Turkey Cobb Salad

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:

1. Cook bacon to desired level of crispiness using the method of your choosing.
2. Hard-boil eggs and set aside to cool.
3. Mix dressing; I used a blender bottle, but you can do what you like).
4. Dismember turkey breast
5. Halve tomatoes
6. Cut veggies
7. Assemble
1. Dressing
2. Tomatoes
3. Carrots
4. Corn
5. Scallions
6. Turkey
7. Eggs
8. Lettuce
9. Avocado
10. Bacon
11. Cheese
8. 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