Since I am utterly convince a tomato a day WILL keep the doctor away — and I happen to have a garden full of tomatoes needing to be picked — I’ve been eating not just one, but several tomatoes a day. While I love BLTs, a few nights ago I decided to eat my BLT in a slightly different format.

This is a BLT salad inspired by a recipe I found in my BLT book. It’s simple to make: Bacon, shredded lettuce, tomato, onion, whole wheat penne and a creamy garlic dressing. I added a little parmesan cheese for good measure. It will never replace a BLT, but it’s a pretty good variation, and it breaks up the sandwich monotony.