Hearty salads

I love having good salad choices in the frig for lunches & hunger attacks.
And I don't mean a mere lettuce salad, but something hearty, where there's a grain/starch and even some protein involved. When it's hot & I don't feel like heating up the kitchen, I serve one of these salads plus meat and veggies cooked on a grill for dinner.

Start with leftover rice, noodles, bulghur, quinoa, lentils.
HINT: Toss with some oil to keep from sticking!
If I make a big batch to keep around for several days, I leave out any soft ingredients that don't keep well (lettuce, cucumbers, cut tomatoes, avocados, etc)

raw vegetables: green onions, scallions or red onions (trick for taking out the "bite": cover with boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain), sweet peppers, radish, carrots, etc.
blanched veggies: green beans, broccoli, etc
protein: cooked beans, cheese, cold chicken, tuna, etc. Also good: serve with nuts.
fruit: orange slices, mango, etc.
Dressing: lots of choices of course!
spicing it up: olives, capers, fresh herbs such as parsley, cilantro, etc

Xiao Ming Salad (steak and noodle salad)
Named after a chinese classmate of mine, this is a family favorite!

left-over steak, thinly sliced
noodles (thin spaghetti or Soba buckwheat), cooked then rinsed with cold water
oil to coat noodles, to keep from sticking together
scallions or red onions, diced
snap peas
red, orange or green sweet peppers, diced
fresh cilantro (really makes this dish!)

Dressing:
sesame oil
soy sauce
wine vinegar
grated ginger
Hot pepper sauce (like SriRatcha)
salt, pepper, to taste

Lentil Salad
recipe inspired by Jane Brody's cookbook. I like lentils, but it's not a family favorite -- so I make a small quantity and eat it for lunches, etc.
Addendum: Easy French Food.com has a nice lentil salad recipe which calls for adding goatcheese (such as feta) -- I'm gonna have to try this! Plus she gives measurements!

1-2 c lentils, cooked until just tender (20-30min), then drained and rinsed.
scallions or red onions, diced
sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes, olives
1 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper, spritz of Maggi
1 t dried oregano & basil
fresh parsley, chopped -- this is an important ingredient, in my opinion

other salad ideas:
Tabouli (Bulghur) Salad: find a recipe here
Quinoa and black bean salad: from a previous post of mine
Southwest Caesar Salad w/ salmon & pepitas: find recipe at GG#26 (great dressing!)
I bet this would be good as a pasta salad too!
Mango and chicken salad (perhaps add rice?): find recipe by Honeypiehorse here