasta

½ cup fresh spinach leaves

½ cup fresh basil, chopped

Easy Lemon Vinaigrette

Juice from one large lemon

½ cup olive oil

Good pinch of salt

Couple of grinds of black pepper

Shake all ingredients together in a small container.

Cobb Salad

Diced Carrots

Diced Onion

Diced Tomato

Diced Naval Orange

Diced Avocado

Lemon Circles (they keep the avocados fresh)

Diced Tofu (or substitute with meat)

Diced Tempeh Bacon

Quick Tip: Leave a little room at the top of the jars so you can shake the ingredients together before digging in!

Don't these just look amazing? The best part is that you can make an entire week's worth of salad and they'll stay fresh because of the airtight seals on these jars! You can just grab and go in the morning and not have to worry about wasting away in the line for the microwave during lunch. I know what I'll be making for lunch this next week :)

Caprese Pasta Salad, Cobb Salad, and additional recipes from The Daily Muse.