So, sadly, the taco salad is gone.
It was very yummy, though. How
did I get through seven salads in five days?
I am currently staying with my aunt, and so we both took the salads for
lunch. To the sad news is, no more taco
salad for me… the good news is… ON TO SOMETHING NEW: Turkey Cobb Salad!
So remember that time I said that I would make mistakes… this is one of
those times, sort of. So I decided to
make cobb salad because I had left over corn, some older eggs (ideal for
boiling), my aunt had bacon, and I usually grab a rotisserie chicken to save
time.
Mistake/Problem #1: When you go to the store at 9:30 on a Wednesday
night, they are likely out of rotisserie chickens. Not a huge deal, because they did have ONE
rotisserie turkey breast left, and in my mind, fowl is fowl.
So I grabbed the rest of my ingredients: tomatoes, scallions, Romaine
Lettuce (yes, Dan, I remember what you said about iceberg having ZERO nutritional
value), avocado, a carrot, cheese (mistake #4), and some Dijon mustard, and
headed to my aunt’s. I arrived at about
10:10, and started my timer (trying very hard to obey the 70-minute rule). I boiled the eggs and cooked the bacon first;
four eggs (because that’s what I had) and five slices of bacon (one for each
jar- or so I thought).
A word about bacon. I read a
good deal of railing against pre-cooked bacon, and though it’s ok in a pinch,
it isn’t as good as the real thing.
Also, I will forever be grateful to my youngest sister’s ex-boyfriend
for teaching us the right way to cook bacon: IN THE OVEN! No grease splatter, no burns on your hands,
easier to clean up, and perfect, crispy bacon EVERY time. Just throw it on a foil-lined baking sheet,
pop it in the oven at 375-400 and bake for 20-ish minutes depending on your
desired level of crispness. WIN!
On cooking hard-boiled eggs; I suck at this, hard. I have tried a million ways to do this, and
am seldom completely successful, so PLEASE help me! I usually do the: put eggs in a saucepan,
cover with cold water (about an inch over the eggs), bring to a boil for about
1-2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let stand for 11-12 minutes and then
dump into an ice water bath. I’ve tried
adding vinegar and salt, and even tried oven boiling once (DISASTER), and they
are always IMPOSSIBLE to peel. So please
if you are a wizard at perfect hard-boiled eggs, PLEASE instruct me in the
comments below.
While the bacon and eggs were cooking I set about tearing/cutting and
washing the lettuce. (I do a combination
of tearing/cutting as the muse moves me, I like bite-sized pieces.; one day I
will own the device we had when I worked at Wendy’s; it was a lettuce chopper
that reduced a whole head into 1” square leaves; it was amazing).
At this point I decided to hunt down/line up
my jars…
Mistake/Problem #2: I planned for five jars but could only find four…
One of us left a jar at work or something; not a huge deal, but I was planning
on five jars and purchased accordingly.
Next up: dressing! I decided to
make my own this time, because, well, there is no real because, I just
did. I decided to try a honey mustard-balsamic
vinaigrette. There are those who will
tell you that vinaigrettes need to be done in stages, first you do your spices
and vinegar, then you slowly add the oil whisking constantly. I’m on a deadline, no time for that. I am a big fan of the
dump-everything-into-a-jar-and-shake-the-bajeezus-out-of-it Method. My aunt had one of those Shakeology Blender
bottles which was temporarily reassigned to salad dressing detail. I tried to use as little oil as I could, but…
Mistake/Problem #3: Even ¼ of oil is RIDICULOUS calorically. So going forward I need to find dressing
recipes that just don’t have oil. This
is an issue, because there are many out there using Greek Yogurt, and Greek
Yogurt is one of the SEVEN DEADLY THINGS I DO NOT EAT. Note to self: calculate dressing calories
BEFORE mixing in future.
With the bacon and eggs now cooked and cooling, it was time to
dismember the turkey breast and cut the rest of the veggies. My aunt volunteered to deal with the turkey, which
was fine by me; when I am stripping a carcass, I just feel gross and am
compelled to wash my hands multiple times in the middle of the process, which
is just asinine. My grandmother used to
love doing that; picking the turkey/chicken carcass after a meal. She used to get every morsel with the
efficiency of a carrion bird. I clearly
missed out on that familial skill. I can’t
stand the slimy feeling of fat and sinew on my hands. Ew, this is a food blog, stop writing things
like “fat and sinew.”
While cutting the carrot I discovered that my aunt has a Julienne
Peeler. WANT! It was really fun to use, even if it did
waste a bit of viable carrot.
With all that done we began layering:
Dressing
Tomatoes
Carrots
Corn
Scallions
Turkey
Eggs
Lettuce
Avocado
Bacon
Cheese
Mistake/Problem #4: Cheese is my Achilles Heel. I argued with myself in the store about the
cheese. I knew that with three types of
protein AND avocado, this salad would be higher in calories and fat that usual
(at that point I also had not considered the oil factor). But NO… my inner cheese-fiend overruled my
weak health-conscious self and we bought the cheese, AND put in on top of the
salad. Ugh.
So, this is not the healthiest of my salads… but lesson learned. Here’s the recipe without all my silly
commentaries:
Servings: 4 pint-jar salads
Ingredients
Dressing:
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup EVOO
I clove garlic (pressed/minced)
2t Honey
2t Dijon mustard
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 container cherry tomatoes (a small pint)
1 large carrot (chopped, julienned, whatever)
¾ cup frozen sweet corn
1 bunch scallions (6)
2 cups roasted turkey breast shredded/cubed
4 eggs (hard boiled)
1 head Romaine Lettuce (about 3.5 cups)
5 strips think-cut bacon (it’s what I had)
1 avocado (quartered and cubed)
1 cup Cabot reduced fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Directions:
- Cook bacon to desired level of crispiness using
the method of your choosing.
- Hard-boil eggs and set aside to cool.
- Mix dressing; I used a blender bottle, but you
can do what you like).
- Dismember turkey breast
- Halve tomatoes
- Cut veggies
- Assemble
- Dressing
- Tomatoes
- Carrots
- Corn
- Scallions
- Turkey
- Eggs
- Lettuce
- Avocado
- Bacon
- Cheese
- Seal and store upright in the refrigerator.
Very tasty, but higher in calories and fat than I wanted it to be. Oh well, better luck next time!
~The Maven