Iceberg Wedge Salad

Last night I had no inspiration for dinner. There was nothing I really wanted to make and even my kids had no thoughts on what would be a good dinner. But, lucky me, I have friends! I met with my friend, Sheila yesterday, who had plenty of inspiration for me! Unbeknown to me, she had been taking some pictures of her dinners to show me. She is a fabulous, yet simple cook and her meals looked so delicious. What looked so good to me yesterday was something so simple: an iceberg lettuce wedge! I buy lettuce constantly, but never iceberg. We've all heard that there isn't as much nutritional value in iceberg so I always skip it in place of some red leaf or romaine. But for some reason, the wedge looked so appealing. And if your cheating involves iceberg lettuce, I don't think that's a particularly a bad thing! I can think of a lot worse things to be eating. It was a beautiful night here so I picked up some steaks and made some dressing for the wedges, along with some bacon that I crumbled on top. Instead of using the gas grill, we broke out the charcoal and the steaks were wonderful. I didn't even serve any potatoes; the salad and the steak were plenty for everyone. The dressing I just put together with ingredients I had. A bottled ranch or creamy italian would work well, too.

As this is Cooking to Save, I thought I would come clean on the dinner bill. Dinner cost me $32, not exactly a cheap meal. But, can you imagine how much strip steaks and iceberg wedges would have cost in a steakhouse for 5 of us? We had a really high quality meal at a fraction of the cost. And although it wasn't an inexpensive meal, combined with some of my other meals this week(leftover pasta sauces) it all evens out to a really reasonable amount of money spent on meals. When you eat at home, it is amazing how easy it is to eat well and still not spend a ton of money!

Now, go fire up your grill and pick up some iceberg lettuce!


Buttermilk Dressing

1/2 small garlic clove, minced
1 small shallot, minced
1 tsp fresh dill (snipped well)
1 tsp chives (snipped well)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tblsp sour cream

Whisk all ingredients together, pour over iceberg wedges and sprinkle with crumbled bacon.