From Linda Larsen,
Your Guide to Busy Cooks.
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If you want to discover how balanced your own recipe box is, write down a month's worth of meals from your recipes. While working on my Everyday Menus series, I noticed that my Side Salad Recipe box needed some updating. So, I searched around the internet and through my cookbooks to add to my collection. This little bit of work will make meal planning much easier!

You can, of course, just purchase precleaned and sorted bagged salad mixes and top the greens with a different salad dressing. It's also easy to mix different varieties of chopped fresh fruit and use a flavored yogurt for a dressing. But I like to add a bit of pizzazz to my salads, and it's nice to have recipes to rely on when your imagination needs a boost.

Any of these salads can be transformed into a main dish salad by adding some cooked cut up chicken, beef, pork, ham, seafood, or legumes. Cranberry Almond Green Salad, for instance, would be fabulous with some cubed ham added.

It's very simple to substitute your favorite fruits, vegetables, or greens for any of the ingredients called for in these recipes. Just be sure to write down the changes you have made when you hit upon a winner. Enjoy the taste, color, and texture these easy side salads will add to the simplest meal.

Side Leafy Green Salads

• Vegetable Salad with Buttermilk Dressing
• Cranberry Almond Green Salad
• Breakthrough Salad
• Pecan Mandarin Orange Green Salad
• Herbed Spinach Salad
• Caesar Salad
• Sweet and Sour Spinach Salad
• Simple Spinach Salad

Side Vegetable Salads

• Marinated Green Bean Salad
• Scandinavian Cucumbers
• Couscous Vegetable Salad
• Marinated Vegetable Salad
• Keeper Cole Slaw
• Orange Cauliflower Vegetable Salad

Side Fruit Salads

• Strawberry Asparagus Salad
• Super Easy Fruit Salad
• Strawberry Melon Salad
• Barley Berry Salad
• Key West Fruit Salad
• Chutney Rice and Fruit Salad
• Ambrosia Medley
• Marinated Fresh Fruit Salad