Life Made Easy or At Least Lunch

It's no secret. I like to plan my meals and love cooking. However, it's not always easy with my job to do this after work each day so I started to make certain meals a few at a time. Once I figured out which foods stay better, I started to do my own little salad workshops (see the before and after pictures). Let me tell you something you already know, I am brilliant.

In less than an hour, my husband and I have a different lunch salad for every day of the work week. It's fun and I get to be so creative making salads that last all week by following these simple steps.

1. Make sure everything is dry.
2. Have everything out before you begin.
3. Pack anything with moisture (dressing, fruit, beans, etc.) in a separate cup.
4. Do different salads for each day so you don't get bored.
5. Eat salads with anything that might not last earlier in the week (e.g. chicken).  

You can do so many different salads from Asian, Fruity, Chopped, Southwest, Caesar, etc. using a variety of greens for the base, proteins, veggies and dressings. I typically pick 1-2 greens as my base and buy two large containers to make 10 salads. I might make or buy a certain dressing like Caesar but then use oil and vinegar for others so I don't have a ton of open salad dressings in my fridge.

Here are just a few of the salads I make frequently:

• Grilled chicken with red onion, sliced strawberries and organic goat cheese over arugula
• Deli turkey with black beans, cherry tomatoes, corn, peppers and avocado over romaine
• Turkey pepperoni, cherry tomatoes, peppers, organic mozzarella cheese and hard-boiled egg over spinach