Holiday’s bring traditions and for each holiday one area that stays consistent is that our food matches our holiday! So for St. Patrick’s Day we make our food green but in a healthier way than using food coloring. I avoid food coloring and have found some fun ways to still make it a fun holiday with green in our food! Check them out!

BREAKFAST

Green Waffles have been a HUGE hit in our house for a few years running. I learned a fun fact that this waffle recipe can be made nut-free by adding in some sunflower seed butter into your batter, your batter must have some baking soda for it to work though. The chlorophyll in the sunflower seeds creates a chemical reaction with he baking soda to produce naturally GREEN waffles!!! How cool is that! The kids love eating their waffles and seeing them turn green the longer they sit there. Give it a try!! I got the recipe that worked for us at Real Everything. This recipe worked for me twice but other years it was not as successful. Doesn’t hurt to try again though!

Green Pancakes is another win that is more consistent. I just blended up a large blender full of spinach and some warm water to make a green puree and added it to my pancake mix. They turned out really good and the kids didn’t even taste the spinach with the banana flavor these pancakes have!

A Green Smoothie is a great addition to your green waffles or pancakes to finish out your St. Patrick’s Day breakfast. This recipe has a wonderful flavor and you don’t taste the spinach. Kid approved!

 

3 cups packed baby spinach, 3 cups frozen peaches, mango or pineapple, 1 frozen banana (plan ahead on this one), 1/2 cup milk of choice ( I use almond or coconut milk but water works also.) 1 cup 100% orange juice, and 1 cup whole milk plain yogurt. Blend it and enjoy!

LUNCH

Each of my kids are unique on what they like to eat, so their lunches reflect that. We used thawed out frozen mango for chunks of gold as our fruit, sliced green cucumbers for our vegetable, then had green pistachios as an added green with a fun toy magnifying glass since they are in search for the leprechaun who left the gold chocolate in their lunch as a fun surprise!  

My one daughter loves salads so I had spinach with chickpeas and some Italian dressing on the side for her.

My other daughter is my sandwich lover, so we made green cucumber and lettuce sandwiches to keep with the green theme. They loved sharing their creations with their friends at lunch that day!

We used leftover green macaroni and our fruit from our rainbow to make the kids lunches the Monday after St. Patrick’s Day this weekend. I get the Applegate Organics Chicken Strips for a special treat.

AFTER SCHOOL SNACK

I pre-cut rainbow colored fruit and had them laid out on the table for when the kids got off the bus. They used the fruit to make fruit rainbows with the sliced bananas to be the pot of gold at the ends. These were fun to make and were eaten up fast!

 

DINNER

Our famous dinner on St. Patrick’s Day includes our homemade macaroni and cheese but GREEN! All you need to do is make sure you set aside 1/2 cup of the boiling water you cooked your macaroni in. In a blender you will add 6 cups packed fresh spinach and the 1/2 cup of boiling hot water. You will need something to help push the spinach down as you blend it. It will create a bright green puree. Once you melt your cheese in with the milk, you will then add the green puree and stir until smooth. Mix it in with the pasta and bake as the recipe tells you. You will have green macaroni and cheese that I promise you does not taste like spinach!! Kids and hubby approved!! 

We like to grill some Teriyaki Chicken with this and have green beans, peas, roasted asparagus or roasted broccoli as a fun green side. 

I am sure I will find other family approved Green Food ideas and will add them to this blog for you guys! Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you ended up trying and how your family liked it in the comments. 🙂 

To stressing less and playing more!

Melissa 🙂