What screams red, white and blue more than a picnic before the fireworks? Check out my delicious and easy snacks and what to pack as shared with Live Kelly & Mark during their Live’s firewor

WATERMELON-on-a-STICK!

We serve ice on sticks (popsicles), candy on sticks (lollipops) and back in the 80s there was hotdog on a stick too; doesn’t food on a stick taste better? Here’s a slightly elevated presentation of the standard watermelon slice. Kids cannot get enough of it, and they’ll ask for more and more! Plus watermelon is insanely hydrating at 91% water, with one “standard” slice offering you 1 cup of water, according to the NY TIMES.

Just make an incision in the rind, don’t go too deep, place a popsicle stick or a larger crafts stick there, and tie some red and blue curling ribbons around it if you like!

What you’ll need:

• watermelon

• sharp knife

• large craft sticks (you can reuse once fleshy fruit is consumed!)

• red/white/blue curling ribbon

PATRIOTIC PINWHEEL SANDWICHES

Picnics aren’t complete without sandwiches! These are really easy to assemble with everyday ingredients.

What you’ll need:

• bread

• cream cheese

• red and blue jams

• red raspberries and blueberries or blackberries

• flag toothpicks are a plus, but extra! (i had to cut them so they were better proportioned to the sandwich

CAPRESE SKEWERS WITH A BERRY LITTLE TWIST!

I prefer savory snacks over sweet ones, but this one provides just a little sweetness in the middle!

What you’ll need:

• Toothpicks or small skewers, wetted to prevent splintering

• 1/2 cut cherry tomato, use as anchors on either end to keep the juices from dribbling

• mozzarella ball

• basil leaves

• blackberry

• raspberry or strawberry slice

• extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

• flakey salt to sprinkle & ground pepper

• balsamic vinegar to drizzle (I’m not a fan of balsamic, but it’s a natural choice for those who like it)

RED, WHITE & BLUE JUICE DRINKS! 

Two versions of this refreshing non-alcoholic drink will keep you cool, feeling refreshed and in patriotic spirits for the 4th!
Freeze red juice (raspberry, cranberry, etc) in an ice cube tray, and in another tray freeze blue juice like acai or blueberry juice. Add blueberry fruit as well. Then to regular, yellow lemonade or white cranberry juice, add the frozen cubes of juice!

Since these juice cubes melt quickly, you can pop them out of the trays, put them in a resealable bag, and take them in a cooler to your picnic location and add them on the spot to the juice in a clear cup.

GO USA POPCORN 

Candy melts added to plain salted popcorn make for a perfectly slightly salty, slightly sweet snack!

This is achieved by melting candy melts of one color (in our case blue or red) and mixing it with white salted popcorn using a spatula until a majority of the popcorn is covered in the hue. It is slightly sweet. Importantly, the sweetness can be manipulated by how much candy melts you choose to add and how much of the white part of the popcorn is showing.

I found what worked well was about half a bag of candy melts or ~6 oz to roughly ¾ bag of microwaved salted popcorn (no butter).

As for how to melt the candy melts, refer to the packaging, but I found that working 30 seconds at a time in melting the melts in a bowl in the microwave worked best, stirring in between each 30 seconds. The candy melts will become a nice smooth almost batter-like consistency: the trick is not to overheat or overcook them. Once ou can stir the candy melt mixture with easy, you an then add the 3/4 bag of white popped popcorn.

What you’ll need:

• plain white salted microwave popcorn, 2 bags

• red candy melts

• blue candy melts

FIREWORKS CUPCAKES!

Level up store-bought cupcakes and turn them into your own fireworks display!

May I be honest? At a certain point of packing for a Fourth of July picnic, I poop out. So here we dress up store bought cupcakes!

What you’ll need:

• white, vanilla-frosted store bought cupcakes (flavor of cake is your choice)

• red, white, blue sprinkles

• licorice laces in red or blue raspberry - cut the laces to be about 2.5-3 inches long, and separate the laces down to about halfway down: insert the solid portion of the lace into the cupcake and it will spay out like a firework!
  

Fourth of July Picnic Checklist

“Honey, did you remember to bring the football?”
”I thought you said you were going to get the football.”

There’s nothing worse than packing up your picnic and forgetting one key thing or another: waterproof ground cover, bottle opener, serving utensils, bug spray. Here’s my checklist to which I might add a small first aid kit. Check it out and of course, it can be used for any picnic, not only a Fourth of July one: and HAPPY FOURTH!