Themed food you say?

Most of my good friends know I love a good theme party

 holidays

playing dress up (especially when my mom wanted me to clean my room...)

...yes that's fake hair ;-)

But themed FOOD?! Never really been my thing. Not on purpose, there just hasn't been an occasion I suppose. But if I love theme parties and food, you'd think I'd find a food theme party quite lovely.

So I finally got the chance.
At work today we had a themed pot luck. Given it's Memorial Day, it was red, white and blue food. The idea made me gag. What in the world could I make with only those colors and that isn't a Bomb Pop, because I most definitely would've been willing to bring those! ;-)

My first thought was those cheesecake filled strawberries. Never made them, but they look delicious, and fit the theme. To make them different and to hit all the colors I topped them with a Blueberry. I was happy with the final result. They looked good, tasted yummy and maybe possibly had a FEW less calories then like a red velvet cake...I mean there WAS fruit. Filled with sugar. and cream cheese. But I used TWO fruits sooooo...healthy, yeah, healthy!

If you skip the graham cracker crumbs on top the recipe would be gluten free. I know that there IS a gluten free graham cracker, so you'd just take that extra step of crushing those and Gluten Free Golden! 

Red, White and Blueberry Cheesecake Bites

2 lbs. strawberries
1/2 pint blueberries
2 8oz blocks cream cheese
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
graham cracker crumbs

The beginning part is a bit finicky for my liking, but you start by coring the strawberries and removing the stems. I cut the tip of the bottom of the strawberries in order for them to stand upright. Mix together cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar. I thought throwing in a little lemon juice would kick it up a notch, or lime even, for the next time! Scoop cream cheese mixture into a large ziploc baggie and cut the tip of one of the corners to pipe into the berrys. Or if you're one of those fancy people, take out your piping bags...elitists. 
Refrigerate before serving. I made them the night before and sprinkled the graham crumbs right before serving so they wouldn't get soggy.

After that I thought if it's a pot luck im going to need FOOD FOOD. But red white and blue? 

FINALLY the idea came, blue corn tortilla chips with salsa and white queso. But I wanted to present it in an impressive way. I wanted to make a flag like they do with those jello molds. So I came up with the idea using my words and recruited this super cute artsy guy to help me execute what I was thinking...

gosh he's cute.
let's just pause and enjoy this moment.
look at the cute guy.
IGNORE THE MESSY KITCHEN.
There's a cute guy there!

This food has no RECIPE because let's get real, I can't make awesome food AND display it this beautifully with so little time.
White Queso 
Mild Salsa
Blue Corn Chips

 TA-DAAAAAAA!

stunning right? I love. love. LOVE.

I even created my very first PIN on Pinterest so feel free to pin it to YOUR board and spread the blog love. 

I Hope everyone had a blessed Memorial Day and reflected on it's meaning. Thank you to those who have served (or do), risked their lives and even those who've given up there lives to protect or Freedom.

Happy Cooking! :-)