The Time I Cried Over Cobb Salad and Other Fun Tales

I once broke into tears because my cobb salad was missing its hard boiled egg.

Seriously.  That hard boiled egg was part of the perfection that is the cobb salad at my favorite restaurant and the thought of not having it in every delicious bite- paired with avocado and bacon in one bite, grilled chicken and blue cheese in the next- literally brought me to tears.

Of course I was like 9 months pregnant and starving, so that might have had something to do with it. ;-)

Pregnancy notwithstanding, there is something amazing about a cobb salad, truly.  So many delicious, filling, perfect ingredients.  So many possible combinations in each bite.

So much yumminess.

I find myself ordering cobb salads often when I'm at restaurants- they're fairly ubiquitous and almost always low carb.  With the exception of croutons or- in the case of my favorite restaurant, tortilla chips- there is nothing to eat around or request that they leave off.

Anyway, this morning I woke up and decided that I'd make myself a cobb salad for lunch.  Honestly, they're easy to make but they do require a little bit of prep if you're making everything from scratch.  I boiled the eggs, baked the chicken with a little salt and pepper, and then baked the bacon (more on that in another post!).  When I was ready for lunch I added some crumbled blue cheese, diced tomato,  and avocado and I had one awesome lunch!

Want to take the easy way out?  Buy a rotisserie chicken and some bacon bits.  I've even seen hard boiled eggs at the store.  You can absolutely throw this together without much work if you really want to!

I think my favorite thing about this salad (you know, besides everything!) is the dressing.  Remember that ridiculously easy homemade dressing for the BLT Salad I raved about the other day?  I mixed up another batch of that.  That dressing is seriously going to be a staple in my fridge from here on out.  It's just ridiculously good.

With the weather getting warmer delicious salads like this are an invaluable contribution to the meal rotation.  Plus its a salad- so you don't exactly have to stick to a recipe.  Add corn.  Add beans.  Add shredded cheese or celery or radishes or whatever veggies and grains you have in the fridge.

It's kind of perfect.

Enjoy!

Cobb Salad

Modified Slightly From Allrecipes.com

6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

3 hard boiled eggs

1 head lettuce, chopped

3 cups chicken, cooked and cubed

2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped

3/4 cup blue cheese, crumbled

1 avocado - peeled, pitted and diced

1 (8 ounce) bottle Ranch-style salad dressing (or this deliciousness right here!)

1. Divide lettuce among individual plates.

2. Evenly divide and arrange chicken, eggs, tomatoes, blue cheese, bacon, and avocado in a row on top of the lettuce.

3. Drizzle with your favorite dressing and enjoy.