I promised you salad recipes last week didn’t I?  I only gave you two, and I didn’t think that was enough.  Tonight I made a healthier version of a traditional Cobb salad.  I’d never made this before and was just winging from the start, so I hoped it would turn out well.  It actually ended up coming out even better than I expected.

Anyway, here’s a shot of it:

I managed to up the health factor of this salad by adapting the dressing and adding a few more veggies to the mix.

So what’s in it?

A traditional Cobb salad generally has iceberg lettuce, chicken, bacon, bleu cheese, hard-boiled egg, avocado, tomato, and some sort of creamy dressing.  Not exactly diet food.

My salad had a head of romaine (iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value whatsoever, so try and avoid it whenever possible), a chicken breast (oven baked of course), a large Roma tomato, 1/4 English cucumber, 1 bell pepper, 1/4 red onion, some crumbled bleu cheese, 2 hard-boiled eggs, and 3 paper-thin slices of prosciutto which I crisped in the oven while the chicken was cooking (lay flat on a sheet pan and bake until crispy, 10-15 minutes).

Alright, the dressing:

This dressing came more from necessity than anything else.  I had one avocado left over from last week, and had planned to use it last night in this salad.  However, KC and I ended up hanging out with friends last night, and therefore this salad didn’t get made until tonight.  When I went to slice the avocado to add it to the salad, it had started to turn and I could only use part of it (plus it was pretty mushy).  I decided to try and make a dressing from it, rather than have KC and I each get 2 measly bites of avocado in the salad.

I mashed the avocado with some Greek yogurt, whisked in some olive oil to thin it out and added salt and pepper.  Let me tell you, this may be the best healthy dressing I’ve ever invented.  It tastes super-indulgent, but since it’s made with Greek yogurt and healthy fats (olive oil and avocado), it’s actually good for you.

Alright, well I’ve got some True Blood to catch up on.  Hopefully I’ll have one or two more salad recipes for you by the end of the week.  Also, if you have a favorite salad you like to indulge in and would like me to try and reinvent it and make it healthier, please let me know.  I love a challenge!