I’m thrilled and honored to be a Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger! I’ll be blogging for Hormel Foods each month, starting with tips for incorporating Hormel Foods into your 4th of July celebrations.  Hormel Foods works to fight hunger both here in America and overseas. They’ve donated millions of dollars worth of product to local food banks and Feeding America, and developed a fortified, shelf-stable turkey spread to help nourish children in Guatemala through a partnership with Food for the Poor and Caritas Arquidiocesana. This is a company I’m proud to be representing!

With Independence Day right around the corner, how are you showing your patriotic support this summer?  Are you sending a care package to troops overseas? Do you host an annual 4thof July party with friends and family? Hormel and I want to know! Here are some tips and links to recipes to get you started:

Get the kids together to make cards and care packages for troops serving overseas. Not sure where to start? A hand-made card and care package with packaged snacks are always a good bet. Tip: Troops are sure to enjoy Hormel® pepperoni stix, Hormel® chili or Hormel® Snac*Cups™, which are filled with Hormel® pepperoni, Sargento cheese and Keebler crackers for a protein-rich snack or meal.

Invite neighbors, friends and family over for a backyard Independence Day party and invite each guest to bring an item to send in a care package to troops overseas. Invite everyone to bring their favorite summertime appetizers and desserts to share. Tip: At your party, spend more time catching up with friends by skipping the grill and serving BBQ Blue Sandwiches (recipe below) for the main course with an Applewood Bacon Spinach Salad!

Did you know Hormel Foods makes Chi-Chi’s Salsa?  For hungry guests, put out bowls of chips and salsa to snack on. It comes in jars and also in 3.5 ounce cups called Snackers.

So, what are your 4th of July plans? A barbecue, fireworks, a trip with your family? Tell me in the comments! And finally, here’s that recipe for the BBQ Blue Sandwiches featuring another Hormel Foods brand – Lloyd’s Barbecue, which is SO GOOD. It’s also a great summer recipe because all you use is the microwave, no turning on the hot stove. Plus, a recipe that only has TWO STEPS in the directions is my kind of recipe! Enjoy!

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Hormel Foods Recipes > BBQ Blue Sandwiches

Serves 4. Total time: under 15 minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 (12-ounce) package Lloyd’s Woodfire Barbeque™ Beef Brisket
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 4 Kaiser rolls, split and toasted
• 4 leaves lettuce
• 8 slices Hormel® Black Label® Fully Cooked Bacon, heated and slices cut in half
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
• Barbecue sauce

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare brisket according to package directions.
2. Spread mayonnaise on cut sides of each roll. Place 1 leaf lettuce on bottom half of each roll; top with brisket, bacon and cheese. Drizzle each sandwich with barbecue sauce.

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So, how are you spending 4th of July? A barbecue, fireworks, a trip with your family? Tell me in the comments!

disclosure: I received products and information fromHormel Foods as part of my participation in the Hormel Foods Extended Family Preferred Blogger Program. All opinions about the products are my own.

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Yesterday was the first Easter in a long time that I didn’t fix the traditional ham dinner. We had been to a Memorial service for Chris’ Grandma on Saturday and there was a ton of food left over. So, we had leftover fried chicken, lasagna and caesar salad for Easter dinner!

Thanks to my friend Eliza mentioning it on Facebook, I discovered the site Give Every Night New Flavor, which looks to be a collaboration between ConAgra Foods and participating grocery store chains. I picked Kroger because it’s the only one on the list we have here in Lansing, and used the recipe search to come up with a few ideas for meals this week.

I searched for Italian recipes that take 30 minutes or more and serve 4 or more and found a Baked Ziti that only calls for 5 ingredients – my kind of recipe!  Here’s everything I’m making this week:

Baked Ziti Casserole with steamed broccoli and garlic toast

Betty Crocker Chile-Chicken Enchiladas with rice, chips and salsa

Manwich Sloppy Joes, with oven fries and corn

Breaded Fish Fillets with Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes and steamed peas

Pizza Night

Slow Cooker Roast Chicken with mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, and green beans

I link up my menu plan posts at I’m an Organizing Junkie. Head over to see hundreds more menu plans, and feel free to tell me in a comment what you are making for dinner this week!

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TABASCO® Original Red sauce has been a staple in my kitchen pantry for decades. I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of spicy food in general, but my husband LOVES Tabasco. He puts it on tacos, pizza, and even adds more of it to hot wings!  Tabasco is made with just three simple ingredients – salt, red pepper and vinegar – that are aged for three years to produce a hot sauce that actually enhances the flavor of food.

If you’re having a Super Bowl party, check out Tabasco’s Game-Day Party Menu where you’ll find recipes for pizza, wings, 35 different kinds of chili, dips, and finger foods like this twist on classic Chex Mix.

Hot & Spicy Party Mix

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 to 3 teaspoons Original TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce
• 1 1/4 teaspoons seasoned salt
• 8 cups of your favorite Chex^® brand cereals (corn, rice and/or wheat)
• 1 cup mixed nuts
• 1 cup pretzels
• 1 cup bite-size cheese crackers

Combine butter, Worcestershire sauce, TABASCO^® Sauce, and seasoned salt in a small bowl and mix well. Pour cereals, nuts, pretzels and cheese crackers into a large plastic zip-top bag. Pour butter mixture over cereal mixture inside Zipper Bag. Seal top of bag securely. Shake bag until all pieces are evenly coated.

Pour contents of bag into an open roasting pan. Bake in a 250°F oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool and store as directed above.

Makes 11 cups.

If you like Tabasco on your pizza, check out Pizza Perfected for 10 ways to doctor up your pizza delivery. At the bottom of the page are links to 10 ways to doctor up frozen pizza and 10 more ways to doctor up homemade pizza, all using Tabasco sauces.  My husband says that putting Tabasco Original Red on pizza gives it the same tanginess he would get from using yellow banana peppers, except with the added heat.

So, what do you use Tabasco sauce on?

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