Salad ideas

Here's something nice and warm I threw together the other night:
1 package of steamer frozen peas
1 package of steamer frozen corn kernals
1 small can of low-sodium black beans

Simply microwave the packages while you rinse the very devil out of the canned beans in lukewarm water.

Toss them all into a container, cover the container and shake it all about.

This will last you a couple of days in the refrigerator. It makes a pretty nice base for other additions. Yesterday I portioned out a helping, and added some pomegranate aerils and chicken cutlet slices. Not sure what I'll do with it today, but I just accepted a tuna salad sandwich from my sister, so I don't have to worry!

I've been doing "Cobb" salads lately- lettuce, tomato, red onion, turkey lunch meat, bacon bits, hard boiled egg. I use a few shakes of franks red hot as my dressing.

I love a prawn salad. Nice and simple, lettuce, tomato, spring onions or radish, can add a little feta cheese too. But can pretty much add any salad vegetables you want.

Not sure what you're already making but I know I get bored of salads really easily too. I find adding fruit to a spinach salad and some sliced almonds works for me. Raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and grapes are great in salads.

New one I tried this week. Walnut & Goats cheese salad with pear.
Mixed leafy greens including spinach, goats cheese, walnuts and a pear cut up. Could use figs or apple instead of the pear. Drizzled some balsamic vinegar on top.

@Dnarules I am searching too. I like the flavor of the Kraft light Asian Toasted Sesame one but lots of artificial stuff. I bought a Sam's Choice one this week.

Creamy Spinach Salad. Hands down fav.
Spinach. Red onion rings. Crispy bacon crumbles.
Add pear slices, artichoke hearts, toasted slivered almonds, mandarin oranges, bean sprouts.
Whatever you like. ?
Dressing. Serves 4.
1/2 c mayo
2 T sugar
2 T white wine vinegar
Let sit one hour for flavors to combine.
Use the dressing sparingly to your liking.
So dang good.
Hope you try it.

Probiotic Vegetable Salad

4 medium golden potatoes, boiled in skins, cooled and peeled
1 roasted beet, chopped into bite size pieces
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 large or 2 small pickles
1 green apple, finely chopped
1 cup of sauerkraut
3 or 4 green onions, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
3 tablespoons of oil
1/4 cup of pickle or sauerkraut juice
salt and pepper to taste

Optional -
1 cup of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup of frozen green peas

Mix all ingredients ina bowl, and allow to rest in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight for the flavor to develop.

Folks, find your power: Make your own dressings! It's dead easy. Yes, they might not be ideal at first, but they'll be decent . . . and if you keep experimenting, they'll get better and better.

Asian sesame: Ideally rice vinegar (but substitute any mild white vinegar), olive or peanut oil (if you put oil in your dressing, I usually don't *), salt or a dash of soy sauce as long as you're not sodium-restricted, a bit of toasted sesame oil (Asian section in a bit supermarket), perhaps some finely minced garlic or finely minced fresh ginger or powdered ginger, toasted sesame seeds. Add some hot pepper flakes if you like a little heat. Toasted sesame seeds: Put some seeds in a dry frying pan on medium heat, shake'n'stir until they start to smell good, brown slightly, or pop a bit.

if you want a peanut-y Asian dressing, put in some PB2 peanut butter powder (put the powder in a dish, stir in a tiny bit of liquid (any of the above ingredients) until smooth. Add a tiny bit more liquid, stir until smooth. Keep repeating until it's quite thin and will mix nicely with the rest of the liquids. (This will avoid lumpy clumpy behavior.)

You can make vinegar-based dressings with any seasonings you like. If you want them to emulsify (the watery liquids to mix evenly with the oil if you use oil), use something kind of powdery in it, such as mustard powder, and shake it in a jar or whisk like crazy (shaking's easier)jj. But it's fine if the oil & vinegar are kinda separate: The flavors mix in your mouth anyway.

You can make creamy dressings with Greek yogurt, or cheesy dressings with ricotta or skim-milk-thinned neufchatel (aka reduced fat cream cheese) or similar cheeses.

Once you know how to do it yourself, you don't have to have seventy-eleven bottles of dressing in the fridge in order to have variety available. Just keep some basic vinegars and seasonings on hand, and you can make whatever you want.

*Instead of putting oil in my dressing, I prefer to get my fats - needed for your body to absorb all the vitamin goodness in the salad - from nuts or seeds that I put on the salad. Nuts or seeds can be added as is, but the flavor is enhanced if you toast them, either in a medium-heat dry frying pan, stirring & heating just until they start smelling wonderful, or in a 350 degree F oven for around 12 minutes (fewer for smaller seeds/nuts, more for larger - 12 is about right for walnut kernels). Just watch them - pay attention to the smell, and don't let them get too visibly brown.

My favorite salad is a simple balsamic vinegarette, with some chicken breast, feta cheese, romaine lettuce, and half an apple cubed.