Cobb Salad and Rainbow Salad Recipes

I made two delicious salads within the last few weeks that tasted divine: A Fruit Salad and a Cobb Salad
One I made for our St. Patricks Day dinner. ( Fruit Salad shaped into a Rainbow)

I took different colors of fruits and made them into a Rainbow. My family loves all kinds of fruits, so we had everything already on hand to make this yummy salad. Here is a few ideas that you can use for each color of the rainbow:

Red: raspberries,strawberries or watermelon
Orange: clementines, cantaloupe
Yellow: pineapple or bananas
Green: green grapes, kiwi
Blue: Blueberries, blackberries
White clouds:Mini white marshmallows

We first added raspberries,clementines, bananas  green grapes, blackberries, and then added mini marshmallows at the end of each side (to look like clouds, not picutued )We then dipped them into chocolate and ate most of the fruit like a fondue!  It was a great, healthy treat for our St, Patty's Day dinner!

Cobb Salad

For Easter we had dinner at Tim's parents house.  Each family is in charge of a certain dish to bring.  I was assigned a salad, so I decided to make a big cobb salad!  It was DELICIOUS!  I am still craving it, and will probably make myself a mini cobb salad just like this one for myself for lunch today!

DIRECTIONS:

First, I hard boiled 3-4 eggs: easy way to do this is to put the raw eggs into a muffin tin and stick it in the oven on 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes and then run them until ice cold water once they are out of the oven.  

Next bacon, I wanted to have REAL bacon not fakon.  I bought 1 package of BACON and placed each bacon strip on a cookie sheet lined with foil.  I placed the cookie sheet with the bacon into the cold oven and turned the oven on to 400 degree for 20 minutes!  It made the bacon so crispy and yummy! The clean up was so easy. I recommend cooking bacon every time like this!

Next, I love my salad to have crisp to each bite! I found so fried onion strips at Macy's that tasted so great with this salad, without having to add real onions to the salad.  

I cut up 1 large avocado and added it to the salad

I used 3 stalks of organic Roman lettuce and chopped it all up without adding anything else to it,  

Then I added Monetary cheddar and medium cheddar shredded cheese 

topped off with some cherry tomatoes ( Tim is not a fan of tomatoes  therefore I don;t chop them and I lay them off to the side so they are out of the way)

Then added croutons for a little crunch on the side of the salad!!

I made homemade buttermilk ranch dressing to go on top. Here is the recipe for that:

Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup buttermilk ( I didn't have buttermilk so I used 1 cup milk and added 2 Tablespoons of melted butter)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream 
• 1/8 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
• 1/4 teaspoon of dry dill 

If you prefer to you can also make it using 4 ingredients: 

• 1 cup buttermilk ( I didn't have buttermilk so I used 1 cup milk and added 2 Tablespoons of melted butter)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream 
•  Add a packet of dry ranch dressing. 

 In a medium bowl, stir together the buttermilk and mayonnaise until fully mixed. Add in the other ingredients, adjusting for taste.