It’s really easy, I promise!
I’m sure by now you’ve all heard of the Mason Jar Salad; a salad constructed in a mason jar in which the dressing is put in first at the bottom, with all the ingredients layered so that the lettuce remains crisp for the hours between the assembly and the time you eat it.
Click here to skip straight to the recipe!
Well, I put a real cute twist on this concept and decided to feature them in a picnic.
I’m kind of big into these decorative napkins and I thought it would make it really special to drape the luncheon napkin over the top and tie it with a bow, and then I used the small beverage napkin to wrap up the flatware.
My Grandma in Germany always used beautiful printed napkins. It really makes an occasion feel special. The combinations and possibilities are endless!
I used two of my homemade salad dressings. Ani’s Blue Cheese Dressing and Ani’s Honey Mustard. (Recipe to come soon.)
Enjoy!
Ani’s Mason Jar Salad
- Ani’s Dressing – on bottom
- Sliced Apples
- Sliced Cucumber
- Avocado
- Mandarin Oranges
- Raisins or Dried Cranberries
- Banana Slices
- Raw Pumpkin Seeds
- Carrot Peels
- Crumbled Goat or Blue Cheese
You may use whatever you like in your Mason Jar Salads, these are just some of my favorite ingredients.
I always use a vegetable peeler and peel off thin shreds from the carrots. I feel that a thick chunk of carrot isn’t very pleasing in a salad.
Raw pumpkin seeds are a wonderful addition to salads. I add them to all my smoothies too.
When you are at your destination with your Mason Jar Salad, you can shake it up and the dressing will be evenly distributed over the entire salad. Now dump it out into your bowl or plate.
Getting to the picnic part of this post, I just got some great new melamine plates and non-glass stemware. I found this adorable melamine dish set you might like to check out. Yet again, it makes it far more fun than a picnic with paper plates in my opinion.
I’d also had this picnic set that you see in the picture which includes an insulated bag, wine bag, and a blanket with a special material on the back. I think I’ve had it for 10 or 15 years so I wasn’t able to find one exactly like mine, but I thought this picnic set was pretty great anyway.
Several Great Options for Locations
I took several pictures of different set-ups as examples of how to make your mason jar salad picnic feel more special just with the presentation and different locations.
Here is the mason jar salad picnic set up for one on our lanai. I used my new Ball Vintage Style Mason Jars in blue for a lemon shake up. I love these things! They are reproductions of the beautiful antique mason jars of the past that today are collector’s items.
In this picture, you can see that I whipped up a sandwich wrap and served some potato chips. I was pressed for time here but you could get a little fancier if you like.
Finally, I set it up on a table down at the pool just to give you all a little more inspiration. I quickly grabbed a few flowers off of a bush. If I’d had more time that day I might have actually gotten a vase for them so they would last. I hope you give this a try and treat someone to lovely luncheon. I would love to see pictures of your set up in the comments section below and don’t forget to sign up for email notifications on new posts if you haven’t already done so.
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