California Club Salad

My favorite sandwich is, and always has been, a club sandwich. I think it's because when I was a kid we weren't allowed to eat white bread and we simply never had bacon; I don't know why. (True story, I think I was in junior high before I ever ate a piece of bacon and I didn't know how to cook it until a few years ago when I moved to DC and had a roommate from South Carolina who literally ate bacon everyday.)

When my parents would ship us kids off to Louisiana to be with our grandparents for six weeks almost every summer, our grandparents allowed us to eat whatever we wanted. Once a week, when my maternal grandpa took us out for lunch, he would get liver and onions; I would get a club sandwich; I have no recollection of what my brother and sister ate. I think that's when I first fell in love with club sandwiches. It was much later when I was introduced to the California club, which is simply a club sandwich with avocado, but I love that too.

When I saw this salad at Real Simple I pinned it right away. Tonight seemed like a salad-for-dinner night* so I used the Real Simple salad as my inspiration and created a salad that mimics so many of the flavors in my believed California club sandwich. Chuk and I both really liked it.

California Club Salad

1 head of romaine lettuce
2 Roma tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1/2 green bell pepper
some onion (I used green onions because that's what I had but next time I want to try the red onion suggested in the original recipe)
1/2 avocado (Chuk isn't a big avocado fan so I only used it on my salad.)
2 oz. cooked turkey
5 slices of cooked bacon
Balsamic vinaigrette

Chop the first eight ingredients and then toss with the vinaigrette. C'mon, you know how to make a salad.

I will add, if you cook the bacon right before you make the salad, you can use the bacon drippings to make a bacon balsamic dressing. I did it and it made the husband very happy. (It also possibly offset all health benefits of eating salad for dinner.)

*I love salad for dinner night. Not only is it healthy, it's my chance to use up all those odds and ends of veggies that may otherwise be wasted.