GET HEALTHY ~ EAT SALAD

Incorporate more fresh salads into your diet and enjoy the health benefits; putting it on a pizza – not so much. 

One of my favorite salads is the Cobb salad; crisp bacon, avocado, chicken, tomato and eggs diced and placed in perfectly aligned rows atop a bed of fresh greens.  How bad can that be for you?  Actually, for many years, I deluded myself into believing that a salad was a salad no matter what the ingredients were or how they were prepared.  As salads go, the Cobb can be a real bad boy with around 750 calories and 50g of fat per serving, depending on the type of dressing.  Oh yes, those counts are for salad with grilled chicken!  Now, is it just me, or do you think 'healthy' when you hear someone say, "salad with grilled chicken?"

After moving to Arizona, I began to incorporate local ingredients and spices into our meals.  I wondered if my beloved Cobb salad could go southwestern and still maintain its original integrity.  So the experimenting began; I season the breaded chicken cutlets with chipotle chili powder, used roasted red peppers, pepper jack and Manchego cheese for a southwestern flair and created an avocado ranch dressing to pull it all together.  My guess is that one good sized serving of my salad had upwards of 1,000 calories and God only knows how much fat.  Now the next question – could my savory southwestern Cobb work as topping for a pizza.  Answer – yes, yes and yes!

To make my Sunny Southwestern Chicken Cobb Pizza, I pre-grilled one side of the dough, flipped it over and spread it with roasted red pepper pesto; I then topped it with a mixture of Monterrey jack and pepper jack cheese.  I sliced my previously sauteed breaded chicken tenders crosswise and lined them up around the pre-grilled dough on top of the cheese; diced onion, halved cherry tomatoes and a light sprinkling of cheese came next; then back onto the grill for some healthy baking. 

While the pizza was doing its thing on the grill, I tossed some shredded romaine lettuce with the avocado ranch dressing.  After removing the pizza from the grill, I cut it into serving size pieces, topped it with the dressed romaine and sprinkled the minced hardboiled egg and diced cooked bacon over all.  I seasoned it lightly with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper and topped it with shaved Manchego cheese.  Although it did not have the neatly lined up rows of finely diced ingredients found in a traditional Cobb salad, I must say, it totally exceeded my expectations.  It was like eating my much-loved Cobb with a hunk of warm bread.   Try grilling some dough and topping it with one of your favorite salads – you may be surprised at the delectable end result.



Sunny Southwestern Chicken Cobb Pizza



Lu's Ludicrous 'Lobsta' Bake Pizza

Knowing how much we miss the taste of sweet Maine lobsters now that we reside in Arizona, my sister Luann surprised us on one of our trips to Connecticut by preparing an old fashioned New England lobster bake.  She kicked off the festivities with an appetizer of three dozen huge shrimp swimming in cocktail sauce.  They were so big, they looked like lobster tails!  Then, the ludicrous lobster bake began.  Lu, AKA the queen of excess, served a quarter bushel littleneck clams, a quarter bushel mussels, 15 one and one half pound lobsters, 4 dozen ears of corn and enough melted butter to float a small fishing boat.  You may be asking why I call this 'ludicrous'.  Well, truth be told, there were not twelve guests, not even ten.  No, there were only five of us at her table that night!  We talked and laughed and we ate, and ate, and ate until we could eat no more.  Amazingly, we didn't even have to trek to a beach and build a fire pit- she did it all in her kitchen.   


This pizza is my version of Lu's lobster bake and although it may take more preparation time than you would normally spend making a pizza, you will experience the taste of a traditional New England lobster bake with each bite, making it well worth the effort.

After stretching the dough into a large rectangular shape, I liberally brushed it with melted garlic infused butter into which I had stirred fresh chopped parsley and chives.  I topped this with a layer of shredded mozzarella, fontina and Parmigiano cheese onto which I nestled the clams and roasted corn kernels.  Pieces of oven roasted tomatoes, cooked diced red bliss potatoes and some sliced, smoked Cajun Andouille sausage covered the clam and corn layer which was then topped with the remainder of the cheese blend.  I was going for the layering here that one finds at a true clam or lobster bake - minus the seaweed of course.  While the pizza baked on a hot stone on my grill, I sautéed cooked chunks of lobster in the remaining garlic/herb butter.  This was the crowning glory - gently placed over the entire pizza as soon as it came off the grilI.  I finished the pizza with a hit of lemon zest, freshly squeezed lemon juice, more grated Parmigiano, red pepper flakes and sea salt.  Upon taking my first bite, I could almost smell the smoke from the fire pit and hear the waves crashing onto the shore as the sun set on Russian Beach in Lordship.

Look for this recipe in Pizza Memoirs or drop me a note and I will gladly share it with you.