I love a good Cobb Salad and when I discovered that - quite coincidentally - I had most of the ingredients on hand, I decided to try and throw one together for lunch this afternoon.  It started with a small chicken breast, shredded.

I don’t often have cooked chicken on hand.  Yesterday, we had planned on having chicken and couscous for supper, so the chicken was all thawed and ready for the grill but we decided to eat out instead - steak subs, hard stuff to resist. But the chicken still had to be cooked, so Myria did that little thing.  When it had cooled a mite, it got sealed into a plastic bag and was remanded to the fridge.

Then came the avocado:

Again, not something I usually have available.  They had been on sale and were beautiful and perfect, so I got two.  It’s an interesting thing when you feel thoroughly spoiled because you’ve treated yourself to an avocado :)

The mushrooms came next…

I have always been a huge mushroom fan and have always included the little darlings in my salads.  However, until a little while ago, I always used the fresh article.  They’re good and I won’t stop using them but I discovered recently that canned or bottled mushrooms have a different flavor.  Not better - but different.  So I’ve been playing with those to see if they go better with some things than the fresh ones.

Then the tomatoes…

These are grape tomatoes that I picked up for a song.  Apparently a couple of packages had broken and the produce manager just combined the results and marked them down to less than half price.  There wasn’t a bad tomato in the whole box - and they’re so delicious:)

...the cheese…

This was the remainder of a small chunk of Colby (a very mellow cheddar) which had begun to grow green whiskers in the fridge.  I just trimmed that part off and cut up the rest for the salad.  Seriously folks, you don’t need to toss cheese that’s begun to go moldy.  Just trim off the mold; the rest of the hunk is just fine.  After all, what did you think the veins in the blue cheese were?  Heheh…

...the cashews…

I love these things and it seemed like the salad could use a little crunch factor.  It worked out wonderfully!

...and, finally, the dressing.

If you’re not on a medically restricted diet, do yourself a favor and use a regular rather than a light or a fat-free dressing - the difference is phenomenal.  I used blue cheese here because it’s probably my favorite of all.  A light grind of sea salt and several grinds of fresh black pepper and you’re ready to go.  I tell you, putting this thing together is almost as much fun as eating it.

Almost :)

I know, I know, there’s no lettuce.  There also isn’t any blue cheese (other than the dressing), bacon or hard-boiled egg.  I don’t have any lettuce on hand and don’t buy it very often because I always have to throw half of it away.  Besides, I sometimes feel that lettuce is just there to take up space.  I can manage it, but I’m never going to love it.  The bacon and egg would have been wonderful if I’d had them, but I didn’t and frankly, didn’t miss them.  If I happen to have them next time, in they’ll go!

I was very pleased with my experiment and just thought I’d pass it along in case someone else might enjoy it too.

Bon appetit!