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If you’re like us, you looked at a calendar recently and realized that Fourth of July barbecue you’ve been planning is coming sooner than you thought.

And now, facing down the week’s other responsibilities, you’re out of time to dig through your cookbooks or sift through Google. 

To cut down on search time, we’ve rounded up a variety of sweet, savory and delicious recipes to elevate your Independence Day spread. And, even better, they’re all red, white and blue foods to keep your party patriotic and they’re easy to make too.

Check out the ideas we found most enticing for celebrating below.

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Blueberry kuchen

Growing up, we had this every Fourth of July, Memorial Day, neighborhood block party — you name it. Whatever warm weather holiday or occasion was on the calendar, a blueberry kuchen was on the table. This sweet fruit tart is delicious a la mode and perfect for summer.

With Kristen Coffield’s version calling for seven ingredients and six steps, this summer favorite is a winner every time.  

And, it can be made even more festive with an addition.

“You can add fresh raspberries to the topping and then sprinkle with confectionary sugar,” Coffield told USA TODAY in an email. “This makes for a festive red, white and blue presentation.”

Red, white and blue fruit salad

Talk about easy — and a fan favorite. Who doesn’t love a fruit salad? As The Wiggles say, “yummy yummy.”

Between raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, cherries, white peaches and watermelon, the red, white-ish and blue color range is easy to accomplish.

And there are ways to make your fruit salad stand out at a patriotic event, too. Two Healthy Kitchens provides tips on how to artfully prepare your Fourth of July fruit salad and on when to do so (think cookie-cutters for star shaping and how to avoid banana browning by adding the fruit right before serving, for instance).

Festive charcuterie board

Like a fruit salad, a charcuterie board requires less cooking and more assembly. And it can be done in patriotic shades. 

Charcuterie boards leave room for plenty of creativity and for varying assemblies of tastes.

Tasty Oven’s July 4th themed board recipe pairs sweet fruits — including watermelon, strawberries and raspberries — with savory items such as tomatoes, pepperoni and salami, along with cheeses like mozzarella pearls and white cheddar while adding sugary delights including mini marshmallows and M&Ms. 

That said, all boards are open to interpretation. Choose whatever red, white and blue flavors you fancy.

Cheesecake stuffed strawberries

I’m drooling just thinking about these. I love cheesecake and I love strawberries — topped with a blueberry what could be better? Or more patriotic-looking?

Dessert Now Dinner Later offers a simple how-to on the no-bake dessert that looks as pretty on a platter as it will taste — and prep time is only 15 minutes. These are sure to please kids and adults at your party, and you can serve them as appetizers or dessert. 

Red, white and blue flag cake

Ina Garten’s “Flag Cake” recipe is sure to add a patriotic flare to your table and is structured from blueberries, raspberries and frosting.

A bit more labor-intensive, this cake takes 45 minutes to prep and quite a lot of butter — 6 and a quarter sticks for the cake and frosting altogether. But it serves 20-24 people, so who’s counting?

Garten has shared this cake for several all-American celebrations and called it the “perfect baking project with the kids.”

Cherry pie

What says Fourth of July more than a cherry pie?

There are a couple ways to tackle the cherry pie: One takes significant effort, the other is minimal.

The first, which calls for making the crust from scratch, as The Pioneer Woman directs in her recipe, takes more time and more effort. But who can beat a homemade crust? 

If you have less time or baking confidence, a cherry pie can also be made easily with a pre-made crust. Pillsbury, the pie dough and crust producer, has a recipe on its website using four ingredients including the brand’s pre-made crusts, pre-mixed cherry pie filling, milk and sugar.

If you’re gluten free, pre-made pie shells can be found on Instacart and sometimes in Trader Joe’s.

Red, white and blue popsicles

July 4th weekend is typically warm — or sweltering — making it the perfect holiday to provide your guests with popsicles.

One important thing to note: This recipe requires popsicles sticks, popsicle molds and a blender. Once you have those supplies, with only four ingredients to consider (strawberries, blueberries, coconut milk and granulated sugar) these will be a breeze to assemble, freeze and enjoy.

If you’re not a fan of any of these ingredients, Cooking Therapy recommends substitutions: Raspberries for strawberries, Greek yogurt to replace coconut milk, other fruits and blue food coloring to avoid using blueberries and agave sweetener in place of sugar.

Red, white and blue corn tostadas

The perfect combo of salty and crunchy, Frugal Nutrition’s red, white and blue corn tostadas are simple, easy to make and cost effective.

They’re baked, not fried, so they land on the healthier side of things and are vegetarian to boot. Assemble the stacks using blue corn tortillas, smashed white beans, tomatoes or salsa and a salty cheese such as queso fresca, cotija or feta.

Frugal Nutrition estimates that the recipe, which is designed to serve six, comes out to just under $5 to make, or just over 80 cents a person. 

Berry vodka soda

We can’t be without libations at a party, now can we?

In addition to the easy on-theme drinks like red and white wines, EatingWell has a recipe for a berry vodka soda made with thawed frozen berries, seltzer water and vodka, providing a light and refreshing option for Fourth celebrations.

And for those who don’t want to drink alcohol, that Berry vodka soda could be altered to be sans-vodka — a thawed berry soda (and if that’s not appealing to you, there are plenty of non-alcoholic beverage options on the market right now).

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Red, white, and blue wine sparklers

“Light” on alcohol and heavy on festive-vibes, Fox and Briar’s red, white, and blue wine sparklers are meant to be sessionable, meaning easy to drink especially on a hot day. 

The cocktail, which can be made in a batch for pitcher pours, is made with white wine, fruit and sparkling water and can be made a day in advance, saving you an extra step of prep day-of barbecue.

Check out these recipes to up your kitchen game: 

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Cocktail and chat time had ended and we sat down for dinner with a corporate vice president. I was in my early 40s, that career stage when you’re eager to leave a good impression.

When the waiter asked, I said, sure, bring me another drink. As I picked it up to take a sip, I noticed the red swizzle stick.

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As the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis was idolized, but later mocked after displaying health problems.Movies like “Elvis” portray the star beyond his music to showcase his flaws, dreams and humanity.Contrary to popular belief, celebrities aren’t immune to mental health problems.Experts say it’s crucial to treat stars with empathy and compassion, rather than ridicule.

When Elvis catapulted into fame with his legendary pompadour and pelvic gyrations, America swooned. The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll shocked prudish 1950s America with his hip swiveling and unprecedented charm and was treated as an icon — until his tragic final years.

Numerous documentaries have exposed the fatal cost of fame for Elvis, who wasn’t the healthiest of eaters and increasingly relied on drugs to both sleep and perform. And with grueling recording and concert schedules, many speculated that he was struggling with isolation in Graceland as well as the pressures to excel after his hiatus in the Army and the booming popularity of The Beatles.

Once he strayed from his picture-perfect, seductive image, some ridiculed and discarded him. Since he died 45 years ago, he has become the butt of “fat Elvis” jokes and is still mocked regarding the circumstances of his death. (According to the medical examiner’s report, the singer died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease at 42.)  

But now, “Elvis” (in theaters) strives to humanize the legendary singer beyond his musical abilities. Austin Butler stars as the American heartthrob through the years: as a rocking teen who eventually spirals under the crumbling pressure of success, money and power.

“I realized this man was as iconic as they come, and yet he of course was a human being, sensitive and vulnerable, with virtues and flaws, and I got to experience all of that,” Butler said of Elvis in a USA TODAY interview. 

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Psychologists say efforts to reimagine celebrities as more than their stardom and wealth succeed in destigmatizing and humanizing the mental health conversation.

“We tended to treat Elvis as someone who was supposed to be a very wonderful icon of American rock and roll. As he began to age, his mental health problems began to surface and people didn’t know what to make of that, because many assume that type of person should be impervious to human issues,” says Carla Manly, a clinical psychologist and author of “Joy from Fear.”

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Instead of being shown compassion, Elvis was mocked and ridiculed. Why?

Elvis embodied modern American youth and rock ‘n’ roll, changing the course of popular music with his songs, dance moves, charisma and wardrobe.

But especially in his later years, he developed a range of phobias and obsessions, had trouble sleeping and gradually relied on drugs to get through the day. And rather than being shown empathy, he was instead mocked by the country that lifted him onto the pedestal. 

Experts say it’s common for people to detach celebrities from reality and laugh at them for entertainment and amusement.

But Donna Rockwell, a clinical psychologist specializing in celebrity mental health, says the cultural mockery of imperfect stars speaks to “a part of human nature we’re not particularly proud of.”

“We don’t want celebrities to actually have that picture-perfect life. … We really aren’t happy for them, because we want that life, too, and we can’t get it,” Rockwell says. “So when we see a celebrity altered in any way, we can say ‘Oh, see, they faltered,’ or ‘they’re not perfect.’ And we love to criticize the celebrity to bring them back down to our level.” 

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Manly adds the objectification of Elvis also played a role in this mistreatment: not only was he used as a “money-making machine” by power-hungry leaders in the industry, but he was also sexualized and reduced to an image by his young female fans. 

As soon as we begin to objectify real people, “we completely remove the individual’s personality, their true selves. We don’t know what their fears are, what their hopes are, what their dreams are, what their sadness is, we just see whatever we want,” Manly says.

“When Elvis was doing well, people were projecting onto him the rock star, sexual image …  then as he began to get older and he lost the luster, people were no longer seeing him as a sex symbol, as the man of America, but they saw him as a deteriorating rock star. And they did not like that.”

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To this day, conflicting speculations surround Elvis’ sudden death. But according to “Elvis,” overwhelming demand from fans played a part in his fall. 

Some experts agree that Elvis may have been performing at a feverish pace in order to meet fans’ demands at the expense of his well-being. The pressure to perform, the loss of privacy and the incessant public scrutiny can also cause a great deal of anxiety and depression — leaving some to cope with medications, alcohol or other substances to reduce stress.

“People become agoraphobic. They don’t want to go out. Why would you want to go out and have people staring at you and judging you all the time?” says Rockwell, adding that “a lot is given away when an artist becomes famous that they are ill prepared for.”

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When it comes to public figures and mental health, Manly notes that it is often difficult for those constantly in the spotlight to seek help.

“People think ‘oh, you’re a star or you have money. Therefore, you should be happy. You have all of the money in the world. How could you possibly have problems’ … ‘If you’re depressed, go see a therapist or check yourself into rehab if you need to.'”

But in the case of Elvis, Manly notes it would have been “much more difficult than your average Joe, who isn’t worried about how people will be looking at him.”

“In the end, somebody who has a mental health issue, who is a celebrity, will often have a more difficult time because to really successfully recover from a mental health problem or addiction, you actually need a great deal of humility. And that’s something that people who have wealth or fame have difficulty getting into.”

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In recent years, Hollywood has tried to spread awareness about the human aspects of celebrities. Aside from “Elvis,” new retellings like Netflix’s “Blonde” starring Ana de Armas  “explore the widening split between (Marilyn Monroe)’s public and private selves.”

These efforts do not right the wrongs of the past. But when we see the complexity of stars beyond their fame and fortune, “the public is then forced to see them as human,” Manly says.

“It’s more difficult to project onto somebody who’s showing their fault lines. It’s more difficult to project onto that person that ideal of perfection.”

Having studied the psychology behind fan-celebrity relationships for more than 20 years, Rockwell says she’s observed a growing culture of empathy and compassion from the younger generation, crediting this to public figures like Selena Gomez, Billie Eillish and Michael Phelps, who use their platforms to unveil their struggles and help reduce mental health stigma. 

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“What will create a better and more empathic relationship between fans and celebrities is more celebrities empowering themselves to speak out about their authentic being,” Rockwell says. “I think that younger people today are really responding to vulnerability in ways that an older generation just didn’t.” 

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Contributing: Marco della Cava