July Fourth travel and food deals

It's time to fire up the grill and get ready for the July Fourth holiday.

Just in time for outdoor parties, Mark Bittman, The Minimalist at The New York Times, has come up with a list of 101 fast recipes for grilling. If you're looking for more recipes, check out all the offerings from our friend Kris at Cheap Healthy Good.

• Bing: Best July Fourth party ideas

The freebie offerings for the Fourth of July weekend are sparse, so you may want to stay home and throw a big potluck dinner for family and friends. After dinner, you can probably find a free fireworks display in your town.

Some of last week's deals and coupons are still good.

Here are a few new freebies and deals:

• You can get a free order of Red, White and Blueberry Pancake Puppies at Denny's if you print out and sign the "Denny's Bill of Rights" coupon and purchase an entree from the $2, $4, $6, $8 value menu. The deal is good through July 25.
• Get 15% off Jelly Belly's red, white and blue jelly bean mixes with coupon code FREEDOM through July 2. You can also get more than 50% off Belly Flops, with four bags at the holiday price of $17.76.
• Kids eat free at Applebee's in some locations this weekend. In some areas, you can get two free kids' meals with the purchase of one adult meal or 20% off to-go orders July 3-5. In Upstate New York and Connecticut, the kids eat free deal is July 4 only.
• At  Houston area Chick-fil-A restaurants, wear patriotic red, white and blue July 3 and get a free Spicy Chick-fil-A sandwich. If you're not in Houston, you still have a chance for a free Chick-fil-A meal on July 9, Cow Appreciation Day, if you're willing to dress like a cow.
• Wal-Mart stores in some areas are having a Kraft Independence Day sampling event July 1-3 with a chance to sample new Kraft products.
• You can get into museums free this weekend with a Bank of America credit or debit card as part of the monthly Museums on Us program.
• Military members and their families can get into more than 600 museums free nationwide all summer through the Blue Star Museums deal.

If you're lucky, you might be able to nab a weekend travel deal. Virgin Atlantic is offering discounts on first-class seats July 2-6, reports FareCompare's Deals blog, and Frontier Airlines also has a deal for travel those days.

• Video: Pet care for less

United Airlines and American Airlines also have last-minute sale fares for the July Fourth weekend, reports TravelZoo, which has a list of discounted hotels and attractions for the holiday weekend.

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