Don't start your morning rushing around and grabbing just any old thing for lunch. Make a Taco Salad in a Jar the night before and be all set!

Mornings....a time for leisure and me time (not!).

The alarm goes off. You jump out of bed ready to face the day. You are focused. Your plan is to get everything done that needs to be done before you leave the house including looking fabulous (of course) and packing a healthy and delicious lunch....but then, a homework assignment was forgotten and you need to help with that. Next, you check your work email and an important report has an error and needs to be corrected NOW. The next thing you know you have less than 15 minutes to look presentable and head out the door and packing your lunch, well, that's not going to happen!

Back in the days when I worked outside of the home lunches were almost always an afterthought. I usually headed out the door in a rush with a peanut butter and jelly (maybe) and a bottled water. I wish I had taken the time to plan ahead but alas, hindsight is 20/20.

Now that I work from home I still find it hard to eat a proper lunch but I finally decided to try a salad in a jar, a Taco Salad in a Jar to be exact, and oh my goodness I loved it!

Don't Get Past the Point of No Return

These are easy to make and will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to two days. They are so filling and when I get past the point of hunger (do any of you do that??? I am like a living breathing Snickers commercial) all I have to do is reach in the fridge and grab one, pour it on a pretty plate - pretty plates are a must - grab a fork and enjoy!

This recipe will make enough to fill four 32-ounce (quart size) wide mouth jars. When I was making this recipe I pulled out my jars. I had some clear ones that were 32 ounces but they were not wide mouth jars. As I was preparing the salad, I was so glad I didn't use those specific ones. They would have been hard to fill and when it came time to empty the jar, they would not have cooperated well at all. I imagine a true bottleneck of lettuce, beans, meat and more. I used Ball jars and they worked really well but I also have some wide mouth spaghetti jars that would have done the job.

If you only want enough for two days or for you and someone awesome you can half the recipe easily.

📖 Recipe

Ingredients

Avocado-Lime Dressing

1 large avocado
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons buttermilk

Taco Salad

1 pound lean ground beef
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dried minced onion
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 garlic cloves peeled and minced
5 ounces grape tomatoes quartered
4 ounces Cheddar Cheese shredded
1 15 ounce can Pinto beans rinsed and drained
6 ounces romaine lettuce thinly sliced

Instructions

Make avocado-lime dressing. Add all ingredients for the dressing to a food processor or Nutri Bullet (I use mine for so many things). Process until pureed.
Evenly divide dressing among the bottom of the four jars. This is your base layer.
Combine ground beef, salt, minced onion, cumin, chili powder, pepper and garlic together in skillet. Brown ground beef until fully cooked. Remove from heat and drain off the fat. Leave aside until cool.
Once the beef has cooled, divide it among the jars.
Next add tomatoes
Then cheddar cheese
Pinto beans
And the final layer of romaine lettuce. Each of the above ingredients will be evenly distributed among each jar.

As with any of my recipes, calorie counts and nutritional information varies greatly depending on which products you choose to use when cooking this dish.

Servings: - 32 ounce jars

Calories:

Author: Mary Beth

Now that you know how easy these are to make will you be trying them for yourself? It will make the morning rush a little less stressful.

I think these would be great for picnics and parties as well!