Patriotic holidays are the perfect time to gather friends and family to celebrate our nation, our veterans, and our active duty service members. You’re sure to want something special for a dessert for your party, but don’t want to break the bank or spend hours on overly complicated treats. We’ve gathered 7 of the best no-fuss, quick and delicious patriotic desserts for your next get-together. Many of these use the season’s freshest ingredients and are fun for adults and kids alike.

Fruit Flag Platter: Summer time is the perfect time to pick the season’s finest fruit from your produce section. Keep your patriotic dessert simple and healthy by incorporating nature’s colorful treats, like watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries. Presentation is key, so select a large platter and create an American flag with red stripes and white stripes. Good combos for the stripes of your “flag” are strawberries and bananas, watermelon and feta cheese, or raspberries and yogurt-covered pretzels. Add a small bowl of blueberries in the upper left corner for your field of blue.

Red, White, and Blue Rice Crisp Treats: You’ve probably made rice crispy treats before by melting butter and mini-marshmallows in a large saucepan, then mixing in rice crisp cereal. This recipe adds a patriotic twist by using red and blue food coloring to make a third of the batch red and another third blue. Once you have your colored mixtures, press the blue treats into a greased 9x13 pan, the layer on the white/plain layer of treats, then top with the red. For extra flair, use a star cookie cutter to cut out individual treats once cooled.

Festive Kabobs: A backyard barbecue favorite, these kabobs combine festive colors with yummy treats on an easy-to-hold kabob stick. Make sure you keep with the red white and blue pattern, threading on blueberries, strawberries, and large marshmallows. To make an even tastier treat, bake a pan of brownies, cut into small cubes, and add the brownie bites to your kabobs in any order your choose. Perfect for snacking and no utensils needed!

Patriotic Trifle: The delicious red, white, and blue layers in this dessert are best displayed in a large, clear trifle bowl. Layer red Jell-O cubes, white cake cubes (use premade angel food cake to make this dessert even easier), blueberries, vanilla pudding, blue Jell-O cubes, more cake, strawberries, more pudding, then finish with more fruit and whipped topping for a towering, patriotic treat. You can even add a mini American flag to the top for undeniable pride.

Red, White, and Blue Dipped Strawberries: Another dessert to leverage the availability to beautiful summer strawberries. Simply wash and dry your strawberries, melt white chocolate baking squares in the microwave (warm and stir in 30 sec increments until consistency is good), dip your strawberries about halfway up in the white chocolate, then dip the very tip of the berry in blue sprinkles or blue sanding sugar. Cute and easy to eat, they look much harder to make than they really are!

Patriotic Ice Cream Sandwiches: You literally cannot find an easier dessert than this. Simply take a store-bough ice cream sandwich, unwrap, and roll the sides in red and blue sprinkles to add patriotic flair to the frozen treat. You can even let the kids help by making these just before serving. If you want to make your own sandwiches, simply sandwich a layer of frozen whipped topping between two graham cracker squares, wrap gently in plastic wrap, then freeze for one hour to set.

Red, White, and Blue Cookie Pizza: Give yourself a head start by begging with store-bought sugar cookie dough, rolling it out and baking it, then mixing a topping of cream cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon zest. This recipe recommends making a star out of raspberries in the center then filling in the rest of the top of the “pizza” with blueberries. Drizzle with melted apple jelly for the perfect finishing touch.

Written by Megan Hammons