Homemade Custom Salads: The Healthiest Lunch I’ve Ever Had

After spending so much time packing lunches every night for my kids the last thing I want to do is spend more time making more lunches.  When I did take the time to pack a decent lunch, it was just that- decent.  It wasn’t all that healthy, but it was better than nothing.

I recently decided we had to change this.  No more garbage for lunch!  We deserve good lunches too!  Enter the salad assembly line.

We found Gladware containers at Target and for I think less than $8 we had 8 new salad containers. They aren’t the best quality, but they are definitely reusable and cost effective.  I like that they were inexpensive so that if something happens, for example, let’s say someone leaves a dirty container in the car for a week or two, we can choose to just dispose of it instead of passing out from the horrible smell.

So, here’s how we do it.  At the beginning of each week we lay out 8 empty containers (we don’t bring lunch on Friday). I wash all the vegetables and we fill the containers.  We each put in the things we like and label each container accordingly.  I don’t like salad dressing and DH chooses to keep a bottle in his fridge at work.

Some of the things we put in are:

• lettuce
• tomatoes
• cucumber
• pepper
• craisins
• chick peas
• carrots

Then each night all we do is add in a protein like a hard-boiled egg, tuna salad, or leftover chicken.

And voila!  Lunches to go!

I want to know what you do.  Do you take the time to pack yourself a nice lunch?  If yes, what do you take with you?  If no, why not?

Until next time,
Shaindy