Adventures in Salad Dressing (that lesser known Elizabeth Shue film)

Yep. It's about that time of the year when I realize how much cheese I've consumed in the last three weeks...heck, in the last three days and try to make up for it by slowly transitioning to healthy eating. The obvious go-to meal would be a salad. Which sometimes I like.  When I can put a bunch of stuff on the salad that I would eat otherwise. Like bacon. And corn. And BBQ chicken. And creamy dressing.  You get the idea.  And so that's what I did.  And, hey, I did say I was slowly transitioning to healthy eating.  And who better to teach me how to transition, than the queen of health comebacks, herself, OPRAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I decided to look up fun salad dressing recipes and found one on Ms. Winfrey's website including avocado and lemon and thought it might go nicely with some southwestern ingredients, and came up with this delicious lunch I will be eating all week...

Recipe #50: Avocado Ranch Dressing on Healthy-ish BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad

Choice of libation:

I mean...it's 5 o'clock, somewhere?

Choice of music:

This song is called "Everything is Everything" but Gabriel Garzon Montano is EVERYTHING. This Brooklyn native is all chill acoustic groove, and some unexpected jazz intervals, like an updated Bill Withers. Listen to his whole album, Bishoune: Alma del Huila. SO SO GOOD.

Here is the star of our show, and I guess I will be eating it for awhile because the recipe makes A LOT OF IT. I'm not complaining though. But how did I get here, you might ask? So easy!

Pulse the garlic and the avocado together.  I mean, already I would eat this as a dip.

No, I didn't need to show you this picture of me squeezing a lemon into the dressing, but I wanted to point out all that produce in the background.  I'M TRYING OPRAH, I REALLY AM. 

This is a lot of fresh dill, which I'm a big fan of.  With the lemon, it really brightens up the flavour and also makes it a beautiful colour. Yes, again with the unnecessary letter 'u.' CAN'TSTOPWON'TSTOP.

I know it's not a big deal, but I've never made a salad dressing before. 

It's so pretty!  And tastes AMAZING. There's a bite to it because of the garlic, but you still get the sweetness of the avocado and the tartness of the lemon. It's worth celebrating.

Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh no no

Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh no no

Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh no no

Okay, that's enough.

I basically just sauteed chicken breast in olive oil and the barbecue sauce we had in the fridge, but if I hadn't been so hungry I would have tried to make my own. 

Oh well, one homemade condiment is good enough for now.

Every time I make a salad, it ends up being a cobb salad, but at least I know I'll eat it.  

But I would basically eat anything with that dressing on it.
And look, no cheese!  For now.

Healthy-ish BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad

2 cups cooked, diced chicken (sauteed in 2 tbsp olive oil and 4 tbsp BBQ sauce)

2 cups romaine lettuce

6 strips turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled

4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped

3 roma tomatoes diced, salt and peppered

1 cup black beans

1 cup yellow corn

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Toss lettuce with chicken, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, beans and corn

Drizzle some good dressing on

Salt and pepper to taste

Avocado-Ranch Dressing

stolen and adapted from Oprah.com

2 cloves garlic, peeled (I used 4 cloves)

1 ripe avocado, pitted and peeled

1 cup vegetable broth (I used chicken broth)

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. onion powder

1 tsp. sweet paprika

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup chopped, fresh dill

Pulse the garlic in a blender to get it chopped up. Add the avocado, broth, lemon juice, oil, onion powder, paprika and salt and blend until completely smooth, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula occasionally to make sure you blend everything. Add the dill and pulse just until the dressing turns a brilliant green with flecks of dill throughout. Taste for seasonings. Remember that the salt flavor will be diluted when you add it to the salad, so make sure it's just a tad saltier than you think it should be. Seal tightly and refrigerate until ready to use.