How to make Red, White, and Blue Popcorn Balls and plan for a 4th of July party!

Get ready for your 4th of July party by making some fun Red, White, and Blue Popcorn Balls and Patriotic Dip and prepare for your party guests using products from Walmart.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of P&G at Walmart. The opinions and text are all mine.

Do you host family and friends for the 4th of July party every year? It’s a fun holiday to celebrate because there are no major expectations like there are for some of the bigger holidays. All you need is some good food like these Red, White, and Blue Popcorn Balls and Patriotic Dip, a few festive decorations, and a fun group of party guests.

You don’t have to buy gifts or bake for weeks on end. A few simple recipes are all you’ll need to make this American holiday special. It’s traditional to throw some burgers and hot dogs on the grill, boil some sweet corn on the cob, and fill a cooler with cold drinks on the fourth.

I have some fun recipes that you can include in your party menu to make things really festive and neither recipe will take much prep time. I also have some tips for getting ready for your event.

There is always so much to do when hosting friends and family for any kind of party and I have a few secret weapons that I use to get ready. The first thing I do to prepare for my party is to prep the food and decorate. Then I have to clean. Yeah, that’s definitely not the fun part of the day, but it can be quick and easy using products that I get at Walmart.

After I made my Red, White, and Blue Popcorn balls using the recipe below, I had three bowls coated with sticky marshmallows. I let them soak in some warm water with a little bit of Dawn and they came clean quickly and easily.

Once I finished decorating my Red, White, and Blue Patriotic Dip I grabbed a sheet of Bounty Select-A-Size Super Rolls to clean up all my crumbs.

On party days, I always make sure to stock my bathroom with Charmin Ultra Strong Mega Rolls. I like to fold the end of the toilet paper into a triangle and attach a cute holiday sticker.

Once my house is tidy I jump in the shower, clean my long curly hair using Pantene Daily Moisture Renewal then get dressed in clothes that I’ve washed in Tide PODS Ultra Oxi. To make sure I have clean fresh breath and a sparkling smile, I brush my teeth with Crest Gum Detoxify Deep Clean toothpaste.

Then I’m ready to party!

For the 4th of July my friends and family will snack on Red, White and Blue Popcorn Balls. These crunchy and chewy treats are so easy to make that you can have 8 made in under 20 minutes.

How to make Red, White, and Blue Popcorn Balls

• Start with some crunchy kettle corn.
  • You don’t have to go to a festival or 4th of July parade to buy kettle corn these days. They now sell bags of it in the grocery store.
  • I like using Kettle Corn for these popcorn balls because the pieces have a light candy coating on the outside that will help to keep the popcorn crunchy once coated with marshmallows.
• Melt marshmallows, butter, and some colored (red, white, or blue) candy melts together.
  • Adding the candy melts not only adds some color, but it also adds flavor, and structure to the popcorn balls.
• If you want your popcorn balls to be really vibrantly colored, add some food coloring.
  • It’s not absolutely necessary, but I wanted a true red and blue so I stirred in a drop of coloring to the melted marshmallows before adding my popcorn to the bowl.
• Microwave all three of the bowls of marshmallows before adding the popcorn.
  • As soon as you stir in the popcorn you can begin forming your popcorn balls.
  • Don’t let the bowls of popcorn sit for too long before making the popcorn balls because the marshmallow mixture will begin to firm up.

Watch this video to see how easy the Red, White, and Blue Popcorn balls are to make…

 

My party guests always arrive at our house hungry so I try to serve at least a few really festive appetizers and desserts along with the traditional burgers and hot dogs.

My family cannot have a function without some form of chicken dip. For the 4th of July, I like to dress it up by adding cracker crumb stars using crackers that I color with a bit of red and blue food coloring.

You can see how to make and decorate the Patriotic Dip, here.

You don’t need to do a lot to make your food table really festive. Simply decorate a white table by adding the colorful red, white and blue food, and add some 4th of July plates, cups, and napkins. A few simple decorations will finish the look nicely.

Over the years I have made so many festive 4th of July foods.
You can see links to all my recipes on my 4th of July Recipes page.

I hope you have a fabulous 4th of July. Let me know in the comments below how you prep for your party.
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of P&G at Walmart. The opinions and text are all mine.