Veggie Side Salads

Garden Vegetables are some of Summer's greatest goodies! To change up the pace of your summer sides, try one of these to energize your summer dinners.

Green Bean Salad

1 lb whole green beans (fresh, ends snapped, rinse and drain or 2 cans), 1 medium purple onion sliced, 1/2 t salt, 1/2 t pepper, 6 Tbl vinegar, 1/4 c cooking oil, 6 slices of bacon (cooked, drained and chopped), 4 hard boiled eggs (sliced), 4 Tbl salad dressing, 4 tsp vinegar, 4 tsp prepared mustard. Mix first six ingredients together and refrigerate overnight. Drain standing marinate, add remaining ingredients, mix well and chill for a couple of hours and serve. You can add sliced tomatoes, sliced almonds or even blue cheese crumbles to dress this up a bit.

Summer Corn Salad

6 ears of corn, cut from the cob, cooked and drained or 4 cups of canned corn (drained), 2 tomatoes diced, 1 medium onion diced, 1/4 c olive oil, 2 Tbl vinegar, 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (or fresh basil if you prefer), salt and pepper to taste. Mix all ingredients together, chill and serve. Good on it's own or with saltines or even tortilla chips.

Tennessee Caviar

3 cans black eyed peas, 1 can black beans, 1 can Rotel tomatoes (mild or regular - your choice), 1 can corn, 1 tomato chopped, 1 bunch green onions chopped (just the greens), salt and pepper to taste. Drain all veggies and Rotel, mix well with other ingredients, let chill and serve. Good alone or with corn chips to scoop up every yummy bite!