Bathing Suit Season is just around the corner, so if a thought of a two piece is too frightening to bear, then it’s time to implement these festive salads into your diet.

Salads are healthy and satisfying meals that can be served independently or used as the perfect accompaniments for the main course. They can be easily prepared anytime with simple ingredients that you are likely to have in your own kitchen. The best part about eating salads is that they can be prepared using all your favorite veggies and fruits in a matter of minutes, and you can actually convert them into a proper meal simply by adding a little protein to them.

1. Panzenella: This forms a Tuscan bread salad, which is just perfect for the hot summers. Although there is no one recipe to prepare this salad, you must always include bread and tomatoes when you wish to prepare this salad. You toss the tomatoes and cucumber in a large bowl with some onions and basil and then dress it with vinegar and olive oil.

2. Watermelon, olive and feta salad: This is by far the most popular summer salad using olives, melon, feta cheese, and toasted pumpkin seeds. You can cut the watermelon into chunks, make thin slices of spring onions and use chopped olives for this salad. You should use soy sauce and black salt for seasoning and feta cheese for garnishing. You can cut cherry tomatoes into halves; sprinkle the pumpkin seeds with sugar to make it crunchy and tasty. For the dressing, simply whisk olive oil, lemon juice, and oregano.

3. Carrot salad with black grapes dressing: You can mix the salad ingredients in a large salad bowl and use French dressing.

4. Cucumber, black olive mint salad: This is another chunky summer salad made from cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, peppery mint leaves, and black olive sauce.

5. Red Skinned Potato Salad: This is a creamy salad made using red potatoes, bits of eggs that have been hard boiled, spicy onions, and crushed celery. Bacon strips are fried and then tossed with the veggies in a bowl using mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

6. Cucumber Salad: You need to peel only half of the cucumbers and leave skin strips on them. Make a vinegar solution and then toss the onions and cucumbers in a bowl. Vinegar, sugar and water are heated in a saucepan and poured over the ingredients in the bowl.

7. Garden Pasta Salad: In this, pasta is first cooked and rinsed in cold water. Carrots and celery, tomatoes and green pepper, onion and cucumbers are then chopped and added to the pasta in a bowl. Italian dressing can be used in this mix with Parmesan cheese.

8. Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad: In this salad, beans, red onion, garlic, olives, cucumber, beans, lemon juice, salt, pepper etc. are tossed together.

9. Thai cucumber salad: This is a sweet and tangy salad made using cucumbers, cilantro leaves and peanuts. The cucumbers are tossed with salt and rinsed in cold water while the vinegar and sugar are whisked together. The cucumbers, cilantro, and jalapeno peppers are tossed to combine, and chopped peanuts are added as garnishing.

10. Summer corn salad: Here, cooked buttery yellow corn is tossed with tomato chunks and onions in a fresh basil vinaigrette.

You can try any of these recipes to make your summer meals tastier and healthier. They are easy to make and can offer you many essential vitamins and minerals. Even accredited weight loss programs recommend the above weight loss salad ingredients to all its dieters in order to lose weight and stay healthy. For instance, Nutrisystem, a recognized diet service recommends a grocery guide, which lists most of the salad ingredients mentioned above. Nutrisystem encourages their dieters to eat a considerable amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with the diet meals they supply every day, as they are nutritious as well as low in calories. Beat the heat as well as lose weight preparing these summer salads in the comfort of your home.

Author: Jessica Robert passionately blogs about weight loss ideas and diet tips. Her blog, The Diet Circle, displays helpful articles on easy dieting methods and weight loss ideas.