Buy a pound of beans....garbonzos are good.....cook them until they are just tender....drain, and add a mix of 1 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup oil 1/4 cup sugar...lots of garlic...several cloves crushed or 1 tsp garlic powder, and an herb....maybe oregano maybe rosemary....let marinate at least 24 hours and serve....and they keep for weeks in the refrig if you don't eat them up first....also works with 2 or 3 cans of drained garbonzo beans....but you said cheap!
Hardboiled egg, chopped. cut up green onions, chopped cooked bacon, sunflower seeds, grated cheese, sliced radishes shredded red cabbage, shredded carrot, canned sliced ripe olives...
All are great add on's to "leaves"....in addition to sliced cukes and halved cherry tomatoes.
Linda C

I love garbonzos and kidney beans on a salad!

Chopped hard boiled eggs, dried cranberries, shredded cheese, pine nuts, sun flower seeds and bacon bits

110 people...won't get yucky...cheap cheap cheap....crunched for time.

Canned beans, this is one time I'd skip homemade. Time factor.

As much as I love hard boiled eggs in salads, I don't think they hold up over time and they are a lot of work for 110 people.

Shredded carrots and celery? Pepperoncinis (sp?)

Do you have an restaurant supply place nearby? Walk up and down the aisles. Huge reasonably priced cans of marinated veggies, like mushrooms, roasted red peppers, hearts of palm.

Mushrooms and celery are my top choices, but I use green onions like Linda. To make it look festive, slice the celery on the diagonal. I love beans, but not on a salad, FSR. I sometimes put raw broccoli and cauliflower on salads, but I might be in a minority for those. Fresh raw spinach is also good and one of my faves.

You might look for a bottle of Giardina pickles, which often include pickled cauliflower and hopefully pepperoncini. You can find a lot of things in the pickled section. I like stuffed green olives on salads, but they're not cheap.

Lars

I love Feta, nuts, craisins or raisins... For veggies, I love everything....peppers(the more colors the better)...broccoli and cauliflower.
And definately beans!

I'm making Salmon Corn Chowder for tomorrows Lunch and Dessert of some sort Friday, for our TA Week. I think Ann T's Pear Cake.

Yeah! All that!

(I'm with you on the cauliflower and broc, Lars!!)

And cheese, and tomatoes, and olives, and, and, and.........

Yep. All good. Especially if served separately so each person can "build their own".

Bagged salad mixed with a coleslaw mix or baby spinach makes a nice 'leaf' base.

Deanna

awwwww - you guys are the BEST!

Jessy - rest supply - I hadn't thought - duh. thanks.

What great ideas!

Stacy - printing.

Costco and Sams Club too. I bet they have better stuff, especially Costco.

Yes, keep it separate and let them build their own. I wouldn't touch a salad with beans in it...

feta, walnuts, apple slices, cauli, SNOW PEAS (love them in a salad, but every one has a diff taste!), Sams has bags of real bacon crumbled, take a peeler and make tons carrot curls out of a few lbs of carrots.., bean sprouts..

all good suggestions from everyone..but just let them make their own!

I wonder if she has a Smart & Final. When I first saw the sign for that store (on Venice Blvd in Culver City, 1989), I thought it was a dress shop and never went there until a friend took me there to shop for her catering business.

Jessy, I didn't see your post until after I posted. "Pepperoncini" is already plural, in case you are concerned about the spelling. I love those BTW. I agree with you about skipping the hard boiled eggs! A food processor can slice a lot of things quickly, however, like red bell pepper and celery.

I don't think salad for 110 people would be too much of a challenge, since it is only the salad course, and I got the idea that others will be taking care of other courses, meaning that the salad will be a small part of the luncheon.

I've done hors d'oeuvres for 110 people and dinner parties for 35 - neither of which seemed like much of a problem. I had help with the dinner parties, but not with the hors d'oeuvres for 110.

Lars

Rasins
sunflower seeds
sliced raw onion
grated carrots in a FP
red cabbage sliced in teh FP
cukes- cut out seeds to keep drier
prepacked shredded cheeses
broccolli
cauliflower
red and green pepper rings
sugar snap peas from Costco (not real cheap tough)
walnuts or almonds
Canned black beans- rinse and hold well
frozen corn kernels
frozen peas

Can you tell I like salads? Find a produce market as the prices may be less than Costco/Sams. Ethnic markets carry teh nuts for less also as they are a protein source for vegatarians.

Thanks Lars, nope, I'm not too concerned about spelling. I overlook typos, unless LindaC is posting, then it is a hobby (grin). Also, Stacy indicated time constraints and other tasks on her plate for this event so I took that to mean she needs help with short cuts.

Smart and Final a dress shop - now THAT is funny.

thanks for the additional comments. We have a very scaled down BJ's wholesale - that's it. I live in Mayberry - well pretty close, I think. wink.

never heard of smart and final.

jessy, you're right - the available PTO help is becoming less and less - so most of this is falling on me. I have ordered sandwich trays - but have to pick them up myself - along with getting ice, filling coolers with drinks, arranging the spread (making a classroom into a buffet line...) cutting up desserts if any get sent in...setting out condiments, etc. And the first ones eat lunch at 10:30 AM. Luckily, a call for jury duty resulted in a dismissed case and I am actually available - don't know what would happen if I was sitting in a courtroom an hour away! I have some time today to run to get the salad items, wash all the lettuce and do any prep work...tomorrow AM will be too busy. But I really don't want to spend all day today doing it either...

Peppi - great list. And how could I have not considered my FP??? duh. Thanks lars and peppi for pointing out that obvious note.

Stacy

Two more tools:

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Looking for cheap that holds up well. The bean idea sounds good.

If you don't go that route, there's an Italian restaurant around here called Zia's that serves a great side salad. It's just got:

1.a mix of romaine and iceberg,

2.shredded provel cheese (any white cheese should do because provel is sort of expensive) - oh and add the cheese right before serving or it may tend to melt a bit,

3.a little grated parmesan cheese

4.some pimentos (from a jar-drained well). Adds great red color.

The salad looks nice and taste great!

5.You could even add some green or red onion. (optional)

The restaurant has their own speicalty dressing which is a sweet italian style so I would use something similar. (Sugar, red wine vinegar, oil)

I think the key to any great salad is in the dressing. Even lettuce alone with a great dressing can be awesome...just don't forget about it.

Carla, I know where you live! I love Zia's when we go back to visit the inlaws. Their salads are great! But the rest of the world doesn't have provel cheese. Oh how I wish it did!

Yes, I live near the Italian Salad Capital of the world -LOL! Cunettos is actually my favorite -- have you been there; you have to try it!

I sort of forget provel isn't every where, (what a shame - Imos Pizza is the best!) but I think another shredded mild white cheese could be substitued without too much problem.

Waving hi to beachlily! I still have all the egg cubers and think of you every time I use them!