Loaded Iceberg Steaks ♥ with Homemade Thousand Island Dressing

Today's quick 'n' easy 'n' versatile salad, just a thick slice of iceberg lettuce topped with summery BLT-ish vegetables and a drizzle of Homemade Thousand Island Dressing. Surprisingly filling! Low Carb. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free.

Please oh please, don't mock. Every year, I fall in love with a new vegetable, or well, better put, I experience a long-familiar vegetable with new appreciation. In 2017? Iceberg lettuce, ha!

It all started when for the first time in years, I made a batch of homemade salad dressing, the oh-so-lovely Thousand Island Dressing. One batch led to another and another, warranting a "3x5 recipe", the card stock I'm re-instituting for house specialties and meal standards, all kept handy in a wood 3x5 recipe box from my childhood. So yeah, 3x5 cards in digital 2017? Again, don't mock! :-)

Anyway, iceberg "wedges" taste great but are awkward for loading up with other ingredients. Enter iceberg lettuce "steaks" – just thick slices cut from the midsection of a head of lettuce, all crunch, so fresh, so summery.

Give it a whirl? I promise a warm welcome into the iceberg club!

This recipe is so quick and easy that I'm adding it to a growing collection of easy summer recipes published all summer long since 2009 at Kitchen Parade, my food column. With a free Kitchen Parade e-mail subscription, you'll never miss a one!

RECIPE for LOADED ICEBERG STEAKS

Hands-on time: 5 minutes
Time to table: 5 minutes
Serves 1 to many

1 center-cut slice of iceberg lettuce, about 1 inch thick
Cooked bacon bits
Chopped tomato
Fresh corn kernels
Fresh dill or another herb, chopped
Sunflower seeds
For dressing, Thousand Island Dressing

Other Ideas:
Chopped radish or fennel or garden green pepper (for crunch)
Whaddya got on hand? :-)

Remove the outer leaves from a whole small head of lettuce. With a long, sharp knife, cut through the center of the head, slicing about one-inch thick round iceberg "steaks". Carefully transfer each slice onto a plate. Top with bacon, tomato, corn, herbs, sunflower seeds and anything else you can think of! Top with Thousand Island Dressing.

ALANNA'S TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
WEDGES vs STEAKS Wedges are the traditional way to cut iceberg lettuce but "steaks" just work better when you're loading stuff on top.
ICEBERG HEADS A head of iceberg yields only three or four "steaks". In fact, a smaller head works better because it's a little tricky to keep intact a wide slice of ettuce when moving it onto a plate.
INDIVIDUAL PLATES I tried serving Loaded Iceberg Steaks on a platter, thinking it would be pretty for a buffet. The platter was indeed pretty – but also unforgiving when people tried to move an individual slice onto their own plates. #Fail. So I'd recommend serving this salad on individual salad plates.
BACON, REALLY? Note to Vegetarians

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Salad (not including the dressing, assumes 1/4 slice of cooked bacon, 2 tablespoons tomato, 1 tablespoon corn kernels and 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds): 94 Calories; 6g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 2mg Cholesterol; 59mg Sodium; 9g Carb; 3g Fiber; 4g Sugar; 4g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS WW Old Points 1, WW PointsPlus 2, WW SmartPoints 3, WW FreeStyle 2 NOTES I love the salty crunch that sunflower seeds add to this salad but they're so calorie dense, even a single tablespoon doubles the calorie count. It's easy to leave them off for anyone who's watching calorie intake.

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I ♥ ICEBERG LETTUCE!

~ Watercress, Iceberg Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing ~
~ more lettuce recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Wedge Salad with Homemade Low-Cal & Low-Carb Blue Cheese Salad Dressing ~
~ Grilled Steak with Summer Tomato Salad ~
~ BLT Pasta Salad ~
~ more lettuce recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

SEASONAL EATING: THIS SAME WEEK ACROSS THE YEARS

No-Cook Tabbouleh Eggplant Sandwiches with Cilantro Hummus Summer Orzo with Radicchio Chipotle Chickpea Salad (< reader favorite!) Avocado Salad with Hearts of Palm BLTs with Avocado King Hill Farms Simple & Sublime Beets (< for beet lovers) Amaranth Greens More Matters: The New Fruits & Veggies Campaign Grilled Eggplant with Balsamic Honey Syrup Romano Beans in Butter-Braised Garlic (< watch for romano beans at the farmers market) Seared Radicchio Weight Watchers Italian Zero Points Soup Tomato & Onion Salad Stacked Ratatouille (< totally versatile!) Sautéed Cucumbers How to Cut Corn Off the Cob: Keeping All Ten Fingers, Capturing Every Delicious Kernel and Every Drop of Sweet Corn "Milk" Corn & Cucumber Salad with Fresh Blueberries Succotash Salad with Green Beans, Lima Beans, Corn & Tomatoes Raw Tomatillo Salad with Blueberries (< lovin' this year's blueberries!) Pretty Ways to Serve Summer's Best Tomatoes Quick Summer Squash & Tomato Saute

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

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