1. Although vacuum-sealing the greens in a jar seems like a great idea and is a HOT trend for the salad-in-a jar folks, according to "Eating on the Wild Side" The Missing Link to Optimum Health by Jo Robinson, I've been doing it wrong by vacuum-sealing greens and there is a better method for storage. Put the greens in a resealable plastic bag, squeeze out as much air as possible without crushing the leaves, seal the bag, and then use a needle or pin to prick it with between ten and twenty evenly spaced holes. (Make 10 pinpricks in quart-size bags and twenty in gallon-size bags.) Put the bag in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator, which is the coolest, most humid location. Cut lettuce actually keeps better using this method.

Why the holes? The tiny, almost invisible pinpricks provide the ideal level of humidity inside the bag and enable the beneficial exchange of gasses. The plants don't die after being harvested, they continue to consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide; in other words, they "breathe." If you store greens in a tightly sealed bag without the pinpricks, or a low-oxygen environment like a vacuum-sealed jar, the carbon dioxide levels rise and the oxygen declines. After a few days, the lettuce leaves will begin to die from lack of oxygen. As a result (according to the book's author) their fresh flavor and most of their phytonutrients will disappear. And isn't that why we are eating them? So preserve as many as possible for as long as possible to begin with. This is called "microperforated" bags throughout the book. I have a selection of zip-lock bags I've microperforated that I use and reuse for greens. I have them marked and stored in a container for reuse after I wash, rinse, and thoroughly air-dry the bags.

Other ways to add more vegetables to a lunch. How about a pasta salad where there is a token amount of pasta and a LOT of fresh veggies. I also make a salad mixture using shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, shredded broccoli stems, shredded or thinly-sliced radishes, shredded celery (NO lettuce or wet ingredients like chopped tomatoes or cucumbers). This shredded mixture is a favorite served with a sprinkle of shredded cheddar or mozarella cheese or cottage cheese (no dressing needed) and keeps well in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for a week. Do NOT vacuum-seal this salad mixture because of the sulfur-containing vegetables, which should NOT be vacuum-sealed. This mixture also works as a topping on a sandwich or add a quick dressing for coleslaw. Wednesday is "Stir-Fry" night, so leftover stir-fry (loaded with fresh/frozen/freeze-dried vegetables - many of them prepared days before for other meals) is what's for lunch on Thursday.

2. I personally have a 3-day rule for meat in the refrigerator, whether the meat is vacuum-sealed or not, so I would NOT make a week's worth of salads-in-a-jar WITH the protein added. Like sleevendog, I keep portions in the freezer, either in snack-size bags or the 1-cup portion bags (give it a whack while still frozen to break into smaller portions if you only need a portion from the bag), small storage containers. OR, my new "friend", the 4-ounce canning jar as a way to stop using so much plastic. I use a 4-oz. portion of sprouted lentil chili to top a baked (or microwaved) potato, or as a topping for a taco salad (a la Wendy's Style). I freeze leftover meat from meals in the 4-oz. canning jars and when I make a salad-in-a-jar, I pop the frozen jar of meat in the top of the pint jar (they fit inside a wide-mouth jar perfectly). That way hubby has the option to heat the meat, and the frozen meat helps keep the veggies chilled in his thermal lunch bag. I also have frozen cooked grains and beans I can add.

Another thing I do is to recycle plastic containers from 4-ounce individual containers of applesauce. They also fit inside the wide-mouth jar and the rim will rest on the jar top -- AND -- you can seal the lid over the recycled plastic applesauce container. Great place to put meat or the dressing, or things that make the salad soggy, or things you want to remain crispy, and add them in just before eating.

3. I would get a tray or basket and locate the prepared salad add-ins all in one place in the refrigerator so I could just pull it out to make preparation simple each day. The contents would change as the produce options and the add-ins changed.

4. You may be surprised how many vegetables increase in nutrients when cooked, so consuming all of them in a fresh green salad means you may be missing a lot of the potential nutrients. Is the fresh green salad a MUST on the diet, or just an option? I make sweet potato chips and purple potato chips in the microwave (NO fat or salt), and dehydrated zucchini chips for our "chip" options. There are any number of salt-free seasonings that you can jazz them up with (see Mrs. Dash salt-free herb mixtures for a large variety of flavors).

5. How about "Meals In A Jar For One" using freeze-dried ingredients, including freeze-dried meats. This goes along with what sleevendog does. This IS a time you can make a number of these ahead and add an oxygen absorber (or vacuum-seal them with a FoodSaver). These are my pantry "convenience" foods. Some of them I prepare in pint jars, instead of quarts, to have smaller portions. Here are some recipes for personal-sized meals-in-a-jar from Stephanie Petersen (aka Chef Tess Bakeress) - http://honeyvillefarms.blogspot.com/2012/09/chef-tess-5-personal-sized-meals-in-jar.html#.VxyMjY-cHL8  You can find a lot of her videos on YouTube showing how to assemble some of her "In-A-Jar" recipes.

I'm a huge fan of using freeze-dried vegetables when I don't have fresh from the garden. In the winter our "fresh" vegetables are sprouts of all kinds (my little garden-in-a-jar) - since sprouting increases the nutrients - and the micro-greens I grow. So-called "fresh" vegetables from the store are NOT fresh and the nutrients are completely degraded by the time you get them home. I also grow an assortment of fresh herbs indoors which I add to salads as an excellent nutrient-rich source.

-Grainlady

The more I think about it, I think it just sounds like too much work. Plus, I'd have find a space to store all those jars.

stir_fryi,

I have 19 canning jars (in various sizes and shapes from 1/2-gallon to pint-size) in my refrigerator. :-)

I eat salads most days, and if I'm going to work, prepare it the night before. I use the big container of organic sweet baby lettuce from BJ's - less than $5 and plenty for a week. If I am going to have red or yellow bell pepper in it, I cut it once into strips and add about 5 diced strips, then the rest is in the fridg, ready to dice in moments the next time I want it. Same with an avacado - I use 1/4 & wrap the rest, so it's ready to go the next day, or a carrot, or 1/2 apple or pear, etc. In the freezer I keep things like shredded beets, 1 oz portions of soft goat cheese, goat gouda, lentils or chickpeas, seeds & nuts. So at night, it's easy to dump things into a bowl with lettuce and mashed avocado - like apple, walnuts, and goat cheese (I add the beets in the a.m.), or raw veggies with pumpkin & hemp seeds, or lentils (or beans) with goat gouda, etc. I dress it with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, olive oil, black pepper and whatever herbs I want to use. I found I could do more & more the night before without substantially affecting the quality, so now in the morning, it's just grab & go. Don't know if there are any time savers in there for you...

Stir_fryi, we try to have a salad each evening with dinner. On the weekend, I wash and dry my lettuce and place them in the "greenBag" from Debbie Meyer, onions are peeled and sliced and placed either into a small zip bag or plastic container. Red cabbage and carrots are shredded and also in a small container/bag. Cut up a brocolli or cauliflower and bag that too. I might even open and drain a can of black or garbanzo beans and store that too. All I need to do at dinner is grab what I want and toss into a bowl. You could cut up the meats the night before and he can just grab them. Hard boiled eggs can be in a bowl to grab. Have some small lidded containers for dressings and a baggie for croutons if he can have them.

Since the prep is now done, all DH has to do is choose what he wants and make up his lunch. I did the same in the morning when I was working.