At our house, salads are never out of season. Rarely does dinner not include one. A side salad, that is. Even if we're having other, cooked veggies.

Main-dish salads -- where the protein source is very much a part of the presentation -- are another thing. I'm not too big a fan of main-dish salads. Except in the summer, of course. When winter's heavier preparations are unappealing, even if the air conditioner is on.

An analogy would be ice cream. Many an ice cream aficionado eats it all year round. Others of us shiver at the thought of ice cream in winter, so we eat it just in the summer. Same goes for me and main-dish salads.

In anticipation of the upcoming dog days, then, we proffer a few preparations designed to take you colorfully, crunchily and healthily through the summer. Maybe even into the fall. Two use shrimp; one uses lump crab meat, glamorous seafood, at arguably a mighty price. But what isn't these days? Besides, when you spend more money on these protein salads, you get fewer calories and less fat. Hmmm.

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