A Guide to Easy Dinners: Salad Kits

I realized the other day that no one talks about the ways to easily get dinner on the table. Even when you Google “easy meal ideas”, the recipes read like this:

• Start with your chicken and cut it super small

• Take your ground turkey and combine it with breadcrumbs, parsley, etc.

• Place your chicken in a crockpot and let it cook. Then shred.

Sometimes there just isn’t time for that. So how do you make feeding yourself at home easier when you’re tired from a long week and don’t want to spend an extra $70 to get pizza delivered? I thought it would be fun to talk about all of my favorite meals that take 15 minutes or less. Today we’re starting with salad kits!

I love a good salad kit. Heck. I love a bad salad kit because you can still do something with them to elevate them. I rarely make a salad kit as is and call it good and it takes almost no time at all to zhuzh one up.

One of my favorites is this Mediterranean Salad kit that you can buy at Costco. It’s very similar to Trader Joe’s salad kit too. I always add:

• chicken (usually Rotisserie chicken or some leftover chicken breast)

• more feta (because I don’t think there is ever enough)

• a scoop of hummus

• the dressing that comes with this specific kit is good, but if you don’t think you’ll like it or if you just need more dressing this Ken’s vinaigrette is a good Greek dressing!

• eat it with pita chips or crackers. Other carb options are inspired by my love for Zoe’s Kitchen (RIP) Greek salad that included either a dressed pasta salad or a Greek potato salad. 10/10 recommend!

This is a whole meal, I promise. It’s also what got me through the newborn days with my daughter when I needed an easy but filling lunch.

If you haven’t had this Nashville-Style Hot salad kit from Target you are missing out! It’s SO good! It comes with these little crispy dill pickle croutons that really elevate this one. I think it’s good on it’s own but to make it a meal, add some chicken strips. I really love these spicy strips from Just Bare that we get from Costco.

For my Texas folks, this H-E-B salad is available at H-E-B and Central Market and it’s so good! (I know there are other Asian salad kits out there too and those would also work for this!) It also comes with a lot of little extra toppings so it really only needs some chicken. I’d recommend making it with leftover teriyaki chicken, but in the spirit of keeping things quick take a Rotisserie chicken and put it in a pan with a little bit of oil. Add a little bit of Bachan’s BBQ sauce to mimic the teriyaki flavor. You don’t need much.

I think cooking Rotisserie chicken for a couple of minutes in a pan really helps with the texture, but if it doesn’t bother you skip this part and add the chicken to your salad kit and call it a day!

Finally, zhuzhing up a Caesar salad kit is legitimately the easiest thing in the world and has been one of our staple dinners for years. We will typically grill a steak to eat with it, which takes all of 15 minutes, including rest time. The kits usually come with great toppings, but we add:

• more parmesan

• a squeeze of fresh lemon juice

• maybe more dressing

• more croutons

You could do any protein option if you’re not feeling the steak. If you’re using steak, try adding a little dash of Worcestershire sauce too. The anchovy in the Worcestershire sauce plays really well with the anchovy in the Caesar dressing and it’s so god. And I say this as someone who does not want to think about anchovies being in anything.

For a really easy lunch option, just add a little cooked pasta to the salad kit!

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Do you have a favorite salad kit or a way to use salad kits? Let us know in the comments!

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