I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Making TONS of Mason Jar meals for the entire week, then you just grab what you need and go!!!! You can eat them anywhere you want, and KIDS LOVE THEM!!!!!
Be creative, their are TONS of meals that can fit in a mason jar!
Below are a few of my favorites!!! Also, I Do flavored water, (shown in the picture below) Put any fruits, mint, cucumbers, etc in you water jars and you've got a Delicious drink with no crazy additives!!!!!
Shrimp With Avocado-Mango Salsa
Serves 4 (so divide the recipe up into 4 jars!)
INGREDIENTS
Olive oil cooking spray
8 cups baby spinach
1 cup couscous or quinoa. (If you use couscous it counts as a healthy carb, if you use quinoa it counts as a protein)
1 lb medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1 large mango, peeled and diced
1 medium avocado, diced
1 medium tomato, diced
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 jalapeño chile, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
PREPARATION
Heat grill, or heat oven to 400F. Fold four 18-inch-long pieces of foil in half; unfold and coat inside with cooking spray. Place 2 cups spinach in center of 1 half of each piece of foil. Combine couscous with 1/4 cup water; divide evenly among packets, placing on top of spinach. Combine shrimp, 1/4 cup cilantro, oil and 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl. Divide shrimp evenly among packets, placing next to couscous. Fold foil to close and crimp edges to seal; place on grill; close lid; cook until packets are fully puffed, 10 minutes. Combine remaining 1/4 cup cilantro with remaining 1/4 tsp salt, mango, avocado, tomato, onion, jalapeño and lime juice in a bowl. Carefully cut foil to open; stir contents; garnish with salsa if you like.
THE SKINNY
397 calories per serving, 10 g fat (1 g saturated), 52 g carbs, 8 g fiber, 25 g protein
Make a Week of Steel-Cut Oats in 5 Minutes
Ingredients for each jar
1/4 cup uncooked steel-cut oats
1 cup water
Large pinch salt
*** Note, when cooked, a serving of the steel-cut oats is 1 cup. If you want to do a big batch all at once, add as many servings of steel-cut oats as you want and as many cups of water as you need, and simply scoop out 1 cup of the cooked oats for each jar*****
Mix-Ins:
Almond, flax, or coconut milk
Cinnamon or other spices
Raisins or other dried fruit
Walnuts or other nuts
raw Honey, or stevia
Equipment
5 pint-sized Mason jars with lids (I used wide-mouth jars)
Large saucepan
Ladle
Instructions
1. Collect your jars and other equipment. I like pint-sized jars because they allow a little more room for adding nuts, raisins, and milk later. But you can also use half-pint jars.
2. Bring the oats, water and salt to a boil. Simmer for about 3 minutes then turn off the heat.
3. Ladle the oats and water into the jars. Cover the jars tightly with their caps and rings. Leave on the counter overnight. (This is how I make my oatmeal and I have had absolutely no problems with it, healthwise, but if for some reason you are not comfortable leaving hot oatmeal out overnight, you can also refrigerate the jars. The oatmeal won't be quite as well cooked in the morning; it will be a thinner, less creamy oatmeal. But it will still be fine.)
4. The next morning, put all but one of the jars in the refrigerator. Take the cap off one jar and stir up the oatmeal inside. Microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, or until quite hot.
5. Add any optional add-in's: a splash of milk, hand full of dried or fresh fruit, Handful of nuts, stevia or honey, Cinnamon, PB2 or other mix-ins. Enjoy!
Additional Notes:
• You can also add your fruit, cinnamon, or other mix-ins to the rest of the jars before putting them away in the refrigerator. Then all you have to do is grab one and go on your way out the door.
Balsamic Vinaigrette SALAD
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 tbsp water (more or less depending on the consistency you want)
2 tbsp honey (can be replaced with agave or STEVIA)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Directions
Place all ingredients into a small jar (canning jar). Anything with a lid works well.
Shake to mix thoroughly. Stores in fridge for 1-2 weeks.
*Or use my blending method: throw everything in the blender, blend for about 30 seconds, then store in a jar for 1-2 weeks.
Salad
Makes 2 salads (Salads were made in 32 oz mason jars)
1 cup cooked quinoa
2 big handfuls spinach
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 red onion, diced
4 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette
Layer the ingredients in the jar as follows:
dressing
onion
mushrooms
tomatoes
quinoa
spinach
The most important part of the layering is making sure the dressing and the spinach (or whatever ‘leaf’ you choose) don’t touch. As long as they stay separate, these salads can be made up to 4 days in advance and will stay fresh in the fridge with a lid on. This is one of my tricks to eating salad everyday for lunch at work. I make a few jars on Sunday night and just grab one to bring to work everyday. When you’re ready to eat, just shake it up.
Leave the dressing separate until you're ready to eat if you're making salads for a few days.
Taco Mason jar salad
Serves 4
Ingredients:
4 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
2 cups tomatoes, chopped
2 cups black beans
1 cup corn
2 cups ground turkey meat, cooked and seasoned with taco seasoning
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
4 tablespoons green scallions, finely chopped
8 tablespoons fresh salsa
Directions:
All ingredients are listed in layering order.
Divide all of the ingredients evenly among four Mason jars.
For this salad, add the salsa on top and shake prior to eating instead of adding to the bottom of the jar.
Shake to coat salad items with dressing and enjoy!
Roasted Grapes, Red Pearl Onions, Shrimp, and Egg salad
Ingredients:
few clusters of green seedless grapes
one heaping cup red pearl onions- root ends cut off
2 raw eggs
4 extra large shrimp
olive oil
finely ground sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a strainer place grapes, onions, eggs, and shrimp, and give them a nice rinse, draining well.
In a small baking dish, I used an 11×7 inch glass dish, place the rinsed items and the whole uncracked eggs, being sure to place the eggs in foil or silicon cupcake cups liners so they don't roll around. Drizzle all but the eggs with olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper.
Bake for 25 minutes but removing the shrimp after 6-12 minutes- if you are using fresh shrimp check it at the 6 minute mark, it will be done when pink and curling into a “c” shape. Mine were frozen so was perfectly done at 12 minutes.
Finish baking the rest of the items so that they have been in the oven for a total of 25 minutes. I had only cooked mine for 20 minutes total and the egg could have used 5 more minutes. Remove from oven and place eggs in an ice bath to stop cooking. Once cooled, peel the eggs and cut in half lengthwise.
Throw everything in a jar, Makes enough for 2 snack jars on the go.
Note: To eat the pearl onions, pinch the stem end, bite down on the onion, root end in your mouth, and the onion will pop right out, into your mouth. Who needs peeling- it’s finger food!
roast pumpkin + quinoa salad w/ spiced coriander dressing
For a little added kick, add a good pinch of dried chilli flakes to the dressing and if you tolerate, a crumbling of feta over the salad just before serving would work wonders!
serves 4
2 cups cooked quinoa*, cooled
900g of fresh pumpkin, (not canned, the entire pumpkin) Butternut Squash, (or any type of winter hard squash that looks similar to a pumpkin) or yams, seeded, peeled and cut into rough 1cm cubes (approx 5-6 cups once cubed)
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
small bunch fresh coriander (cilantro), approx 50g, washed
Dressing
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 small clove garlic, peeled
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon runny raw honey or stevia, or to taste
1/4 cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
Preheat oven to 200 C/400F. Place cubed pumpkin and 2 teaspoons cumin seeds onto a large oven tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper. If your coriander (cilantro) still has it's roots attached, finely chop these and a little of the stems (reserving the rest of the stems and leaves for the dressing) and scatter over the pumpkin. Give it all a good mix with your hands, pop in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, turning a few times until tender and golden. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
To make the dressing: Place all ingredients in a blender and blend.
Combine cooked quinoa, cooled roast pumpkin (and any spices/herbs left on the oven tray) and kalamata olives in a large bowl. Pour dressing over, mix and divide into 4 mason jars. Nice eaten slightly warm, room temperature or cold.
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