Packing lunches in advance - how is the salad on Friday?
 

Whenever I post that I make my salads in advance on Sunday, I always get questions about the quality of the salad on the last day. As I sat down to eat my yummy Mediterranean salad, I realized it was Friday. I figured I would take a picture to post that my Friday salad is just as fresh and delicious as my Monday salad.

In this picture, I have just added a crumbled, heated black bean burger, but I haven't added the cucumber dressing yet (brought it in a separate tupperware).

I made 5 salads on Sunday night, they were stored in separate tupperware containers in the crisper drawer of the frig.

Ingredients for 5 of these salads:

2 packages of very crisp romaine
about half a package of carrot shreddies
1 cut up roma tomato for each salad
5 kalamata olives each
2 tbs (about) cut up pepperocini for each
chopped red onion
1 small red cabbage, diced

At work, I add a heated, crumbled spicy black bean burger and my dressing of choice!

This level of planning is a lifesaver to me. I am the pokey little puppy in the morning, I lollygag, I move slowly. I love it that my lunch is ready to go - I just have to stick the components in an insulated bag and walk out the door.

hmm I'm quite surprised, that does look good! I didn't expect the tomato to hold up that well.

Thanks for sharing this great tip, GLORY -- I put my shredded coleslaw in containers as soon as I get it home and it will stay fresh and crispy for a week easy. I just add my favorite low-fat dressing (and sometimes some diced onion) and eat it. I also love ROMAINE lettuce because it stays crispy and fresh for a very long time, as do Roma tomatoes which are an Italian tomato that keeps its freshness and doesn't go mushy like other tomatoes do.

I sometimes like to add some cheddar pieces, or lean cooked meat to mine like chicken, turkey, leftover roast beef, or ham ... whatever you have leftover is great. You can freeze chunks of cooked meat in small packs and it will be thawed by lunchtime.

PS ~ oh, I forgot ... hard-boiled eggs can be cooked ahead and taken and sliced on salad the day you want that for your protein. I always have some ready for snacks or lunch.

I prep my salad fixins in advance and keep them in containers. The lettuce I keep in a ZipLoc bag. I figured if it worked to sell it that way it would work at home. It does. Just try it as much as possible. I prefer to cut the tomatoes(Romas) up the day of work and keep them separate until ready to eat and I use the spray salad dressing so I can just toss it in my bag. I also recently bought some travel toiletry bottles so I can switch it up some but not take up too much space.