What’s up everyone! I hope your weekend has been treating you well. I’ve been focusing on eating a little better lately, so I decided to do a salad based meal prep this week. I revisited one of my favorite salads from years ago to build this Apple Dijon Kale Salad Meal Prep. It’s a super delicious salad and quite filling, thanks to kale’s sturdy leaves. My original thought was to add grilled chicken breast to the meal, which would no doubt be awesome, but opted for cheddar cubes instead because of their low cost, ease of preparation, and my attempt to scale back my meat consumption.
I also paired the salad with my favorite Focaccia Rolls. They’re just so easy, yummy, and they go with just about everything! I made a half batch of the original recipe and then divided the dough into eight pieces (instead of six) for slightly smaller rolls that would fit in my container. Of course, you could always wrap the rolls separately in a sandwich bag.
For more information about meal prepping, how it works, and why I do it, check out Meal Prep 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Prepping and Portioning Meals, or check out my entire Budget-Friendly Meal Prep Archive.
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This Meal Prep Includes:
Apple Dijon Kale Salad: $5.40
8 oz. Cheddar Cheese: $1.79*
1/2 recipe Focaccia Rolls: $0.60
Total Cost: $7.79
Cost per meal: $1.90
Cost of leftovers (4 small rolls): $0.20
*Aldi seriously has the best price on cheese!
You have a couple options for packing the dressing for this salad. Since kale is super sturdy and doesn’t wilt quickly, I think this salad would be perfectly fine in the refrigerator for a few days if pre-dressed. In fact, many people prefer kale that has been softened by the oil and vinegar of salad dressing, so it can definitely be a plus. If you want your kale to stay crunchy, simply pack the dressing on the side and add it just before you eat. I got these cute little mini salad dressing containers at Target one day, but there are several options available on Amazon as well.
Tips:
- The salad recipe makes four BIG portions. If you try to use the containers that are in my photos (found here) you’ll really need to pack the salad in tight to the main compartment. Alternatively, you can use a one compartment dish and just add the cheese on top. The cheese is a great addition to the salad.
- As I mentioned above, you can either leave this salad undressed in the containers and pack the dressing separately, or pre-dress the salad to help soften the kale a bit. The kale holds up really well to dressing, so it will be fine for 3-4 days.
- If browning apples bother you, you can toss the apple slices in a 1/2 tsp lemon juice before adding them to the salad. This will slow, but not completely stop, the browning.
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What brought me here was looking for kale salad and dressing. Reading through tx found your thoughts on food and savings were interesting.
I cannot seem to find the information on the salad dressing – how do you make it?
It’s included in the Apple Dijon Kale Salad recipe. :)
Really good. I used lacinato kale from my CSA box (because I had it, and because I like the flavor better than curly kale). I liked the salad better on Day 2 than Day 1 – probably because the raisins had a chance to plump up and release some of their sweetness. This was dinner – paired with cheddar cheese and some seeded soda bread.
One thing I”ve found (maybe it’s just me?) that when I cut apples with a ceramic knife they don’t brown anywhere as quickly as with any other type of utensil. I did buy the containers, yes glass, to package my husbands lunch. A little heads up: I *love* glass over plastic! Use the weck jars for leftover storage all the time; these containers are a bit on the heavy side, which also means sturdy, so if you’re carrying this any distance and you might be reaching retirement age it might be a problem. Thank you for all these recipes over the years!!! I can’t quite count how many of our nightly dinner rotations were originally your recipes, we have certainly eaten well!
That is so interesting about the ceramic knives!!
I love salads but find them to be too much work for little return. Not this one. I skipped the raisins but added rotisserie chicken to pump it up. Great!
What a great combination! I was worried it wouldn’t be filling enough (I usually EAT.ALL.THE.THINGS), but it was perfect! And super tasty! The only modification I made was using pecans instead of walnuts, because that’s what I had.
I love your meals, and this one sounds delish. I have a question, however. Did you really mean 8 oz. of cheese? That’s 1/2 lb., a lot of cheese. Just wondered.
Yeah, I put about 2 oz. in each meal box (or 8oz total for all four). You can always use less if you prefer. :)
Are those prep containers glass? Where did you get them?
Yep! Here’s the link.
Love the post! I’m considering bringing lunch to work and your tips will make it much easier. Thanks!
Hi can’t wait to try this- it looks like a great recipe!! What kind of partitioned containers are you using? They look like glass and I could not find it on your shopping page! Thanks for your help!
Yes, sorry, I still need to add these to my shop page! They’re from Amazon and you can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0FE59Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Oh, that salad is one of my favorites of yours – the dressing is so delicious! I like slicing an egg up on top if I use it for a vegetarian meal.
Made the salad today and it’s delicious! Only substituted almonds for walnuts since that’s what I had on hand. Looking forward to healthy lunches this week :)
That looks so healthy, fresh and appealing after my long weekend of eating comfort food and too many fried foods!