Cooking with Kitten: Salad days

I went grocery shopping yesterday. I needed to get back on the health track again and cook myself some healthy meals.

Last week I was at a book club meeting and our hostess made spinach salad with avocado, tomatoes, hearts of palm, and other fresh veggies. Inspired, and in need of something that didn't come out of a box and couldn't be microwaved, I decided to stock up on salad fixins.

I fully intended to make a Cobb salad, but the recipe I'm giving you is not a traditional Cobb. Rather, it's more like "Kitchen Sink Salad."

Here's what I used:

• a package of chicken tenders
• a package of baby spinach
• a package of baby romaine
• a cucumber
• 2 medium-sized tomatoes
• broccoli florets (about a head)
• 8 slices of turkey bacon
• a can of chick peas
• gorgonzola cheese crumbles
• ranch dressing I had in the fridge

Now for the directions:

1. Season the chicken however you like. You can use salt and pepper, poultry seasoning, Mrs. Dash--whatever you've got on hand. You can fry it up in a bit of EVOO, or you can grill it. I grilled the tenders on my indoor contact grill for about seven minutes.
2. While the chicken's grilling, nuke the bacon according to package directions.
3. Peel your veggies and cut 'em up.
4. Get the largest salad bowl you own and dump your greens inside. Pile on the veggies.
5. Open the chick peas, drain 'em, and rinse 'em. Dump 'em in the bowl.
6. When the chicken's cooled off a bit, slice it up and dump it in the bowl.
7. When the bacon's cooled a bit, crumble it up into little bits. Dump 'em in the bowl.
8. Sprinkle on the gorg crumbs once you've served yourself a helping of the salad. Don't put 'em in all at once or they'll get soggy.
9. Use whatever dressing you've got on hand.

Of course, you can use whatever veggies you've got on hand. I like to put hard-boiled eggs in salads, too, but I was too lazy to boil water tonight. That, and I didn't want to wash the pot.

Bon appetit!