The luckiest month of the year is once again upon us and it’s a great reason to get back in the kitchen. This time, bring your little leprechauns with you! Kids absolutely love helping to create meals, and what could be more fun than cooking up some delicious, mouth-watering green treats?!
Get your St. Patty’s Day off to a super fun start with these 7 adorable recipes your kids will love:
Shamrock Chicken Quesadillas
Ingredients:
- Spinach Tortillas
- Cheese of choice, shredded
- Toppings of choice, optional (Five Star boneless, skinless chicken breast, veggies, etc)
- Butter
- Large shamrock cookie cutter
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Use the shamrock cookie cutter to cut out your tortillas. You will need 2 Shamrock shapes for each quesadillas.
3. Use a pastry brush to brush one shamrock with butter. Place butter side down on a baking sheet.
4. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and add toppings of choice. Top with a second shamrock and brush top with butter. Repeat for remaining shamrock shapes. Bake for 5 minutes or so, checking frequently. You want the shamrock quesadillas to just be starting to brown and get a little crispy.
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Clover Shaped Bread Bowl with Beef Stew
Ingredients
• 3 tubes Pillsbury refrigerated French loaf
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp water
• 1-2 packages Five Star Certified Angus Beef Stew
• Cilantro (optional garnish)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Line a baking pan with non-stick aluminum foil or parchment paper. Unroll one French Bread dough onto the pan.
3. Whisk together the egg and water. Brush a thin layer of the egg wash over the unrolled dough.
4. Open the other two tubes of bread. Stretch and roll each log of dough until it has a little more than doubled in length.
5. Cut one log of dough in half. Set the pieces of dough onto egg washed dough in the shape of a shamrock. Cut around the shamrock, removing the excess dough.
6. Bake for 30-32 minutes, until deep golden brown.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
8. Cut out a well in the leaves of the shamrock, leaving an inch of bread around the edges and bottom of each leaf. Remove excess bread.
9. Heat Five Star Beef Chili according to package instructions. Fill bread bowl with chili, add optional Cilantro and serve. Alternatively, you can also fill the bread bowl with the chili and heat it in the oven for about 20 minutes.
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Lucky Leprechaun Hats
Ingredients
• Cucumbers
• Yellow Bell Pepper
• White Cheese
• Honey or Agave Syrup
• Small square cutter
• Knife
Instructions
1. Take your cucumber and cut one inch cylinders (approximately). One cylinder will make two hats.
2. Stand your cucumber cylinders straight up and cut down the middle. Lay them flat, cut side down. Those will be the tops of your Leprechaun hats.
3. With the rest of your cucumber cut some cucumber sticks, slightly larger than your cylinders. Those will be the lip of your hats. (cut a cucumber cylinder larger than your top hat cylinders. Cut those in half, and then cut to make cucumber sticks).
4. With your small square cutter cut a few few squares out of yellow bell pepper.
5. With a knife cut some strips of cheese. I just eyeballed it–there really is no need to be precise. If it is too long you can always cut it shorter 🙂
6. Assemble the hats: You need half a cucumber cylinder, one cucumber stick, one yellow bell pepper square and one piece of cheese. You can use a little bit of honey or agave nectar to “glue” down the cheese and bell pepper, if desired. I used a toothpick and dabbed some honey where the cheese was going to be place.
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Lucky Spinach Quiche
Makes 3 quiches or 12 mini quiches
Ingredients
• 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup half-and-half (or milk or cream)
• 1/2 cup grated gruyere or cheddar
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 3 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup diced onion (white, red, or green onions)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 recipe pâte brisée (recipe below)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425ºF.
2. Mix the cream cheese with the eggs, one at a time.
3. Mix in the half-and-half, salt, and pepper. Then add the rest of the ingredients: spinach, gruyere, parmesan, and onions. Mix.
4. Shape the pâte brisée in either of the two methods described below.
5. After the shape crusts are filled, place the aluminum tins on a baking sheet and bake the quiches for about 20 minutes. Cool for a few minutes.
6. Carefully remove the quiches from the aluminum tins, line the baking sheet with parchment paper, and place the quiches on the lined sheet.
7. Place the quiches back in the oven for 5-10 minutes until the crust sides crisp up a bit. Let cool for 10 minutes, then serve.
Pâte Brisée
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4-1/2 cup ice water
1. Mix the flour with the salt.
2. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter or your fingers until it resembles coarse meal.
3. Add the ice water, a little at a time, while gently mixing until the dough sticks together.
4. Split the dough in two. Place each half on a piece of plastic wrap and flatten each into a disc. Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, until ready to use.
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Shamrock Cucumber Sandwiches
Ingredients
2. Split the English muffins in half and cut out shamrocks in the muffin halves.
3. Spread the cheese mixture.
4. Place 3 cucumbers on each leaf. Use the green pepper slice as a stem. Place a parsley leaf on top of the sandwich.
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Mini Four Leaf Clover Pizzas
Ingredients
Serves 6
- 1 pizza dough
- About 1/2 cup pizza sauce
- About 2/3 cup mozzarella cheese
- Pepperoni or Five Star hot or sweet Italian sausage
- Baby arugula
- Four-leaf clover cookie cutter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a pizza pan or stone.
- Roll dough out to about 1/8-inch thickness. Using the cookie cutters, cut out shamrock shapes and place on the greased baking sheet. If you want a larger pizza too, trace a large four-leaf clover shape into the remaining dough and place on the same sheet.
- Top each shamrock with about 1 tablespoon of pizza sauce and a sprinkle of cheese. Top with pepperoni or sausage and bake for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.
- Once pizza is done baking, top with arugula and serve immediately!
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St. Patrick’s Day S’mores
Ingredients
- Keebler® Fudge Stripes™ Cookies
- Large Marshmallows
- Dark Chocolate Candy Melts
- Green Candy Melts
- Green Sprinkles or Cake Sparkles
Instructions
1. Melt dark chocolate candy in the microwave, in 30 second intervals on 50% power. Stir after each heating. Repeat until completely melted. Dip Fudge Stripe Cookies into chocolate, coating completely. Shake off any excess. Set on parchment paper, top side down, until candy coating is completely set.
2. Using a toothpick, dip marshmallow into chocolate and coat almost entirely. Shake off any excess. Set on parchment paper, until candy coating is completely set. Remove toothpick.
3. Melt green candy just as you did the chocolate. Flip marshmallow upside down and insert new toothpick in top. Dip into green candy, just barely, to create a small band of green around the bottom.
4. Coat green candy band with sprinkles or sparkles. Shake off excess.
5. Place marshmallow in center of chocolate covered cookie. Carefully remove toothpick. Touch up the toothpick hole with a small dab of melted chocolate, if desired.
6. Spoon some of the remaining melted green candy into a piping bag, ziplock bag or squeeze bottle. On parchment paper, make three small dots of candy in the shape of a triangle. Each dot should be about the size of a chocolate chip. Using a toothpick, swirl the three dots together to form a shamrock shape. Swirl the bottom two dots together first, then the top dot. Pull toothpick straight down to form the stem. Before candy hardens, cover with sprinkles or crushed cake sparkles. Once shamrocks have set up, dust off excess sparkle.
7. To finish the hat, attach a glittering shamrock with a small dab of melted green.
What are some of your favorite St. Patty’s Day recipes to make with your kids?
Tell us about them (and don’t forget to include pictures!)
