Memorial Day Recipe Ideas | Barbara Bakes (2024)

Main Dishes

First up, you have to decide what you’re having for the main event! One of these Memorial Day recipe ideas will be sure to please your crowd!

This Chicken Caprese Burger is the new favorite at my house. A grilled chicken burger topped with melty mozzarella, tomato, basil, and balsamic mayo. It’s the perfect burger alternative!

Southwest Chipotle Burger Slidersare a not-too-spicy, juicy little burger topped with a creamy chili-lime-cilantro queso fresco sauce, avocado, and tomatoes—all on a toasted bun. The small size means it’ll cook up fast!

One of my favorite burgers is, hands down, myQueso Bacon Burgers with Avocado Salsa. Mixing the bacon and bacon grease with the ground beef gives these burgers a big punch of flavor—and a bit of bacon in every bite!

This Spicy Pork Tenderloinis a family favorite. The rub makes the tenderloins look darker than I normally like, but they don’t have a burnt flavor—just a wonderful spicy-smokey flavor.

If you’d rather have chicken than burgers and dogs, try theseBBQ Chicken Kebabs with a Spicy Bacon Rubor these Orange Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs. Both are pretty irresistible!

If steak is more your style, I’ve got you covered with my How To Cook Perfect Steak Kabobs post. When feeding a crowd, I prefer to cook kabobs. They cook faster and the meat goes a little farther in kabob (I typically get 8 kabobs out of six steaks).

Side Dishes

Once you’ve decided on the main attraction, it’s time to choose what to serve with it.

Pasta Salad is always a favorite at my house. We’ve been making it for years—it’s a recipe from the first year of BarbaraBakes! It’s a no-fail process that you can customize to your family’s tastes—give it a try! (I promise, I’ll update the picture soon!)

If your crowd prefers potato salad, I have to put in a plug for my Pressure Cooker Potato Salad. It’sawesome!If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just use your favorite method to prepare the potatoes and hardboil the eggs, then prepare the dressing and chill as directed.

If you want to serve a hot side dish, I love this cheesy hashbrown casserole! We call it Funeral Potatoes where I’m from, but I’ve always believed it deserves to be served on happy occasions as well.

My family is crazy for theseStrawberry Mango Salsa Cups. You can make the cinnamon-sugar cups in advance and fill right before serving. It’s the perfect bite-size blast of fruit flavor!

Keep things easy and just cut some fresh fruit with my crowd-favoriteCreamy Orange Fruit Dip.It’s one of those simple but fabulous recipes that everyone seems to love—it tastes like a Creamsicle, only smoother and creamier.

Desserts

Now, let’s not forget about the most important part of any holiday celebration—dessert!Any of these would bea spectacular way to end the day spent with and remembering those you love.

My husband is crazy about this Creamy Lemon Yogurt Pie—a cool, creamy pie that’s perfect for summer!

My son suggested making Raspberry Cheesecake Cream Puffs. Or if you’re having a fire pit, roast some marshmallows and serve S’mores Cream Puffs from my e-cookbook, Dreampuffs.

One of my favorite summer desserts is a Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake Roll. It’s easy to make and to customize to your family’s favorite flavors.

If you’re looking for something that’s easy to serve, try these awesome Easy Brownie Cake Pops. They start with a brownie mix and are much easier to form than traditional cake pops.

Cookies are always a welcome addition to any party. For chocolate lovers, try these Triple Chocolate S’mores Cookies,Snickers Baking Bites Cookies, or these Black Forest Crinkle Cookies.For a fresh fruit flavor, try these Lemon Bar Cookie Cups(easier-to-eat lemon bars) or these yummy, cakeyLemon-Glazed Madeleine.

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