When Seattle's weather hit an all-time high a few weeks ago, the thought of cooking dinner wasn't appealing in the least. Even grilling something as quick and easy as chicken didn't get me fired up. Get it? Fired up? Just a little grilling humor, but since I'm clearly not a comedian, I'll move on.
Since the car and the grocery store were cooler than my house, I decided to take a drive and see what might sound tempting for dinner at the store - a dish that wouldn't require the use of the stove or grill.
That's when I discovered pre-cooked bacon at the meat counter. Perfect! Who doesn't love bacon! (Probably lots of people, but not in this house.)
I started my deconstructed BLT sandwich off with romaine lettuce and tomatoes from my girlfriend's garden. Not a bad start, I had the lettuce and tomato from a BLT, but I had a few ingredients to go.
Then I added a handful of croutons, so now I had the bread, and I'd saved a few thousand calories by skipping two entire slices and the butter I would have grilled the sandwiches with.
All I needed at that point in my salad making adventure was bacon. Those pre-cooked bacon slices from the grocery worked perfectly.
I suppose you could use real bacon bits, but I wanted more substantial pieces of bacon. Much like you'd find in a sandwich.
A crumble of mild leftover queso cheese added yeat another layer of flavor, but wasn't overpowering the smokiness of the bacon.
I'm one of those people who won't eat salads of any kind without dressing, and on a hot summer day, cooling avocado with Ranch spices made the perfect match for my deconstructed BLT.
This healthy salad turned out exactly as I'd envisioned as I was walking through the store. It was super light, calorie friendly, and packed with enough smoky, bacony flavor to remind us of the BLT sandwich I was going for.
I hope you're enjoying these last few weeks of summer, we certainly are. These warm sunny days can't be beat!
