Meal prep is not something I excel in or do regularly. It sounds like such a chore so I’m often hurdled by my own false notions of how time consuming it will be.

But it really isn’t as difficult as I imagine. Leftovers + Trader Joe’s + Instant Pot is my new road to success!

This salad took 5 minutes to pull together, was delicious and satisfying, and made me feel good about eating something healthy and bright for lunch. But the 5 minutes it took was enabled by a few tools and things I had done earlier in the week:

• I do own an Instant Pot, so earlier in the week I used that to make some boiled eggs. I’m still experimenting with timing as I’m a novice Instant Potter but I followed this recipe which basically says 3-4 min on high pressure and 5 min natural release, with another 5-10 min of the boiled eggs soaking in cold water. I did this while getting ready in the morning one day.
• I bought pre-made cooked beets, organic spring mix, and ready to eat grilled chicken strips from Trader Joe’s. This basically makes up about half the entire salad’s ingredients.
• I had leftover couscous from a Half Baked Harvest recipe. Easiest couscous ever by the way – you basically just chop up dried apricots and almonds and fresh mint leaves (also bought these at Trader Joe’s!) and mix them all in with your cooked couscous, a little extra virgin olive oil, and some salt and pepper. You can probably throw anything in this you want – it doesn’t have to be these ingredients (but this was indeed a delicious combo)

And as I always have at least one bottle of fancy olive oil from either Saratoga Olive Oil or Oliva!, I drizzle this into my greens and add some freshly ground pink Himalayan sea salt and rainbow peppercorn into it, and I’m done.

The time it took me to make this salad was probably less than it took you to read this. Go make one for yourself and see 😉