#AD Simple 4th of July Menu Idea

 This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SummerYum #CollectiveBias

I seriously can’t believe that the 4^th of July is just around the corner. I always love the 4^th of July – it’s a great time that family and friends can gather together and eat amazing food and celebrate our nation. To me, it’s like the unofficial start of the fair and carnival season, and I love all of the tasty treats you can devour at all of the fun events. 

Yesterday though, I was exhausted. As I mentioned yesterday that kids have been quite a handful the past couple of days, and we all had to do grocery shopping too – so I loaded the kids up and drove over to the Walmart Supercenter in Salem so I only had to make one stop and could get everything I needed.

I ended up grabbing a family pack of their Deli Fried Chicken for dinner last night, as well as a cute little banner and red, white and blue washi tape… and started feeling excited for the upcoming holiday. We don’t have fried chicken too often, so of course I decided to make the rest of the traditional trimmings – potato salad, corn on the cob, a green salad, and lots of fresh juicy fruit.

I didn’t know what I was going to do with the tape when I bought it, I just knew that I liked it (don’t tell me you haven’t done that before!) however, while I was mixing my potato salad a festive idea popped into my head and I decided to make our silverware a little more festive by adding the tape to the ends. It’s great because it comes off easily and really transformed them. I also added a piece of tape onto mini mason jars and wrote our names on them, and the kids loved their own personal cups. 

 The salad I made was a Red, White and Blue Salad – it’s really easy to make and tastes amazing!

Red White and Blue Salad

4 cups of baby greens

1 cup of fresh raspberries

½ cup feta cheese

½ cup slivered almonds

½ cup fresh blueberries

¼ cup thinly sliced red onion

Raspberry Vinaigrette

Mix all of the ingredients into a salad bowl and serve immediately. Drizzle your favorite dressing on and enjoy!

Makes approximately 4 servings. 

 We’ve had an overabundance of fresh little strawberries since we’ve went and picked about 32 pounds of them over the past week, so I wanted to make a fun little appetizer that was a little bit different. We also happen to have a yummy basil plant in our garden that is doing really well, so I harvested some of that, and used some fresh mozzarella and balsamic dressing to make tasty little bites that at least Wayne and I liked.

Strawberry, Basil, and mozzarella bites

 Even though life can be hectic and I’m completely exhausted at times, I’m glad that I like creating this stuff – because someday these moments will turn into my children’s fond memories.

And it all started with some yummy fried chicken. ;)

 What food do you normally serve for Independence Day? What occasions are “fried chicken” occasions? Walmart makes it really easy to create the dinner you want with their deli fried chicken! :) 

~Melissa