I convinced my boyfriend (now husband) that mason jar salads were a great way to plan a week's worth of healthy lunches. It took several months for him to be convinced and now he is hooked. He lives quinoa & so I decided to try a quinoa and chicken breast southwest style salad/burrito bowl to break away from his routine.
The quinoa & chicken give plenty of lean protein so you’re full until dinner. Greek yogurt serves as a healthier replacement for the sour cream found in traditional burrito bowls. Sweet potatoes and a healthy portion of bright power greens ensure you’re getting nutritious vegetables and superfood power. The whole lunch tastes really good too! If you’d like to make it vegetarian, just replace the chicken with beans. I actually meant to include black beans in my salads with the hectic weekend I completely forgot them. Our salads were delecious without but please feel free to add beans if you’d like!
Serving Size: 1 pint-sized mason jar
Ingredients
For the quinoa:
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice and zest of one lime, or 2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
For the chicken:
2 large chicken breasts
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon coconut oil or ghee
For the bacon: (optional)
2 pieces of thick cut bacon
For the sweet potatoes:
1 large sweet potato, washed, with both ends cut off
1 tablespoon residual bacon oil or coconut oil
Other ingredients:
3 cups chopped lettuce or power greens mix
5 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
3/4 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
For the quinoa:
Add the quinoa, water, and salt to a medium sized pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. When it has reached a boil, cover and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until the quinoa is soft and fluffy.
Set the quinoa aside to cool.
When it has cooled, add the lime juice, lime zest, and 1/4 cup chopped cilantro to the rice and stir to evenly distribute the ingredients. Taste, and add more lime or cilantro as needed.
For the chicken:
Dry off both chicken breasts thoroughly with paper towels, and season both sides of each breast using the 2 teaspoons of salt.
In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil or ghee over medium-high heat until the oil is very hot.
Add the chicken breasts to the hot skillet, and cook for about 4 minutes on each side. Both sides should have a pretty brown sear to them.
When the chicken breasts are cooked all the way through, remove them to a cutting board to cool. Once they've cooled, cut the chicken into small chunks, about 1/2 square inch each.
For the bacon:
If you're going to add bacon to your salad, cook 2 slices of bacon as you normally would, until it is crispy enough to crumble. Reserve 1 tablespoon of bacon fat for the sweet potatoes.
For the sweet potatoes:
Cut up the sweet potato into tiny chunks, about 1/2 square inch each.
Heat 1 tablespoon of bacon fat (or, if you didn't use bacon, coconut oil) in your large skillet over medium heat.
When the oil is hot, add the sweet potato cubes. Sear the potatoes on all sides, stirring every 3-5 minutes.
When the potatoes have all browned on the outside, turn the heat down to medium-low, cover the skillet with a lid, and cook the sweet potatoes until they can be easily pierced with a fork. Set aside to cool.
To assemble the salads:
When all ingredients have cooled, you can begin to assemble your burrito bowl salads. Add 1 tablespoon of plain Greek yogurt to the bottom of each pint-sized wide mouth mason jar.
Top with about 2 tablespoons of sweet potato cubes.
On top of the sweet potatoes, add 3-4 tablespoons of the cilantro lime quinoa.
Layer 1-2 tablespoons of cheese over the quinoa, a little less than half a piece of bacon over the cheese, and a layer of chicken over the bacon. (To make this vegetarian, substitute 1 can of rinsed beans for the chicken and bacon and add a layer of beans here.)
Fill the remaining space in the mason jar with greens, and sprinkle some additional chopped cilantro on top before screwing on the lid.
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