There is nothing wrong with arranging your strawberry “stripes” and blueberry “stars” on top of some fluffy whipped cream for the 1,000th time, but if you’re heading to another summer party and red, white, and blue is the order of the day (think Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day, among many others), here is some healthy inspiration for where you can find some natural reds, whites, and blues in your foods.
Don’t forget – a star-shaped cookie cutter goes a long way! Strawberries, watermelon, red peppers, and cheese can all easily become star-shaped with minimal effort.
Red
- tomatoes
- strawberries
- raspberries
- cherries
- plums (can also work as blue, depending on the kind of plum)
- red peppers
- watermelon
White
- yogurt
- cheese (lots of options, including feta, mozzarella, white cheddar, jack, cream cheese, cottage cheese…)
- bananas
- starfruit
- shredded chicken breast (and other proteins like tilapia, scallops…)
- crackers
- cauliflower
- mini marshmallows
Blue
- blueberries and blueberry flavored things (blueberry yogurt!)
- blackberries
- purple potatoes
- red grapes
- blue (purple) carrots – Trader Joes has them in sets of multicolored carrots
- purple cauliflower – turns blue when steamed!
- blue corn (tortillas, tortilla chips…)
Need some more ideas?
Some combinations you might try:
- Swap out your regular potatoes for baby purple, red, and white potatoes in your potato salad or other side dish
- Set up a crudite platter with white yogurt dip (recipe below) and blue and red dippers – red pepper strips, cherry tomatoes, purple cauliflower florets, purple carrot sticks, and blue corn tortilla chips
- Make skewers (or a salad) of mini mozzarella balls, blueberries, and cherry tomatoes. A simple balsamic and olive oil dressing with salt and pepper helps the flavors come together.
- Another skewer (or salad) idea – watermelon, feta, and grapes or blueberries, with the same dressing as above or just a squeeze of lime juice and a sprinkle of salt. It’s not in our color scheme, but a chiffonade of fresh mint is a fresh and fab addition, too
And in case you missed our recipes on Facebook:
This mini Greek yogurt cheesecake couldn’t be much easier! The recipe below makes 12 servings.
Crust: 1/2 cup ground oats, 1 teaspoon coconut oil, 1 egg white, 1 teaspoon honey, zest of 1 lime, pinch of salt; mix well and press into the bottom of baking dish or muffin cups. Bake 10 min at 350 to crisp up.
Cheesecake: 2 cups Greek yogurt, 1 scoop vanilla whey protein, 2 eggs, juice of 1 lime, 1 teaspoon honey, 2 packets stevia; mix until smooth and spoon over baked crusts. Bake at 350 about 25 minutes (for the small ones) and chill at least 90 minutes. 70 freaking calories per mini cake! And 8 grams of protein (only 5g carbs).
