St. Patrick's Day is this week, and I've been trying to work up a green menu plan for my family. I have a hard time adding green food coloring to all the food. It seriously grosses me out. I know much of the food I buy at the store is full of food coloring, but somehow it's different than green scrambled eggs or green milk. Corned beef and cabbage would never fly at my house, so I've been trying to come up with some ideas of more naturally green food.
This year, we're going to go easy on breakfast with some Lucky Charms. My kids have never had them, so I think they'll be a hit. I'm still working on some fun ideas for lunch. I'd love to hear any ideas you've got to share.
For dinner, I've got some spinach pasta from the grocery store, which is already green! I'm going to make some fresh pesto sauce to go on top. Get out your green table cloth, and serve it up with a green vegetable and some of this rainbow jello and voila! You're family will be so impressed. You could even serve some of this low calorie key lime pie for dessert.
This jello will take a while to make, but most of it is down time while you wait for the next layer to set up in the fridge. It's a piece of cake if you are working on other projects around the house. Just take a break from folding laundry and add your next layer before moving your load of whites over to the dryer. I'm going to make mine the day before St. Patrick's day so it's ready to go and I don't have to worry about it the day of.
Now, this is important. Unless you fridge is more level than mine, it won't look very cool if your layers aren't level. I usually have to fold up a piece of paper and shove it under one side to compensate.
Check out more St. Patrick's ideas at the below, and remember to share your green ideas with me in the comments!
Other St. Patrick's Day Ideas:
Veggies: broccoli, green beans, spinach, cucumbers, green salad
Fruit: green grapes, honey dew melon, kiwi, green apples dipped in a pot of gold (peanut butter or caramel)
Treats: goldfish crackers, gold mini Reeses peanut butter cups, Skittles, M&M cookies with green M&Ms or Andes mints
Lunch: green juice boxes, green jello cups, pickles, green fruit leather
Recipes:
Broccoli and Bowtie Pasta
Green Zucchini Soup with peasant bread
Key Lime Pie
Green smoothies via my sister-in-law Jen
Other St. Patrick's ideas from Jen
My St. Patrick's Day Pinterest Board
Rainbow Jello
Use a 9 x 13 dish.
You will need small boxes of jello (in this order):
lime
lemon
orange
strawberry
cherry
black cherry (purple)
1 1/2 lb. sour cream
Combine one box of jello with 1 1/4 cups boiling water. Divide this mixture in half.
First half, add 1/3 c. sour cream and stir until smooth. Use wire whisk to add sour cream. Mix it gently, being careful no to make it too foamy. Pour your sour cream jello layer into your glass dish and pop any bubbles before putting it into the fridge. Refrigerate 1/2 hour.
For the second half of the jello, add 3 Tbl. of cold water. Carefully spoon onto first layer. Chill 1/2 hour. You will end up repeating this process twelve times--two layers each of six colors of jello. Be careful as you pour on each layer. Remember to check that the dish is level before leaving it to set up.
Top with cool whip and serve to all those little leprechauns at your house!
