Cobb Salad

I love Cobb Salad! But it has to be a GOOD Cobb salad, they’re hard to find you know! Justin and I have had many disappointing salads from our local grills and steakhouses. Homemade is usually the best because the ingredients are fresh and cold! For my upcoming birthday I am going to the restaurant Ingredient, they have THE BEST salads! There are a couple rules to a good salad:

• Rule #1- Lettuce needs to be chopped into small bite sized pieces! There’s nothing worse than digging into your salad only to get a head of lettuce on your fork!

• Rule #2- Serve the salad already tossed/mixed together! First put the dressing on the lettuce and stir. Next are all the toppings and then stir it again! I know in restaurants they serve you a salad with all the ingredients neatly laid out on top but it never mixes together the same once you pour the dressing on.

• Rule #3- Eat everything that comes on the salad! This is a salad, not a salad bar! If Andrew made his own salad it would only have bacon and cheese (my boys hate eggs and avocados, but too bad)! You can’t taste individual ingredients in a salad and each ingredient has a special purpose! Once I’ve mixed everything together the boys happily dug into the tossed salad not even knowing what’s in it… and you know what? THEY LOVED IT!

Ingredients
2 heads of Romaine Lettuce
8 slices bacon, crumbled
1 hard boiled egg, diced (I would prefer 2 eggs but my boys draw the line at 1)
3 cups chopped, cooked chicken meat (I sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning on my chicken as it's cooking)
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used Cheddar but any cheese works great)
1 avocado - peeled, pitted and diced
1 cup Ranch salad dressing (make your own, it's so much better! 1 cup Hellman's mayonnaise, 1 cup milk, and a pack of Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning mix)

Directions
Place egg in a saucepan and cover completely with cold water. Bring water to a boil. Cover, remove from heat, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel and dice.
Lay bacon in a 9x13 pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool and crumble into pieces.
Put your chicken breasts in a baking pan, sprinkle it with lemon pepper seasoning and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

While everything is cooking you can chop your lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado. Before/after chopping keep everything in the fridge to keep it cool. I even put my chicken, bacon, and eggs in the fridge! When you're ready to serve the salad get a large bowl and toss in the lettuce. Drizzle the ranch over the lettuce and toss it together with two large spoons. Now add the rest of the toppings (bacon, eggs, chicken, tomatoes, avocado, and cheese). Use the large spoons to toss everything together. Plate the salad on a serving platter or on individual plates.