Eating healthy when you are busy during the week can be a challenge. This is why I find it super important to take some time out on Sunday to focus on meal planning and prep.
One of my easy go to’s are salads. They can get boring after awhile. So, this week I decided to try and prep 5 different salads for our lunches.
Keep in mind when you are planning this, you may have some left over veggies. We just utilized the extra veggies in our dinners for the week.
There will be a few steps I will post in the order that made the most sense to us.
- Preparing the Chicken
- Prepping the Dressings
- Chop Veggies
- Assembling the Salad
Preparing the Chicken
I recommend starting with the chicken, so it can cook while you prepare the veggies.
- Preheat oven to 375
- Place chicken on a prepared baking sheet
- Season each chicken with your favorite, we used:
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic Powder
- Paprika
- For one of the salads chicken we added the below seasonings
- Ginger
- Curry
- Put chicken in over for 20 minutes.
- Once chicken is in cooked set aside all but the chicken needed for the buffalo chicken salads.
- For the buffalo chicken, heat a skillet on medium heat with 1 tbsp of butter and 1/4 cup of hot sauce. This can be adjusted to taste.
- Add the chicken and coat for a few minutes.
- Set aside
Prepping the Dressing
We started with the dressings because they were pretty simple. We make 3 different dressings and I used light ranch for the buffalo chicken.
Balsamic Dressing
- 1/3 cup balsamic
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp water
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp honey
- 1/4 tsp salt
Citrus Dressing
- 1/2 cup olive oil (modify per taste)
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 lime, juice
- 1 clove garlic, minced
Thai Peanut Dressing
- 1/4 cup of peanut butter
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1-2 gloves of garlic
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1/2 lime, juiced
- pinch of cayenne
- 2 tbsp water
Chopping the Veggies
While the chicken is cooking we started to prepare all of the salads. The easiest way to do this is to lay out all of your lunch containers. Start prepping the veggies you need. Here are the ingredients listed by the servings you will need by salad. Once all prepared distribute the ingredients to the salads as listed below.
- 5 – Chicken
- 5 – Lettuce
- 5 – Onion
- 4 – Grape Tomatoes
- 3 – Avocado
- 3 – Cucumber
- 3 – Carrots
- 2 – Purple Cabbage
- 2 – Feta
- 2 – Cheddar Cheese
- 1 – Sunflower Seed
- 1 – Pepper
- 1 – Hard Boiled Egg
- 1 – Bacon
Assembling the Salads
I included rough measurements. However, I do not measure out the veggies.
Salad #1 – Chicken BLT with Balsamic
Dressing
- Balsamic
Salad Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast, cooked
- 1 slice of bacon
- 2 cups of lettuce
- 1/4 of an avocado, sliced
- 6-8 grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 sliced ring of onion, halved
- small handful of feta
Salad #2 – Citrus Chicken with Feta
Dressing
- Citrus Dressing
Salad Ingredients
- chicken breasts, cooked
- 2 cups of lettuce
- 1/4 of an avocado
- 6-8 grape tomatoes
- 1 sliced ring of onion, halved
- small handful of feta
- 1/4 of a cucumber
Salad #3 – Buffalo Chicken
Dressing
- I used store bought light Ranch for this one
Salad Ingredients
- chicken breast, cooked
- 2 cups of lettuce
- 6-8 grape tomatoes
- 1 sliced ring of onion, halved
- 1/4 of a cucumber
- 1 hard boiled egg
- A few slices of shredded carrots
- 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
Salad #4 – Thai Chicken
Dressing
- Thai Peanut Dressing
Salad Ingredients
- chicken breast, cooked
- 2 cups of lettuce
- 1/4 of a pepper
- 1 sliced ring of onion, halved
- 1/2 shredded carrot
- small handful of purple cabbage, shredded
- sprinkle of sunflower seeds
Salad #5 – Mixed Veggies
Dressing
- I had extra balsamic so I used this, but use your favorite!
Salad Ingredients
Note: Use the extra ingredients to make a mixed salad
- chicken breast, cooked
- 2 cups of lettuce
- 1/4 cucumber
- 6-8 grape tomatoes
- 1 sliced ring of onion, halved
- A small handful of purple cabbage, shredded
- 1/4 of an avocado
- 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar
Add your chicken and pair with your dressing and you have 5 different salads for the week!
