Wednesday, June 29, 2011

June Lighten Up Blog Hop


Welcome to the June Lighten Up Blog Hop! This month's menu features cold sides and salads designed to help keep the kitchen cool for those of us in the midst of summer time heat!

I'm sharing one of my favorite side dishes today. It's quick to put together and is great for a crowd. What I like best about this dish is that I can adjust it for whichever ingredients I have on hand. It calls for 5 cans of beans and 1 can of corn, however if I happen to be out of navy beans (which I was this week), I can just not include them or add another can of one of the other beans. Same for the 5 chopped ingredients; this week I didn't have any celery on hand, so I simply doubled the amount of bell pepper I added.

DUMP-IT BEAN SALAD


 Dump together in large bowl – drained cans of
*pinto beans
*kidney beans
*navy beans
*green beans
*yellow wax beans
*whole kernel corn


Dump in chopped (1/2 - 1 cup of each)
*celery
*onion
*bell pepper
*carrots

In small bowl, combine the following dressing ingredients
*3/4 cup sugar
*1 teaspoon salt
*1 teaspoon pepper
*1/2 cup canola oil
*2/3 cup apple cider vinegar

Pour dressing over bean mixture, stir, cover & chill. 
(approximately 150 cal per 1/2 cup serving)


Here's the complete JUNE Menu:
http://www.melissagross.blogspot.com/
Dump It Bean Salad (Melissa)
http://www.holadayshappyhearts.blogspot.com/
Cucumber Ribbon Salad (Rachel)
http://www.BEglorious.blogspot.com/
Summer Layered Salad (Beverly)

Are you interested in winning the June blog hop prize? After you've check out all 3 of this month's recipes, email Beverly at neusebrats{at}aol{dot}com with the answer to this month's question: How many total ingredients are listed in the three recipes? Do not count duplicate ingredients more than one time (ie: if all three recipes list salt, only count it as one ingredient).

Since we have readers from all over the world, we want you to be able to easily convert measurements as needed. These links take you to conversion charts. We hope you find them helpful.
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/cvcookix.html
http://www.startcooking.com/blog/333/Measurement-and-Conversion-Charts
http://www.pioneerthinking.com/measure.html

9 comments:

  1. The Chosen One's grandmother used to make this alot. Think I'll make a big batch to take to the river cottage for the long weekend :) Thanks, Melissa!

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  2. My mom makes something similar, but not with the veggies. I like the idea of adding the veggies! Looks appetizing :)

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  3. This sounds lovely - I can think of lots of things it would go with.

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  4. Like the look of this...though I have no idea what wax beans are?
    Alison xx

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  5. Nothin' like a good bean salad for a summer evening! I love recipes like this that you can vary by what you have on hand and it's still just as good. Makes those 5 p.m. 'what's for dinner??' moments a bit less stressful!

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  6. Hi Melissa...congrats...you're the winner of 'Good Mail Day'.....please email me.

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  7. Yum! I love three bean salad so am anxious to try your version. Hope you have enjoyed your company.

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  8. That looks yummy! The perfect summer side dish. :)

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  9. I'm a big fan of bean salad, and this version looks great!

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Thanks so much for your comment - it's like a ray of sunshine in my day!