Green Dinner For St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's day is next week and everyone knows that the color green is associated with the holiday. I'm not sure why exactly. Maybe because Ireland is called "The Emerald Isle"? Or because shamrocks are green? Anyone know? In any case, be sure to have your kids wear something green to school on the 17th so they don't get pinched. ;-)  Another fun thing to do to celebrate is to serve an all green dinner.

Here I used basil pasta (spinach pasta would work too) with alfredo sauce. You could put a few drops of green in your sauce to color it, but I realized as I was cooking that I was out of food coloring so I just sprinkled some parsley on top instead. Served with broccoli and a green salad as shown here you have a well balanced healthy meal that just happens to be all green! You can be creative. Serve green grapes or zucchini instead if you wish. We had some green Powerade to drink and for dessert we made lime jello with cool whip and sprinkles. This is not a hard thing to do. You have to make dinner anyway right? Kids really enjoy anything that is a little out of the ordinary, and coming to the table on St. Patrick's Day for "green dinner" can become a simple tradition they look forward to.