With a birthday on St. Patrick’s Day, my mom seized every opportunity to turn food green. Here’s the top 8 I’ve sampled over the past 21 years that should be apart of your St. Patrick’s Day, too.
Milk
I know it sounds gross, and it honestly looks even grosser, but a few drops of green food coloring in your milk is a sure fire way to ensure a festive start to St. Patrick’s Day.
Green Eggs and Ham
Need I say more? If there were ever a day to recreate this iconic Dr. Seuss-inspired meal it would be St. Patrick’s Day. Scramble and cook the eggs as normal, but stir in some pesto at the end for a deliciously green and heart-healthy breakfast. I promise you will not be disappointed. Green eggs and ham may become your new norm.
Matcha Latte
I’m not really a matcha fan because I think it tastes like you’re eating soil. However, I’ve had a lot of questionable green things on St. Patrick’s day, so what’s to stop me from also having this? If the green milk isn’t really you’re thing, maybe warmed green milk with matcha in it will be.
Guacamole and Margaritas
I know this isn’t Irish whatsoever, but any excuse for some guac and margs, right? My secret recipe to an easy yet refreshing margarita is to fill a pitcher with two cartons of Minute Maid Frozen Limeade, then fill one of those empty cartons with water and pour that into the pitcher as well. Stir all of this together until it’s blended into a liquid. Add ice at the end. Then, you have a pitcher of alcohol-free margarita juice, so that you can ensure the quality and strength of each individual margarita you make. I’ll let you be the judge of how much triple sec and tequila to add.
#SpoonTip: pour a pile of salt on a separate plate, and then before pouring anything into your glass, coat the rim with a lime and run the rim of the glass in the pile of salt for the full effect.
Rainbow Grilled Cheese
St. Patrick’s Day isn’t just about the color green, despite what this article may have you thinking. It’s also about the rainbow that will lead you to a pot of gold. In this case, the rainbow is your mouth-watering lunch and the pot of gold is the ooey-gooey cheese at the heart of this lunch. To make this rainbow grilled cheese, divide shredded cheese of your preference into four bowls and add a couple of drops of food coloring to each bowl: yellow in one, red in another, green in one, and blue in the last. Then, stir the food dye into each of these bowls. Take two slices of cheese and place one on each side of the bread. Sprinkle the colored cheese into vertical lines on top of each slice in the order of the rainbow. Next, place another slice of cheese on top of one half of the shredded cheese to create a barrier between the two halves of bread. Stack the two slices together and cook as normal.
Mashed Potatoes
There’s nothing quite as magical as a a few drops of green food coloring in mashed potatoes to create the perfectly green, and also Irish, St. Patrick’s Day meal. Mashed potatoes are a traditional St. Patrick’s Day food, and these can also be included in a more ambitious Irish menu of shepherd’s pie, corned beef hash, or colcannon, a dish including mashed potatoes mixed with cabbage.
Green Snowballs
No cooking necessary, however every year my mom would leave a package of green Hostess Snowballs in my room around my birthday. They’re about as fake and processed as a food could be, but they make for the perfect indulgent green treat to celebrate the luck of the Irish.
Ice Cream Pie with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
No one in my family likes “traditional pie” (I know, we’re the worst), so at every birthday and holiday we have ice cream pie. Depending on the occasion, the type of ice cream differs, whether it’s peppermint ice cream at Christmas or my sister’s favorite–cookies and cream– for her birthday. But on my birthday, it’s always mint chocolate chip ice cream to round out the green infused menu. The ice cream pie is made by first putting a package of Oreos into a giant Ziploc bag and crushing them up into a cookie crumble. Then, mix the cookie crumble with half a stick of softened butter to hold it all together and arrange it in the pie sheet. Bake this crust for 20 minutes. Once the crust has cooled, scoop all of the mint chocolate chip ice cream into the pie tin. P.S. the ice cream pie in my house is never served without a heaping pour of hot fudge on top.
This St. Patrick’s Day, see how many food and drink items you can turn green. It could even be a challenge among friends and lead to some interesting concoctions.