How To Host a Fun Family Gathering this Summer

Between long, warm nights, holidays, and breaks from school, summer gives us plenty of excuses to get together with family and friends! And what better way to do so than over a delicious meal? We love to pick dishes surrounding seasonal flavors, so we teamed up with READ Salads to create a fresh menu to serve when you host a fun family gathering. Not only that, but we also created cute paper goods to invite your guests, in addition to a menu and place cards for the table. With all of these resources at your disposal, it’s bound to be a good party! 🙂 Scroll on for all the design and food inspiration you’ll need and how you can enter to win for your own gathering!

We whipped up a yummy Southwestern inspired quinoa salad as a main dish using READ Southwestern Bean Salad, post-charcuterie & cheese appetizers and pre-dessert of summer fruit tarts. Isn’t it a beautiful spread?! All of this would pair perfectly which a pitcher of Sangria, too!

Southwestern Spinach Salad

Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves 6

Ingredients

2 cans READ Southwestern Bean Salad, drained
4 handfuls Baby Spinach
2 cups cooked Quinoa
½ cup Sun Dried tomatoes (canned or fresh)
⅓ cup crumbled Cotija cheese (can also use feta if you prefer)
¼ cup Fresh Cilantro
Juice of 2 Limes
¼ cup Olive Oil
½ teaspoon salt
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard

Directions

1. In a medium bowl combine spinach, Southwestern bean salad, quinoa, and sun dried tomatoes.
2. Top with crumbled cotija and fresh cilantro.
3. For the Dressing, whisk together olive oil, lime juice, salt & dijon mustard until combined. Add to salad.
4. Enjoy!

As another appetizer, because you can never have too many things for guests to snack on, we also served this Middle Eastern Inspired Bean Salad using READ 3 Bean Salad. This, alongside crackers and our charcuterie board, was the perfect thing to wet guests’ appetites. We made sure to offer quite a few vegetarian options to please everyone in the family, but all of these dishes would pair well with a main meat dish. Who doesn’t love BBQ in the summertime?!

Are you feeling inspired to host your own family gathering?! To help ensure it is a success, 17 lucky winners will receive prizes ranging from personalized cookbooks to $500 VISA gift cards from READ! Kicking off today, June 15 and running through July 31, fans can enter to win one of READ’s 17 sweepstakes giveaways which include:

• Four (4) Grand Prizes: a $500 VISA gift card + a case of each READ product (Southwest Salad, 3 Bean Salad, 4 Bean Salad, and German Potato Salad);
• Seven (7) First Runner-up prizes: a $100 Ancestry.com gift card + a family pack of READ Salad products
• Six (6) Second Runner-up prizes: a $50 CreateMyCookBook.com gift card + a family pack of READ Salad products

Sign up here! One entry per day. Entrant’s name and email address will be added to receive the Aunt Nellie’s/READ eNewsletter.

Not only could you win these amazing prizes to put towards your own gathering, but also there are plenty of free resources available on Reunite with READ; a one-stop resource that serves up tips, tricks and table trimmings sure to delight guests of all ages. In addition to sample printable invitations, menus and name cards, Reunite with READ also offers some of READ’s most treasured recipes that will be perfect for your reunion table!

This post is in partnership with READ Salads. Thanks for supporting the brands that support Inspired by This!