It is Suddenly Salad Time

As you may know, Chico has been having a very cool wet spring and I have continued to do cool weather cooking. However this past week we finally had summer weather. Suddenly sweating over a hot stove and eating hot entrees just wasn't much fun. So I needed to change gears, dust off the barbecue and start thinking about hearty salads for the main dish. Thank you Ali for the challenge. It will be fun to share & learn about other people's salad ideas.
I don't use recipes for a lot of the salads I fix. So here are some tips anyone can use to make a cool summertime salad/meal.
1. Buff out a tossed green salad by adding: feta or other cheese cubes, chopped barbecued chicken, cold cooked sausage, cooked beans or favas, nuts, toasted squash or sunflower seeds, hard-cooked egg, cooked beets, red onion slices, chopped snow peas, left-over marinated string beans, lots of avocado, mushrooms, bell pepper, radishes, sprinklings of fresh basil or oregano or cilantro.
2. Turn leftover pasta, lentils, beans, rice or any cooked grain into a salad by adding some of the above mentioned goodies plus dressing. Instead of dressing just add spices, lemon juice or vinegar, a bit of mustard, perhaps a bit of sugar, garlic, salt & pepper. The delicious Quinoa salad, Ali posted below, is a formal example of this salad idea. (Didi made it yesterday - yum!)