St. Patrick's Day Party Food Ideas for Kids

St. Paddy's Day party

A bit of Advice

Keep in mind that kids will eat more than just pizza. A lot of children I know love Cesar salad but if you tell them it has anchovies, "fish," in it, forget about it. So always try to embellish or create a new name for a dish. For example broccoli with cheese sauce try using the name "Lucky the Leprechaun's clover trees with melted gold sauce" or if you are using minced herbs over food for a green color effect, tell your kids it's "Lucky the Leprechaun's magical clover/shamrock flakes.

If you're a little unsure about picky kids always serve one dish you know is a hit. Or serve sauces & dips on the side. Be creative. Think Shamrock green and pot of gold yellow. More ideas below.

Cucumber bites - Use a vegetable peeler to cut lengthwise strips of peel down four sides of large cucumber leaving some visible peel, making a square shape. Cut cucumber into 1 inch chunks. With a melon baler scoop out a hole in the middle of the cucumber to create a bite size bowl. Be sure not to go to deep you want the bottom to stay in tack. Fill with garlic and herb cream cheese, or dill dip.

St. Patty's Vegetable table tray- Cut up broccoli, cucumber, celery, green bell peppers, snap peas, and zucchini use ranch or dill dip. For extra color sprinkle minced parsley or dill in and on top of dip.

St. Patrick's fruit tray- Use green grapes, sliced green apple, sliced kiwi, balled honeydew melon. Use tooth picks to pick up fruit and dip into vanilla yogurt or key lime pie yogurt.

Clover Dip - Use your favorite spinach dip. I like Knorr's vegetable recipe mix. Serve with vegetables, crackers, or French baguette bread slices

Saint Patty's pickle tray - Serve dill pickles, and sweet pickles of different varieties, shapes and sizes. You can an assortment of olives if you like.

Irish Deviled Eggs - Hard Boil eggs. Gently crack shells of the eggs, by rolling on a hard surface, but don't remove the shells. Place half of the eggs in 2 cup of hot water, two tablespoons of vinegar and 20 to 40 drops green food coloring. The dye bath should cover the eggs. Let the eggs sit in the dye bath for about 10 minutes. Take out one egg and remove the shell. The white of the egg should now be green and veined with darker green where the dye got through. If not let the eggs stay in the dye bath a little longer. Use your favorite deviled egg recipe. For the other half of the eggs, add chopped green herbs to the egg yolk to turn it green. Or add a few drops of food color to the yolks. I like a simple recipe for deviled eggs just adding mayonnaise and mustard to the yolks.

Magic Leprechaun bundles - Fill lettuce leaf with a tablespoon or so of tuna salad, chicken salad or ham salad. Fold the lettuce leaf around the salad as if you were wrapping a package. Tuck ends underneath. If you use different kinds of salad wrap each in a different kind of lettuce. Kids don't like surprises and if they think they're biting into chicken salad and get tuna instead, well….

Irish Potatoes: Mix sour cream with your favorite dill dip mix or buy ready made. Bake small red potatoes until done. Cut in half. Place a dollop of dip on each half. Place on a tray dip side up. YOu might have to gently squash the potato half against the tray so it doesn't roll. Sprinkle with extra dill or chopped parsley. Best served warm but good at room temperature as well.

Pea Salad: Two cans (don't use fresh or frozen) of baby peas, sweet peas, or early peas, drained. ˝ cup finely chopped onion or scallions, ˝ cup cheddar cheese cut into Ľ inch cubes. You can also use shredded cheese, ˝ cup mayonnaise, pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly, gently mash some of the peas into the mixture. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Cheese will start to melt into the mayonnaise. Place a scoop of pea salad on a plastic spoon. Arrange filled plastic spoons on a tray.

For dips hollow out green and gold bell peppers to create bowls to hold dips. You might have to shave just a tiny bit off the bottom of the pepper so it's level.

Hollowed out heads of cabbage heads could be used for holding salads.