The Seven Layers of Hell

I got a recipe e-mailed to me today for a seven-layer salad.  I’m sure the word “salad” in the recipe made them think of me, but if they had read the ingredients they might have realized that this salad is more fattening than chocolate cake.  The layers are iceberg lettuce, hardboiled eggs, frozen peas, bacon, lots of bacon, mild cheddar cheese (what is the point of mild cheddar cheese?), mayonnaise mixed with sugar and green onion.  If I were going to splurge to this degree I would most certainly eat something with good melted cheese and not iceberg lettuce and frozen peas.

Granted when you put all these things together it really is tasty, but just not worth the calories, which total almost 400 for one cup of this salad.  That is about the same calories as a medium Wendy’s Chocolate Frosty and that reportedly has mayonnaise in it also.

There are many dishes that are named Seven Layer Something, like Seven Layer Dip made up of refried beans, cheese, sour cream etc. etc.  Or Seven Layer Bars that include graham crackers crumbs, butter, sugar, chocolate chips, butter scotch chips, walnuts, coconut and sweetened condensed milk.  About 300 calories for a bar that is what I would consider a very conservative serving, no licking the knife after cutting.

I cannot find any recipe for Seven Layer anything that is healthy.  Perhaps that it is because Seven Layers equate to the seven deadly sins.  Every layer of something fattening and yummy you add on to a dish the more sinful it gets until you reach the maximum in decadence at seven.

So my tip for today is if you are trying to be virtuous in your eating stay away from anything with the word “Seven” in the title.  Now I’m sure Diet Seven–Up drinkers might take homage here, but why risk it, switch to Diet Sprite.  It’s virtually the same drink but has no connection to that terrible number seven.