Mason Jar Salad

You might wonder if today's blog was written by a teenage girl because of all the exclamation points and general giddiness. It was not.  I'm just super excited.  Where have I been for the last year or so????  Scared of new things and missing out.

For whatever reason, this past week, Mason Jar Salads actually registered into my awareness and instead of dismissing them as nonsense, I decided to try them out.  OMG am I glad!!!!!!  They're so awesome!  I made my first batch last night and I ate my first one for lunch today.

I tried a taco salad recipe first.  I got my recipe from here: Organize Yourself Skinny Taco Salad (although- small disclaimer, I didn't use ground turkey, I boiled chicken breasts and shredded them up instead.  The notion of eating cold ground meat, doesn't appeal to me).

Do you know what's totally amazing about this thing?!  Lots of things.  First: I put avocados in the salad.  I made these Tuesday night and the avocados are still green!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Avocados are so totally wonderful, but they're so tricky to eat.  Either you eat the whole avocado in one serving by yourself because it feels wasteful  letting it get brown and gross, or you eat it with a friend.  While I can easily eat an entire avocado in one serving, I really shouldn't.  First of all that's a lot of calories and fat- albeit good fat, and plus a whole avocado has some adverse effects on my digestive system (although- what doesn't, you know?) Here's the other amazing thing- I tried . . . plain greek yogurt in place of sour cream.  And you know what, it was good!  You should take my word for it too.  I am pretty much against low fat or fat free dairy products.  They are all gross- except for greek yogurt.  Dairy doesn't really agree with me, so I don't eat a whole lot of it, but when I do- I go full fledged (2% milk is full fledged to me, but I am not opposed to a delicious glass of super cold whole milk).  I really liked the plain greek yogurt.  It wasn't quite as tangy as sour cream, but it was still creamy. I liked that it added a texture and not another strong flavor. 

I actually love salads, but don't fix them very often because lettuce with shredded carrots, and cucumbers and broccoli is so boring!  And that tends to be what I fix.  However, I love a salad with a bunch of different "stuff" in it. It's a texture thing.  I like a combination of textures and this salad was definitely that: it was crunchy from the lettuce, creamy from the yogurt and avocado, and chewy from the chicken and beans. Plus the awesome "taco" flavors.  I can't wait for lunch tomorrow!!!!!!