By Katy Wilkens

Recently I was talking with a patient who has been trying unsuccessfully to lose weight so he can qualify for a kidney transplant. He stops by McDonald’s every morning for breakfast, picks up lunch at Taco Bell, and then has a “healthy dinner” at home—when he has time to cook. When I asked him why he was eating two-thirds of his meals out, he replied, “It’s fast!”

Fast it may be, but fast food is also high in sodium, fat, calories and cost. So this patient now has a new goal, to make his own fast food at home, cutting out all the dangerous salt and fat, and saving money and calories. Not to mention becoming healthy enough for transplant surgery.

To make it easy, he plans to prepare a week’s worth of lunches at a time. He’ll pack healthy salads in clear glass wide-mouth Mason jars from the thrift store. It’s an idea for anyone who wants a healthy, tasty meal without a wait.

Salad in a Jar:

Use a pint jar for one person’s side salad or quart jars for a salad entree or a picnic.
Put the ingredients with the most moisture at the bottom, and gradually layer up, with greens and finally nuts on the very top. To eat, turn out into a bowl and the salad tosses itself. Or eat out of the jar with a fork.

You will feel more full if you add some protein. Put it on top of the salad dressing to marinate and soak up the flavors. Protein can be leftover meat, fish, chicken, hard-cooked egg, grilled tofu, sautéed paneer, cubed or crumbled cheese, cooked kidney, garbanzo or black beans, even grains like quinoa or faro.

If you make more than one salad, you can send someone you care about to school or work with a healthy meal. Or you can set yourself up with lunch for a couple of days. It won’t take any more time than you spend in a drive-through line.

Ingredients are listed the way you should put them in the jar, so top item on the list goes in first. For better taste and health, make your own homemade salad dressing. Find a great recipe for Hundred Combinations low-sodium salad dressing at www.nwkidney.org.

Rich’s Kale Salad in a Jar
1 quart Mason jar with lid
Vinaigrette salad dressing
½ cup sautéed paneer or tofu
½ cup cooked faro or wheat berries
½ cup diced red bell pepper
½ cup sliced cucumber
Handful of dried cranberries
Pre-cut kale
Handful of pumpkin seeds or cashews

Black Rice and Sweet Potato Salad in a Jar
1 quart Mason jar with lid
Vinaigrette salad dressing
½ cup cooked black rice, or wild rice, or multi-rice mix
½ cup diced cooked chicken
½ cup roasted or sautéed sweet potato, cubed
2 cups of red leaf lettuce, in bite-size pieces
Handful of chopped dried apricots
Handful of toasted hazelnuts

Rich’s Kale salad: calories: 323, carbohydrates: 23 g, protein: 17 g, sodium: 22 mg
Black rice: calories: 287, carbohydrates: 27 g, protein: 22 g, sodium: 36 mg
The information in this column is meant for people who want to keep their kidneys healthy and blood pressure down by following a low-sodium diet. In most cases, except for dialysis patients, a diet high in potassium is thought to help lower high blood pressure. These recipes are not intended for people on dialysis without the supervision of a registered dietitian.

[Katy G. Wilkens is a registered dietitian and department head at Northwest Kidney Centers. The 2014 recipient of National Kidney Foundation Council on Renal Nutrition’s Susan Knapp Excellence in Education Award, she has a Master of Science degree in nutritional sciences from the University of Washington. See more of her recipes at www.nwkidney.org.]