10 facts about salad:

1. Salad comes from the Latin word “herba salta” or “salted herbs,” so called because such greens were usually seasoned with dressings containing lots of salt.
2. Lettuce is a member of the sunflower family.
3. The lettuce we see today actually started out as a weed around the Mediterranean basin.
4. Christopher Columbus introduced lettuce to the Americas.
5. The original wild lettuce “Lactuca serriola” was known as “prickly lettuce” and grown for medicinal purposes as it contained a milky sap which has mild sleep-inducing properties.
6. Lettuce is the second most popular fresh vegetable in the US behind potatoes.
7. The average American eats approximately 30 pounds of lettuce each year, which is five times what was eaten in 1900.
8. Lettuce was first eaten by the ancient kings of Persia 2,500 years ago.
9. The ancient Greeks and Romans thought that eating lettuce helped you to have a good night’s sleep.
10. In ancient Egypt, lettuce was considered to be a powerful aphrodisiac and was thus sacred to the fertility god Min. 

Ingredients :

Chicken Cobb Salad Ingredients:

6 oz bacon (6 slices) chopped and browned

1 medium head romaine lettuce 5 cups chopped, rinsed and dried

2 cooked chicken breasts from a cooked chicken

2 hard-boiled eggs

1 large avocado sliced

1 cup cherry tomatoes halved

1/2 cup red onion thinly sliced

1/2 cup blue cheese crumbled (or feta cheese)

2 Tbsp parsley finely chopped

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp dijon mustard

1 garlic clove pressed or finely minced

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Sautee chopped bacon on a skillet until browned and crisp (5 min), then transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to cool.
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2. Cook 2 hard-boiled eggs then peel and quarter.Chop, rinse and spin dry romaine lettuce and arrange on a platter.
3. Arrange remaining salad ingredients (chicken, eggs, avocado, tomatoes, onion, blue cheese, and bacon) in rows over salad then sprinkle the finely chopped parsley over the salad.
4. Transfer dressing ingredients to a mason jar and shake like crazy.
5. Drizzle over salad just before serving or let guests add their own dressing to taste.

Enjoy!