St. Patrick's Day Ideas

I've never been a huge celebrator of St. Patrick's Day, but once you have kids, you kinda have to do something to acknowledge the day.  This is a round up of ideas that are easy to pull off for a Monday holiday.

Rainbow Lunch

You can click the title for the original post, but basically, if you have a stocked fridge, this is an easy one to pull off.

Here are another couple lunch ideas for the kiddos.

One for home and one for school.

In the sweet treat department, these are delicious any day of the week, but since they're green on the inside, it give you an excuse to make a batch.

Mint Oreo Brownies

I haven't made these for a really long time, but the kids thought they were awesome.

Just mix up a batch of yellow or white cake, divide it into separate bowls, add your food coloring, and layer it into a lined muffin tin.

I might have to make these happen on Sunday.

Rainbow Cupcakes

You can do the same thing to make a rainbow cake.  

Full instructions are in the post.

Last year, I made corned beef and cabbage for the first time and it was beyond delicious.

The second night dinner over egg noodles was super yummy, too.

It's all about the horseradish.

This year, I think I'll do the same dinner, but I'm goin' for the Irish Soda Bread this time around.

This recipe sounds delicious.  This one is a little more basic, but sounds good, too.

I made Guinness Beef Stew for the first time last year, as well, but I never posted a recipe.

It was really, really, good, so if you've ever considered trying it, go for it, GI Joe.

My St. Patrick's Day Pinterest board has a few more fun ideas on it, if you're lookin' for more inspiration.

Happy Friday, have a great weekend!

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St. Patrick's Day Dinner

I made my first ever Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner.  Aren't you proud of me? 

I cheated a little.  I bought the meat pre-brined.  It was really good, though.  My plan was to attempt soda bread to go with it.  But then we took on a bathroom project this weekend, so it was sliced whole wheat sandwich bread with butter instead. 

There's a ton leftover, so I think I'll cut everything up into bite-sized pieces, add some egg noodles, and call it soup tomorrow night.  Gotta love leftovers.

I put carrots, onions, cabbage, and red potatoes in with the meat during the last half hour of cooking. 

Three and a half hours and a dollop of horseradish later, here's dinner on my plate:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Taste The Rainbow: A Kid Lunch

In keeping with the March theme that seems to be going around, I figured I'd do a nod to St. Patrick's Day with our kid lunch this week.  Rainbows are pretty easy to pull off, as long as you have a good supply of fruits and veggies in the house.  I didn't have anything blue or purple, so I made up for it with gummy bears. 

I used watermelon, carrots, cheddar cheese, banana, cucumber, and dried kiwi for the rainbow and around the rim.  Cottage cheese for the clouds.

Here's this week's Fun Food Friday lunch:

Friday family movie night is at my sister's house this week.

The BIL is whippin' up some Filipino soup for dinner.

I plan on wearing stretchy pants.

Enjoy your weekend!

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Mint Oreo Brownies

Soooo, you're probably gonna wanna go ahead and make these right away.  Liiike, immediately after getting to the end of this post.

I bought a package of Mint Oreo cookies on a whim.  Never had 'em before.  The package sat in the pantry, unopened.  The Girl got a fun new baking gadget from her aunt last weekend and wanted to bake some mini muffins in it.  I had a package of brownie mix, so we whipped it up and baked some mini muffin-shaped brownies.  Then I had this bowl of batter staring at me.  Then I thought about those cookies.  Then I thought, those cookies are the exact right size to fit in a muffin tin.  Holy lord, it's the best idea I've had all week.

Okay, it's probably been done before, but it's never been done in MY kitchen.  After the first bite, I realized brownies would never be the same.  This is the way they were meant to be all along.

Follow along kids, this is the easiest treat ever.

First, mix up some brownie batter.  Box, scratch, whatever.

Put a tablespoon or so of it in the bottom of a lined muffin tin.

Next, press an Oreo into it.

The mint was amazing, (think Girl Scout Thin Mints), but I'm pretty sure a regular one wouldn't suck.

Next, cover 'em up with the rest of your batter.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  

That's it.

Now all you have to do is wait for them to cool off enough to take a bite.

Here they are at my house:

Chocolatey, chewy, fudgy, crunchy, minty.

All kinds of good.

And they're green, so I'm pretty sure I need to bust out another batch - ya know, to get into the St. Patrick's Day spirit.

"Health food may be good for the conscience, but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better." - Robert Redford

Rainbow Cake

Last year when we made rainbow cupcakes, I started with a scratch recipe white cake batter.  This year, because I never know if Baby is asleep for two minutes or two hours, I went the faster route.

From there, it's pretty simple.

I divided the batter into six bowls and added food coloring to each.

The Girl was my official color mixer.

Next, starting with red, I layered them in my pan.

Bake according to package directions.

Once it has cooled about 10 minutes, remove from pan.

You could frost it at this point, but we had ours with rattle can whipped cream.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!