Alive in a Mason Jar Salad

I guess I better post something. My mother called to find out if we were all still alive.

We are. We're hanging in there.

The Duckling is still quite sick and so am I. He's losing weight and I can't believe how different he looks. The chunk will never have all those rolls again. We aren't sleeping. Last night I slept from 10 until 11 and then from 5 until 6.... or something like that. Steve slept something like 12 to 2.... I don't know now we can keep it up. The home front is falling into disarray all around me and there isn't a thing one can do about it.

We try. We got all "Pinterest-y" yesterday and made 20 mason jar salads!!! I made 4 different types and everyone chose a different one for their lunch today. I was getting phone calls and texts after lunch time saying how much they liked them. I'm hoping it's because the salads are THAT good and not because this family is just thankful for something decent to eat. Actually, a friend brought us a hot dish on Friday that we made last two meals... I am pretty sure that's the second time someone has done that for me and it was so SO nice that it made me think that when and if I ever get my act together I will be looking to do that for someone else more often.

 The idea is to put the salad dressing in the bottom of the jar and then layer the vegetables from the cooked, or soft layers up to the more fragile layers like the lettuce. Close the lid up tight and know that the salad will stay fresh for up to 7 days.

 I was just so proud that all the greens came from our garden, already. :-)

My four varieties are these:
garbanzo, french dressing, olives, shredded carrots, cucumbers, greens, and cherry tomatoes.

kidney bean, poppy seed dressing, peas, carrots, sunflower seeds, greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, broccoli, sweet peppers...

Asian, homemade dressing with sesame oil, water chestnuts, snow peas, mung beans, choy, cubed tofu sautéed in peanut sauce, sweet peppers, grated ginger, etc..

and

potato. Ranch dressing, and vegenaise, corn, peas, carrots, chives, sweet peppers, olives, celery...

I made mini ones for James as I just can't see him eating a quart of greens for lunch at school. :-P But he came home really excited about his salad. Missy is on a pureed diet for the next 6 weeks. No salad for her.

James made cookies. I knew there was a gluten free cookie mix in the pantry somewhere and I told him he could make cookies. Of course, it was the usual, "where is it?", "help me find it", "how do I do this", etc.... but I told him the job was his. If I needed his help to make the cookies what was the point of my stopping my project and working on his? I told him I would limit my help to teaching, but the finding and doing were all his. He managed right from finding the box in the pantry to reading the instructions to getting them into the oven and of course, he had no trouble scarfing them down. He was courteous enough to make sure we all got one!