Copycat Homemade Salad Kits

We’ve all purchased the pre-made salads from our grocery store. Either the bagged salad kits, or a pre-made container of salad in the deli section. We do this not because it tastes better than making a salad ourselves, but because it’s convenient!

Here’s the segment I recorded for our local TV station, Studio 5!

If your goal is to eat more veggies, pre-made salad kits are the way to make it happen. When we prep food to make it easy and convenient, we are more likely to eat healthier!

So, I headed to the grocery store, and I took a photo of every single salad kit they had. I wanted to see the ingredients and copy them at home. These are some of the salads I copied:

• Caesar Salad: Lettuce, Chicken, Parmesan cheese, Bacon, Croutons, Caesar dressing
• BLT Salad: Grape tomatoes, chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese, greens, cabbage, carrots.
• Apple walnut salad: Greens, apples, chicken, blue cheese, glazed walnuts, cranberries, carrots. sweet dressing.
• Southwest: lettuce, chicken, tortilla strips, cheese, ranch.
• Farmhouse ranch: Greens, chicken, sunflower seeds, crouton, bacon, and ranch.
• Cranberry walnut salad: Greens, feta, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, raspberry vinaigrette
• Chef salad: Greens, hard boiled egg, chicken, ham, Swiss cheese, croutons, ranch.
• Cobb salad: Greens, Turkey breast, hard boiled eggs, bacon, blue cheese.
• Maple Bourbon Bacon: Romaine, shredded broccoli, cabbage, green onions, carrots, bacon, almonds.
• Asian Salad: Greens, cabbage, carrot, celery, wonton strips, sliced almonds, green onion.
• Poppyseed Salad: Greens, Greens, chicken, dried cranberries, sliced almonds, poppyseed dressing.

For more salad ideas, check out these 9 Grilled chicken salads or here for low calorie salad dressing recipes

Then, I decided to copy the salads I saw at the store and portion all the salad toppings in their own containers. Then, keep on hand an extra large container of greens. That way, eating a salad every day can be super convenient. Plus, they are packaged perfectly for taking on the go!

The salad prep

The only prep I did beyond chopping food was pre-cooked about 15 chicken tenderloins, boiled 4 hard boiled eggs, and candied some almonds! I used the chicken for a few different salads.

For a local TV segment, I made 5 of the salad kits from my personal favorites. I used Ziploc divided containers for the kits.

Caesar salad

For the Caesar I included parmesan, precooked chicken, bacon bits, croutons, and a creamy caesar dressing.

The Southwest Salad

For the southwest salad I kept it simple, but there are so many more toppings you could include! I used Tortilla strips (that you can now find at the grocery store in the salad aisle and the walmart brand is very inexpensive), pre-cooked chicken, shredded cheese, grape tomatoes, and corn. I would also add beans next time!

The chef salad

For the chef salad I made hard boiled eggs, precooked chicken, cubed ham, cubed swiss cheese, croutons, cucumbers, and carrots.

The Asian salad

For the Asian salad I used Wonton strips (available on the salad aisle at the grocery store), green onions, carrots, celery, an sliced almonds.

The Poppyseed salad

And finally, the best for last… the Poppyseed salad! I candied some sliced almonds because they are soooo good. All I did was used 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 brown sugar, and about 1/3 cup almonds (maybe 1/2). Then, I cooked it all on a skillet stirring constantly for about 3-4 minutes. Then, I let the nuts cool on parchment paper.

With the almonds, I also had craisins, chicken, and Brianna’s creamy poppyseed dressing. And although I don’t add it to a kit because they would go brown, I almost always include some chopped apples to this one!

Keep the kits in the fridge until you are ready to eat!

For the greens, rinse and dry your greens. Use ANY greens, but spinach, baby kale, and romaine are my favorites. Use any airtight container and line it with paper towels. The greens should stay fresh for at least 5-7 days.

PRINT THE LIST OF SALADS HERE!

And those are my favorite salad combos for these copycat homemade salad kits. What salads would you add?