Happy St. Patrick’s Day 🍀🍀🍀!!! If you know anything about me, you know that I freakin love holidays.  I particularly enjoy making themed foods, but so many of the ones for celebrations consist of cakes and candy.  I’d never say no to a good crème de menthe cupcake, but lately I’ve been on a kick of finding healthy alternatives to my usual menu of junk food.  My Pinterest board “get lucky” was exploding with fun food ideas I’ve been dying to try, so I slaved in my kitchen to create a whole day’s worth of (relatively) healthy, and most importantly ThEmEd foods 🍵🍏🍐🍈💚  The only type of fancy equipment needed are shamrock cookie cutters in various sizes, but heart cookie cutters can also work in place (cut out three or four hearts and arrange them together like a shamrock.).

A Balanced Breakfast

Shamcakes

Pancake batter

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup milk

Pour pancake mix into a medium to large shamrock cookie cutter in a buttered pan.  When the batter starts to bubble, flip the pancake and remove the cookie cutter, cooking for another 2-3 minutes.  Garnish with kiwi.

Fruit rainbow

Arrange sliced strawberries, oranges, bananas, grapes and blueberries to create a rainbow worthy of a leprechaun. Add a Greek yogurt cloud for dipping, and some granola gold at the end.

Lunch Break

Shamrock chips & guac

Use a shamrock cookie cutter to cut a spinach tortilla and space out on a baking sheet.  Spray or lightly brush with olive oil, and bake at 300 for 5-8 minutes, until they begin to crisp.  Serve with guacamole.

• 1 avocado
• 1/4 diced tomato
• 1/4 finely chopped onion
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mini Pizzas

Top a whole wheat English muffin with 1 tbsp of tomato sauce, 2 tbsp shredded cheese, and shamrock pepperoni.  Or make a white version of this pizza, with olive oil, cheese with mini spinach leaves (shamrock punch available on Amazon.)

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until cheese bubbles.

Dinnatime!

Growing up, my mom always made corned beef and cabbage with potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day, so I had to stay true to her and go with a classic 👼

Sally’s CB&C

Put a medium/large sized corned beef brisket in a crockpot with 1 tbsp peppercorns, 3 cloves chopped garlic, 1 head chopped cabbage, three diced potatoes, three largely chopped carrots and two cups water.  Let cook for 5-6 hours on low setting.  That’s all.  Crockpots > everything.

Or make creamy mashed cauliflower potatoes:

• 1 head cauliflower, steamed, chopped
• 3 potatoes, peeled, cooked, diced
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp. butter
• Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients with hand masher or blender over medium heat.

Sweet Tooth

Shamrock cheesecake

For Valentine’s Day, I invested in a silicone pan to make conversation heart cheesecakes.  I LOVE when you can repurpose stuff!!  Make these cheesecakes and follow directions for baking.  For the crust, I used Oreos instead of graham crackers, and instead of food dye, I added a liquefied kiwi to the batter, which made a light green without being overly flavorful.   After the cakes have set, arrange four of them on a plate, add a chocolate stem, and serve. You could also make a full cheesecake and use a cookie cutter to make small shams.

Dranks

Lucky Sham-pagne

It’s St. Patrick’s Day– you definitely need a little bit of alcohol to get in the spirit!  However, enough of my college years were spent drinking green beer (and seeing it later) that I literally never want to consume it again.  Add a splash of Midori to champagne for a green tint, and garnish with a melon shamrock.  And that’s how you transition from your early twenties to your late twenties.

Thin Mint Smoothie

I really wanted to make a healthy Shamrock Shake, since I’ve recently decided to boycott McDonald’s, yet still love all their food.  I tweaked a vanilla smoothie recipe and added spinach to give a bright green color and vitamins, but it doesn’t change the vanilla/mint flavor at all.  You can add chocolate chips, cocoa powder, or a scoop of protein powder for extra kick.

• ¾ cup frozen vanilla Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup tightly packed fresh mint
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup fresh Baby spinach
• Maple syrup or honey to taste
• 2 cups Ice

Blend and enjoy, then drink another since it’s healthy.