Getting Patriotic...... With Produce

Happy American Independence day weekend dear readers! For those of you who haven't met me in person in the muggle world, I have a secret..... When I'm not doing Reiki or helping clients with stress relief or ways to improve their diet, I have a full time job to help pay the bills. I actually am a kitchen designer at Lowe's. It's a rewarding job (people sending me pictures of their completed kitchen and telling me how much they love it, not to mention they now have a space that they enjoy cooking more is great
), but it has one downside, I work most weekends and major holidays.

Our entire store is ready for the fourth, all decked out in red, white and blue. To make working on a day that most of us would prefer to be grilling with friends and families a little less painful, the company tends to have a BBQ for all the staff. They grill off the meats and main dishes and the employees all have a potluck with side dishes and desserts. Our challenge this year was to bring red, white and blue food. Most folks will use food coloring or additives to accomplish this. I was determined to make my contribution a healthier one.

There are so many great red white and blue produce items in season right now, making it so easy to celebrate the fourth in a healthier way. So, I headed around the corner to Strites Orchard to see what I could come up with.   If you live in the Harrisburg,PA area, I highly recommend this family run farm.

I decided to save the raspberries, blueberries and beets to enjoy at home. For the gang at work I decided on a red, white & blue potato (as in the types of potatoes, I am using sweet potatoes for the red to change things up a bit) salad. I thought I could enjoy this with my chicken way more than blue raspberry kool aid or the bright blue dyed cupcakes.

Want some other great ideas to celebrate the 4th? Here are a couple of gems I found while surfing Pinterest:
I was very impressed by these Americana bento boxes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karetchko/3823328294/

Here's a fun frozen treat, Berry Bliss Rocket Pops... no food dyes here:

http://www.familyfreshcooking.com/2012/06/18/berry-bliss-rocket-pops-recipe/

Here's a flag made of fruit skewers. Serve with your fvorite fruite dip

http://blog.superhealthykids.com/2011/06/centerpiece-snacking-more-flag-food-fun/

i thought this salad flag of watermelon & feta was super cute too, bet it would be awesome with a balsamic reduction drizzle.

http://wenderly.com/2010/07/02/patriotic-watermelon-feta-flag/

I hope however you celebrate our National Day of Independence, that it is a day filled with great friends, family, lot of laughter and delicious and  healthy food!