Good Friday Salad in a Jar

I made another salad in a jar on Good Friday for my day trip to Ostia Antica. I figured that it would be a great picnic lunch.
I'm not really a practicing Catholic although I usually do follow the traditions of Lent.  I usually give something up. One year it was the elevator in my building (which was great because I still don't use elevators unless I'm actually completely wiped out). Another year I gave up ice cream. That one didn't work out nearly as well.  I kept forgetting that I'd given up ice cream and wound up deciding to tack on days to my lent to make up for it.
This year, Lent seems to have flown by and I never actually got around to giving up anything. And since my awarness level wasn't particularly high, I'm sure that I also ate meat on Fridays as well. I've never been a stickler for these things, but I do try to follow along... This year I seem to have dropped the ball.
For Good Friday, however, I decided to follow tradition and have no meat all day.

So my salad was vegetarian.
My first layer was fresh olive oil, balsamic vinegar reduction and some oregano (grown and dried by one of my roomie's family).  Then I added white cannelloni beans with a little salt. Then came a layer of strawberries (I'm seriously starting to enjoy my roommates reaction when I put fruit into salads, it's utterly hilarious). Then a layer of delicious Asiago cheese because I really love its creaminess and how well it pairs with strawberries. Then I added a 1/4 of a small red onion diced coarsely because I adore the bite that the red onion adds to the salad. It adds a bit of kick and texture at the same time. Finally I filled the rest of the jar with mixed greens. I got an extra large package at the super market that has arugula, lettuce and some dark green and purple leaves that I don't know the name of. It's seriously one of my favorite mixes of salad.
Voila. My salad was amazing as I sat among the ruins of Ostia Antica. It was a truly memorable and delicious picnic lunch.

The Amphitheater and Temple

Salad in a Jar

I really enjoy a good salad, especially at lunch. However, it can be a big pain trying to bring a salad from home.  If you put the dressing on in the morning, the spinach or lettuce leaves will wilt by the time you eat it. It’s terrible and disgusting when you  have wilted salad.

I’ve brought vinegar with me, but bottles get bulky and heavy in a bag.

Then I remembered seeing a brilliant idea somewhere online. I really wish I could remember where I had seen it because I would definitely thank the originator of salad in a jar. 

It’s a brilliant solution. All of your salad ingredients go into one tall glass jar and everything stays fresh. There is a trick to it of course. You can’t just throw the ingredients in all willy nilly.

Liquids have to go closest to the bottom. I started my first salad in a jar with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar reduction, salt pepper and oregano. Then I added a healthy layer of chickpeas and then quartered cherry tomatoes. On top of all that, I placed a couple of thin slices of pancetta and then I tore up fresh spinach. I almost entirely filled my jar to the top. I left just enough space for a hardboiled egg sliced and dosed with a little salt and pepper.  Then I sealed it and put it in the fridge for the next day.

At work all I had to do was shake and eat. I chose to pour the salad onto a plate since I had filled the jar to the utter brim.

It was delicious and the spinach still amazingly crisp. When I go back to work after break I'm definitely going to have to try all sorts of variations and see how they come out.