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“You can workout until the cows come home, but if your diet sucks, so will your results.” – Angie Strader

I’ve had an epiphany! Exercise alone doesn’t work.  Exercise and kinda eating right doesn’t work well.  Exercise and a healthful diet works.   Hence the reason I am back on Jenny Craig as well as my morning Chocolate Shakeology and Beachbody Insanity.

One staple to any diet, and written in stone on the Jenny Craig diet, is a garden or spinach salad at least once a day – more if you’d like.  Making a salad for every meal is a pain.  To keep it easy, I used to buy one of those salad in a bag kits – REALLY expensive – and not really that fresh.  So, I decided to make one big salad a week and keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator so I can take out a portion at a time and get on with my life.

Here’s my method for making one really big salad for the week:

What you’ll need:

Green Bags

Food processor (not required, but sure helps – thanks Mom!)

Lettuce knife (slices lettuce without browning)

Salad spinner (please wash your greens!)

Big airtight container

Veggies I use:

Green leaf lettuce, Spinach, Carrott, Radish, Celery, Brocolli, Snap peas, Cucumber, Green onions, Red onions (I didn’t have any today)

You have to have Green Bags!  If you don’t – get them!  I recently discovered a time saving tip too:  take your Green Bags and your eco-friendly shopping bags with you to the market.  Put the veggies that you would normally bag in the store directly into the green bags.  I was using the plastic produce bags (which I hated doing) and then transferring everything to the Green Bags when I got home.  Then it occurred to me that I could save that time and do it right at the store.

I clean and dry all my produce before putting it in the processor one layer at a time.  Tip: for celery, a damp paper towel is all you need to wipe it off.  Don’t peel your carrots as the skin is packed with nutrients.

Use a plastic lettuce knife to cut the lettuce into thin strips.  The lettuce knife prevents the leafs from turning brown and spoiling faster.

Rinse your greens in a salad spinner and then spin it fast enough to get all of the water off of the leaves.  Residual moisture will make your salad soggy and spoil much faster.  BUT do rinse your lettuce and spinach!

Dump everything into a big airtight container that has enough room to shake it all up.  I put it in (no dressing), put the lid on, seal it and then shake, shake, shake.

Isn’t that beautiful?  Look at all of that colorful goodness! Yum!

Last tip: Put your salad serving in a big bowl or plate so that when you drizzle the salad dressing, it spreads evenly over the whole salad and doesn’t just sit on top.  I hate it when I eat the first few bites and get all the dressing and the bottom is dry.  Bleh!

One last tip: While I make my salad, I steam a bunch of broccoli or cauliflower for the rest of the week.  I let this one get a little too done.  It’s best to slightly under cook it so that when you warm it later, it will cook the rest of the way.

That’s it!  Takes about 20 minutes to prepare a big ol’ salad for the rest of the week that is cost effective and healthy!

I would love to hear if this helped you and please share your favorite tips and tricks to saving money and time in a healthy kitchen.

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