Fresh & Easy Summer Picnics

Don’t you just love the purple mountains in the background and to the right? Definitely one of my favorite things about the Phoenix area! Where I’m from, we just never saw stuff like that! I love that no matter where we go in the Valley, I can see for what seems like forever and there’s always mountains somewhere in the scenery!

Speaking of where I’m from – As many of you know, my family recently moved to Arizona. I don’t know about y’all, but I love checking out new grocery stores. Weird?! What can I say – maybe it’s just me?! In my hunt “to get to know the area,” I have discovered Fresh & Easy! I wasn’t really sure what to expect the first time we went there – but when Brian and I went to the store, I liked the fact that it felt like a neighborhood market. Not too big, but still plenty of choices – and it carried everything I needed for a summer picnic or for family meals! Score!

As you can see, we found some great picnic fare – that would easily double for an easy weeknight meal for the family too! You just can’t have a summer picnic without watermelon – so that was the first thing we grabbed! We picked up some romaine lettuce and 2 tomatoes for our sandwiches too. I loved the produce section – everything just looked so fresh! We found some fresh&easy organic chia & flax seed bread that I just couldn’t wait to try! I had never had chia anything before – and it seems to be all the rage these days! This bread seemed like a pretty easy thing to introduce my family to. We also found those cute little rolls for the sandwiches! As we strolled through the aisles, I spotted those wasabi pea puffs and I had to have them! Brian chose to try the fresh&easy baked not fried sour cream & onion potato chips instead – he’s not a fan of wasabi! 😉 We also decided to get a package of ham and turkey lunchmeat … and some Provolone (our favorite cheese). We already had condiments at home – so we skipped picking those up. We made our way over to find some beverages to quench our thirst and opted for some refreshing lemonade and fizzy root beer. Brian suggested picking up a cold salad too. Of course, as we walked over that way, I spotted a dessert cooler with lots of yummy treats and I told Brian to go ahead and find the salads and I would pick out a dessert – although I was tempted by the luscious lemon cake, I picked up the red velvet cake. Brian told me he was hoping I would pick the red velvet and I just had to smile because I know (and now you do too) that I picked it because of him!

We invited my mother-in-law and our neighbor, Alyce, over to enjoy this meal with us. We had such a great time and enjoyed the company! Fresh & Easy made our summer picnic easy, delicious and affordable!

Originally published on June 26, 2013. Updated on April 23, 2021.