What are you eating this weekend for Independence Day? For some reason, even though I don’t really like to bake in the summer, I always want brownies for a 4th of July picnic. I found this great sugar-free, grain-free brownie recipe. I’m sad I don’t get to eat them right now because I am on a very restricted diet, but if you aren’t, I hope you enjoy this recipe!

I just discovered another grain-free brownie recipe, using avocados(!). Who would have thought? As soon as I ease into eating a broader range of food, I am going to make these! This video below shows the details on how to make it:

Photo Credit: thehappygal.com

My favorite picnic main dish is this southwest chicken black bean salad, served with corn chips. You can find it here. It’s a flavorful burst of cilantro, lime, jalapeno pepper, and garlic. So yummy!

Photo Credit: thefoodrenegade.com

This recipe looks intriguing if you want a veggie burger: southwest black bean burgers from the foodrenegade.com. If you must have a veggie burger, please hold the soy! It’s hard to find commercial veggie burgers without soy, so here’s how to make your own.

How about some sugar-free lemonade? Just fill a pitcher of water, juice a bunch of lemons, add the lemon juice, maybe some lemon essential oil, and then add some liquid stevia to taste.

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Photo Credit: thefoodrenegade.com

If you want to cool off even more and be super festive, make a watermelon cake! It’s sugar-free and gluten-free! I stumbled upon the great idea which is so simple I feel dumb for not thinking of it on my own. I heard about it from Kristen Michaelis, thefoodrenegade.com. Take a watermelon and cut off the ends and sides to make a cylindrical shape of watermelon flesh. Then frost with stiff, whipped cream. I used this idea as a birthday cake for my two summer birthday boys last year. To make it a true birthday cake for America, make it decoratively patriotic with red, white, and blue using sliced strawberries and blueberries. Here’s the exact recipe.

Photo Credit: mommypotamus.com

If you want more real food, especially grain-free, barbecue and picnic recipes, I can’t recommend mommypotamus.com’s blog post right here highly enough. Those buns in the picture above are grain-free! These recipes are absolutely mouth-watering. (As a practicer of the Word of Wisdom, I can’t recommend the alcoholic recipes, however.)