Green Your Lunch The Irish Way To Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!
No, I’m not talking about the eco/environment thing. That’s all well and good and I applaud anyone who focuses on aiding and abetting the environment in its bid to survive. Heck, I’ve even started taking those reusable grocery bags with me when I go to stock up and let me tell you, on what I buy alone at the grocery store I feel like I’ve at least saved a small state (if you live in a small state, feel free to thank me later).
My version of a “green” lunch is all about the upcoming holiday, St. Patrick’s Day. We have a lot of fun with this holiday at our house. Actually, we have a lot of fun with all of the holidays at our house. You see, my mother was the type of person who made every single little holiday a grand celebration. She always says that kids look forward to holidays so much and its just too long to wait between Christmas and their birthdays, so you have to make the little holidays a big deal too.
At our house, this means that the leprechauns come to visit.
The night before St Patrick’s day, after the kids are asleep, leprechauns come to our house and sprinkle leprechaun kisses (clover stickers) all over their rooms. They awaken to find kisses on their pillow, in their shoes, littered across their floor to mark the trail of the leprechauns, and even on their cheeks! The have a lot of fun with this and we all talk about the leprechauns visit for the rest of the day.
The real fun for me though is on the years when March 17th falls on a school day*. This is when I surprise them with an all green lunch. I began this tradition when my oldest was in preschool. He had no idea I had done anything until he opened his lunch and found it wrapped in green cellophane. Green after green item was pulled out amid growing grins and by the time he was done his teacher had returned from the classroom with her camera to take a photo of it all which I have included at the bottom of this post! *My kids will be out of school on Spring Break this year on St Patrick’s Day so I’m greening their lunches tomorrow! They’ll be double surprised! ~giggle~
This is a fun idea but not just for kids. Do you have a spouse who takes their lunch to work with them? You know adults enjoy whimsy as much, if not more, than kids do! Surprise them with an unexpected green lunch on March 17th!
I guarantee it will make their day every bit as much as it will the kids!
The possibilities with this are limitless. A few things I picked up are:
- green applesauce
- Apple juice with green label on bottle (I’m gonna dye this, too!)
- Apple juice box in green packaging
- Small bag sour cream and onion chips
- Apple Nutri-grain bar
- Rainbow Goldfish (read below)
- Clear green Easter basket wrap (this is a must if you can find it!)
- Clear green party treat bags (I picked up several of these this year to wrap sandwiches and such in)
- Pick out the green M&M’s and make cookies (I’m doing this next week!)
- Clover stickers (Which are getting harder and harder to find in my neck of the woods!)
There are more ideas at the end of this post and I’m inviting all of you to leave comments and pass on your ideas as well!
Do I actually take time to pick out all of the green goldfish crackers from the package?
You bet your shamrocks I do!
I also drop a few drops of green dye into my apple juice if I end up using the bottled kind. You can use blue food coloring if you don’t have green and still come out with green (yellow and blue make…)
In previous years, I’ve always made green Kool-Aid, which is my absolute most favorite flavor of Kool-Aid in the world! An extremely generous reader sent me a TON of Splenda (I’m still doing the happy dance, Mary!) and my first thought was the gallons and gallons of green Kool-Aid I could drink. Guess what though? No green Kool-Aid to be found in my town! ~Sobs~ It’s the lime flavored. Y’all tell me if you happen to see any because I’m hoping the people of North Alabama have just had a moment of temporary insanity and forgot to order it (at Publix, Piggly Wiggly, Wal Mart…). Surely to goodness Kool-Aid would not just QUIT making green kool aid without consulting with me FIRST! UPDATE: I can now find green Kool-Aid again! This post was originally written in 2009 and green kool aid is once more in abundance. Viva La Green Kool Aid!
My green apple juice!
With regards to St. Patrick himself. He is reported to have driven all of the snakes out of Ireland. The concept of a place on earth without snakes has always baffled me since I have lived in Alabama 99.8% all of my life. I read once that there are 5,000 species of snakes and 4,998 of those live in Alabama. I feel pretty certain this was an attempt at humor but anyone whose ever lived here won’t have a hard time believing it to be true. I recently spoke to a bona fied Irishman and he testified to the whole no-snake thing in Ireland, stating that it was just too cold for them to live there. Now y’all Irish folks oughta be careful though because that’s what they used to say about Alligators in North Alabama, too.
If you find yourself facing a snake for the first time in Ireland, I officially volunteer to fly over there and show you how to identify the nasty ones – in exchange for someone showing me how to do a decent Irish accent. I love it so much that I can’t help but try every now and then and all I can manage to say without sounding like a complete idiot is “They’re Magically Delicious!”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
You can cut your sandwich in the shape of a shamrock if you have a cutter
But I just do this.
I have gone through several ideas of making the sandwich green and the truth of the matter is, green bread just looks unappetizing no matter what your age. So I just make my kids regular peanut butter and jelly and wrap it in the clear cellophane. You could get apple jelly and dye it green as well but my kids are grape jelly folks and they don’t take well to Mama stepping in and changing the gameplan on them, even if it is a holiday.
So I wrap it up in the green wrapping and seal it with a little shamrock 
.
Now for the presentation – Presentation is everything here!
Line your son, daughter’s, or spouse’s lunchbox with the green wrapping.
You can just use green tissue paper or even a bit of green fabric if you need to. Be creative!
Place all of your green things inside…That applesauce is green but it doesn’t look it in this pic.
Voila!
For even more fun put in a “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” note adorned with little clover drawings or stickers!
Then I fold it all down and zip it up…
Leaving just a tiny hint on top as to what waits inside.
~grins~
Other ideas
- Dye vanilla pudding (or make pistachio!)
- Green jello
- Dye applesauce
- Clear Kool-Aid dyed green or green Kool Aid
- Store bought St Patrick’s cookies
- Yogurt dyed green
- Pickles
- Olives
- Pick out green m & ms
Tell me your ideas for more green items in the comments section below!
Are you going to pack a green lunch for someone for St. Patrick’s Day?
Brady (right) and his cousin Austin (left) both having their first green lunch in 2005
They had eaten most of it before the camera arrived!
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Mar 8 2009. Filed under Holidays, Life at Bountiful, Southern Plate Kids.
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Christy,
I am so excited! My little boy is going to love this! Thank you so much for the GRAND idea!
Tracie
Hey! Thank YOU for getting me so excited! lol
This really does thrill kids. They are so easy to thrill, I don’t know why more folks don’t do it more often!
Christy, you are just the MOST creative thing! I don’t have any children to do this for, but I’m thinking I might have to do some kind of ‘green’ treat for the folks I work with. The problem is taht we are all in the midst of the ‘Scale Back Alabama’ program so I’ll need to think “light” for this project. I love the green applesauce idea and maybe some green jelly belly jelly beans? For some reason I was thinking you could get those in flavors and colors. Any other ideas? Thanks for all your fun ideas and good food too.
Carol
ooooooooooooh!!
Celery Sticks!
Green Apple slices!
Green Beans!
Cucumbers!! you could even make a vegetable dip and dye it green…
Oh now you got my wheels a turning! This can SO Easily be done with a healthy spin!
SALAD!!!
hehe
Thank you!!!!! This is fun, isn’t it?
~grins and giggles~
Christy
KIWI!!
We used to celebrate St.Patricks day a lot more when I was a kid but living in Texas, it’s more Cinco de Mayo now. The lunches are a very cute idea though. It truly does warm my heart to see you do special things for your kids like this.
One day, They are going to realize exactly how blessed they were with you for a mother… and I truly mean that.
If I find any lime Kool-Aid, I will snatch it up and send it to you.
Hey Bill!
You know, you really are too good to me. I truly mean that.
Sincerely,
Christy
I am so glad to know I am not the only crazy mom. There is a bagel shop in our area that makes green bagels for St. Pat’s. So when my kids were still home breakfast was always a green bagel, green cream cheese (dyed), and green milk. My youngest really got into this and still thinks it is a great idea. He is 25 now and still talks about his green bagels. So from one nutty mom to another keep up the good work. When yours are grown they will remember and do for their own.
Well now ya done gone and got me a wantin’ a bagel and cream cheese! lol. We used to have a great bagel shop in town but you just can’t get them fresh here anymore. The store ones are good but its not quite the same.
That is so cool that he still wants to do it! I am ~muffled sound~ years old and I know every time a holiday rolls around I think about the little things Mama used to do. She always paid such careful attention to the little things and because of that they are so etched in my mind and even the smallest of things have such great meaning to me.
You know, when we were little and we got sick, Mama would draw an upside down smiley face on the tip of our nose with an ink pen. Then while we laid in bed all day, we kept looking at our nose and couldn’t help but grin. Who thinks of things like that? lol
I really hope my kids to remember. I’m not so much concerned with them remembering things I did reverently more than just hoping that they can look back and think “My mama sure did love me.”
Whew, don’t mean to get all mama on ya!
You sound like such a FUN mom!!!!!!
That is too cute! I love it! I think it’s so awesome that your family made the most out of even the little holidays. I personally grew up without celebrating holidays, but if I had kids I’d be all over this! Heck I might even do it anyway just for myself, lol!
This is so FUN! I love it! I always lived for the days that my mom wrote me sweet notes! This is that to the EXTREME!
K:)
You could do green pepper rings. I saw a picture in Parents magazine where they had done them and added a little piece at the bottom and they looked like shamrocks.
Love your ideas for lunches……..too bad I don’t have wee people to fix for any more. When my children were young….I would ‘dye’ a lock of their hair (all sandy haired) with green cake color…..Every year they would be the hit at school……..but it took a few days to get that color back out. HAHAHA.
Wow Christy! I love this! My kids will be on spring break but I just might have to make them a “green” lunch. How cute!! Thanks for all the great ideas!
God bless,
Amanda
We always dyed the toilet water green. Not just what’s in the bowl, but the tank water, too. Too much fun!
BTW, I’m from Chicago, where the mayor dyes the river green. It’s a tradition!!
Quite a few auctions for lemon-lime koolaid on ebay if you can’t find it anywhere else. Some have as many as 50 packages for $8.99.
Oh how funny!! I read this comment and DARTED to ebay and bought the fifty packets of it for 8.99!
lol
I can’t believe its come to this but I am SO EXCITED!! I won’t share! I won’t! I won’t!!!
Okay….maybe just a little
Thank you!!
Christy
P.S. Off to get some housework done and then to a standing moms coffee date tonight. Talk to y’all soon!!!
I will look next time I’m at wally-world for the lemon-lime kool-aid.
My mom used to make a white cake batter and tinted it green with food coloring. She then made a pineapple topping by simply thickening canned crushed pineapple with cornstarch and cooking it to a saucy consistency and tinting it green. I am 62 now and still remember thinking it was delightful once a year treat so never think that making memories for your children is not an important thing to make time for. Childhood memories last a lifetime.
What an exciting way to celebrate St. Paddy’s day! You are very clever and I thank you for the ideas, their wonderful!
I made biscuits today. This time they were dry and fell apart. Gonna have to try your “stuff” !
My sons birthday is on the 17! So of course St. Patricks Day is HUGE at our house!!!
Aaww you are such a nice mummy (mommy?? lol) Christy! Everything is so adorable.
Your comment about snakes in Alabama, I read the same thing about Georgia! he he I was doing some googling for my trip and I came across the very same comment, something about 5000 different species with almost everyone of them residing in that state. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s enough to scare me!
I’ve never been big on green food at SPD, not even green beer, always made me nauseated, but what great ideas Christy! Wishing I had some little ones now.. wait a minute. I’ve already been THERE … maybe not! LOL!
I don’t mind snakes so much as long as 1) they aren’t the dangerous kind and 2) they stay in their territory and outta mine!!
Hmmmm… wonder what is goin’ on with lime koolaid??? Glad you got something to use that Splenda with now LOL!
GREAT ideas – I love all of these – espeically the green apple juice!
Ooo! I can make Watergate Salad and GREEN beans, and broccoli, and collard GREENS! (Along with my green beer!) This will be fun. Just don’t expect any corned beef and cabbage at my house! Yuck!
This is so cute. My little boy keeps asking my husband when is the little green man coming out. I am not sure what my husband has told my son about the little green man. I hope they are talking about the Leprechaun. HA HA …. We will be one Spring Break on St. Patty’s day so this will be a nice lunch celebration for him.
thanks for all your hard work……….
Hi Christy,
When I was growning up…After school I had walked into the house and the Leperchaun had made a visit. There was a green tablecloth and on it were shamrocks, green punch and cookies along with little leperchaun footprints everywhere from the back door all the way to the kitchen table, that little leperchaun even left foot prints on top of the table. LOL!
I am definatley doing the green lunch for my kiddo’s.
What a cute idea! My son will LOVE this. I can’t wait!
I love all the ideas! I did find lemon lime koolaid at my Walmart. I picked up a few extra packs, but it looks like you will have plenty from ebay. Let me know though if you ever need any more and I will be happy to pick some up and mail them to you!
I just bought some green peeps at Walgreens, and I have some green Hostess sno-balls at home. This is gonna be fun!
I almost forgot, Michael’s (the craft store) had shamrock paper lunch bags and chocolate molds.
Sadly, now that my children are grown and out of the house, my only concession to holiday-themed food is getting a specially decorated Krispy Kreme (at the Florence store, Christy, not far away from you). But with this inspiration, I believe my husband’s in store for a treat this year! Thanks.
Green–
50+ years ago my mom would put food coloring in grits to keep them from getting boring. My daughter had Carnation Instant Breakfast every day for years, some days yellow, some days blue or green.
Also, it’s pretty easy to dye sugar cookie dough. There’s a way you can roll green cookie dough “snakes”, cover then with plain dough, mash the snake to a shamrock leaf shape, cut into slices and put the slices together before baking to make shamrock cookies.
Also, I’ve recently discovered green pepper jelly. It’s delicious with cream cheese and might make an interesting sandwich.
Christy,
Thank you so much for this fun post! I’ve never really celebrated St. Patrick’s day with my kids (ages 12 to 2) but, I am going to this year! : ) I have already picked up the green kool-aid (found it at Walmart!) and some shamrock stickers. And, I’m planning to add green food coloring to the milk and even the toilets! (LOL! thanks to one of your blog commenters for the toilet idea….here’s hoping the toilet doesn’t get stained!)
I am getting so excited for St. Patrick’s day! Can’t wait!
Christy,
I’m glad I’m not the only one who does this for my kids. I also do this for Valentine’s Day, Easter, & Christmas. Now my kids are 14 & 11 and they still look forward to this. Also for dinner everything is green. From cabbage, pistachio pudding cake to green white grape juice or lime koolaid. Also sometimes I make green noodles with green eggs. We like to called the noodles seaweed which is nothing more then the packets of chicken noodles known as raimen. I just cook them in green food colored water & then drain the water. They come out a lovely shade of green. Also cool whip colors nicely for any type of topping. I even make green finger jello cut like shamrocks. Also one more thing I like to serve the kids lucky charms with green milk in the morning for breakfast. Thanks for the great recipes
I have never wanted to have children more so than when I read this post. OH MY GOSH! Everything is just so freaking cute! I hope one day I can do this for my children, it’s adorable! I love your site so much!
You inspired me! Thanks for the great idea.
http://thepeculiarhomemaker.blogspot.com/2009/03/happy-st-patricks-day.html
That’s all so cute! Can’t wait until my kids are school age and I can do this kind of stuff for them (okay, technically I can do it for them even though they’re both at home all day, but I just didn’t think to).
Here’s another fun green idea. Just yesterday I found this recipe for green shamrock cookies made with lime jell-o. They look yummy and fun, and we’re planning on making them today!
Here’s the link:
http://everydayfoodstorage.net/2009/03/15/st-patricks-day-fhe-jell-o-cookies-food-storage-recipes/food-storage-recipes
Christy,
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
I told you last week I was going to do these things for today & I did! This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. The kids were so excited to wake up to their green milk, lime Kool-Aid, green toilet water, green candy and shamrock stickers all over the place (including their cheeks when they woke up! *giggle*). And, I also placed a bowl of chocolate “gold” coins on our kitchen table. All of the kids (12, 10, 8, 4 & 2) have had a really fun day. Thanks for the ideas! I think we may have started a new family tradition. : )
Christy,
How much Spenda do you use to make a package of green Koolaid?
Congrats to you Christy! Even greater things are ahead for you, I’m sure! Wahoo! NYC – it is one of our favorite places. We love to go at Christmas time – the wonder, excitement, lights, shopping -it’s quite the spectacle.
I’d love to send you my “must see” and “must do” list especially if you are taking the kids.
You are so clever with those green lunches. I wish I had thought of all of that while my son was still at home. Hmmm…maybe I can mail him a green care package to college and have it get there in time for St. Patty’s Day, after all my grandfather was an O’Brien.
Christ,
I want you for my best friend. No really! I’m not kidding!
You are so clever, and I laugh so much when I read your posts that I wind up reading each of them over again, outloud to my kids. They always want to know what I’m laughing about.
I love your ideas, and I think my husband is going to wind up with a “green” lunch on St. Patrick’s Day. He’s gonna love it!
Keep up the love and laughter!
Carla
Love the idea, I think my 4 year old will love this next week. BTW, you can do Key Lime yogurt which is green. It’s one of her favorites!
Hey Christy,
I work at a preschool and we always make green Kool-Aid (haven’t looked for yet – hope I can find) and green jello with dyed green Cool Whip – they love it. I let the kids help make everything – stirring is fun when you are 3! I love you site!
Kathy
Thanks for some new great ideas for St. Patrick’s Day! Another fun thing that happened at our house when my kids were little is that the Leprechauns would sometimes take a bath in one of our sinks. Which meant that there was a sink left full of green water. If you want to make a spouse or teenager wake up quick on St. Paddy’s day it is always fun to color the toilet water green!
[...] a few weeks back when I received a package filled to the BRIM With Splenda! Most of you will remember that I then set out on a quest for green Kool Aid and eventually had to buy it off of Ebay from [...]
when my daughters were younger we started a tradition with our St.Pattys dinner…we tint as much green as we can!! Green mash potato, green butter, green irish soda bread…you name it -we’ve probably done it!! They talk about it every year and plan ahead. We just got our brisket and are planning for this year…can’t wait to do the apple juice in the lunch thing!! They will be sooo surprised!! Thanks!
When my children were at home, we made Irish stew, shamrock shaped biscuits, and green jello for supper.
Everything is green in Savannah, GA for St. Patty’s Day. We have the 2nd largest parade in the country. The river and fountains are dyed green, green grits, green everything! No school (no one goes if they schedule it). When I was a child it was lots of fun, but now it’s turned into a hugh party for several days for adult activities. We’ll just watch on tv and have some green lunch at home.
We wake up to green milk on St. Patty’s day….
This really makes me want to go crazy with my husband’s lunch this year! I’m sure he would spoil it and peek in before he left the house. I might just have to go green anyways.
Thanks for the ideas!!!
Super Cute!!! My daughter is 15 and packs a lunch for school…she’ll love this!
Yea, my mom always made green milk that we didn’t notice till it was poured into our cereal!
Do you really let your kids eat food coloring? Better do some checking.
Sure do, but I encourage everyone to follow their own convictions with regards to all aspects of their lives and will cheerlead for ya all the way!
We are having a celebration at work and everyone is supposed to bring something green! I am thinking about a Key Lime Pie or maybe spinich dip!
St. Patricks Day is very special for me. On St. Patricks day in 2000 a precious foster child was placed in my home — and it was love at first sight! This little boy had been in foster care since before he turned a year old and parental rights were in the process of being terminated. Well, this little boy is now my 14 year old son whom I adopted in 2002! He is the light of my life and I feel so very humbled that God chose me to be his Mama!
Thanks for all you do and all the great ideas!
Redawna
And now I’ll think about him on St Patrick’s Day this year and celebrate with you. What an amazing blessing for your family!!!
Make leprechaun surprise WITH your kids…pineapple, coolwhip, marshmallows, and pistachio pudding. Mix it all up. My DSS still talks about the first time we made it and the “white” pudding made the whole thing turn green.