Fun food for St. Patrick's Day

I try to find a way to celebrate just about every holiday in some small way with my children. With St. Patrick's Day coming up, my youngest daughter found this Irish troll at a local Goodwill yesterday, and I decided he was a good mascot for the season. Remember these funny little guys?

I made these fun plates (below) at home for my kids to snack on. I used food coloring to make green-tinted hummus with tiny carrot shamrocks on top. Our local Whole Foods Market and Sur La Table carry India Tree food colors made with natural ingredients and not the chemicals that can cause cancer! To go with the hummus, I prepared homemade clover-shaped pita chips. I used a mini cookie cutter to stamp out shapes with pita bread. I spritzed each piece with coconut oil and sprinkled with a light dusting of garlic powder. I also like the idea of making these with cinnamon and dipping in dairy-free yogurt, too. The apple in the middle was sliced in half with a clover cut out of the middle.I soak my cutouts in water with a bit of citrus juice to prevent browning. At the bottom right are kiwi slices and bottom left are dried apricots and green grapes.

On the second plate, a shamrock-shaped, whole grain bread sandwich sits on a bed of spinach leaves. At the top are clover-shaped honeydew melon; the green shamrock container holds edamame and fresh snap peas; and a clover-shaped dried apricot is below that. At the bottom left is a clover-shaped cucumber and above that is an apple hat with fruit leather buckle.

Don't have a clover cutter at home? Find a mini heart cutter at Michael's, JoAnn's or a local kitchen store and make three or four of the hearts into a small clover or shamrock. I cut fruits, vegetables and breads into shapes to entice my kids to eat better each day. You'd be surprised at how little effort it takes for them to try something new if it's in a fun, colorful shape.

I stumbled upon an amazing recipe for vegan deviled eggs through the Happy Herbivore. Chef Lindsay Nixon makes simple-to-follow, easily recreated recipes that are delicious. I was looking for an appetizer I could feed to dozens of non-vegan people for an event. I wanted to do something different but still typical vegan food. Nixon's recipe for vegan deviled eggs is adapted from Ann Esselstyn, wife of cardiac surgeon Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, one of the physicians behind the movie Forks Over Knives. I think it's brilliant! It satisfies the desire for deviled eggs minus all the fat and cholesterol.

I decided to try it with my kid-like kind of twist.  I colored half of the hummus filling with green food coloring. After all, it was Dr. Seuss' birthday last week so my little ones are talking about him all week in school. And it's a perfect party food for St. Patrick's day that fills people up quickly. The recipe for these gluten-free, fat-free, dairy-free and egg-free snacks can be found here:

Happy Herbivore's Vegan Deviled Eggs

Cooked red creamer potatoes make up the "egg" in this recipe. You cook them, let them cool and scoop out the middle with a small spoon or melon baller.

I also gave mine an additional switch-up by filling some with Eat Wholly's Wholly Guacamole.  It's one of the favorite snack items in our house.

It only has whole food ingredients with no additives or preservatives. So next time you're looking for a healthy snack, these can be on the table in a few short minutes ...

... or decorated for a fun party for kids and adults.  I served these at a party this past weekend and 70 of them were gone in about 40 minutes! I'd say they were a success.