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A New Way To Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

March 10, 2014   9 Comments

Your doctor has been telling you to eat more green things, right? How do these look?

The Wrong Green Food

Snack Girl is a bit, well, grumpy. Seems Monday is Saint Patrick's Day and green beer is going to be running down the streets of New York City. All you have to do is lean down and sip some from the gutters.

And, I am stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Actually, that isn't the reason why I am grumpy. I am SICK and TIRED of these holidays that promote crappy food. I know that you are going to tell me to relax, that St. Paddy's day is just once a year, etc. But, there are SO many of them.

Here is an inebriated list (ahem) - I mean ABBREVIATED list of Junk Food Holidays:

  • Super Bowl - Doritos
  • Valentine's Day - Candy
  • Fourth of July - Hot dogs
  • Kid's Birthdays - Candy, cake, ice cream, chips
  • Easter - Candy
  • Halloween - Candy, Candy, Candy

ETC. I think I attend about 2 junk food celebrations a week. Bake sales, knitting groups (with cookies of course), banks and their lollipops, college basketball games.....

ARGH.

Every trip to the store is fraught with the latest seasonal junk food that I have to avoid. And, I LOVE this stuff. I am an absolute push-over when it comes to cute green donuts or heart shaped cookies. It takes work to resist it all.

So, I am coming up with some new green ideas for Saint Patrick's Day and sending my svelte husband to go to the grocery store.

How about this:

roastedasparagusb

Green Thing...You Make My Heart Sing

or this?

roastedbroccolib

My Friends Use To Laugh At Me...And THEN I Made This Broccoli Recipe

Don't these look so much more delicious than the fake green stuff above?

Please share your thoughts on celebrations.

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9 Comments:

Please. Please. PLEASE. It's Paddy's Day. Not Patty's Day.

http://paddynotpatty.com/

I agree on how many "holidays" there are and the only way to celebrate is a ridiculous amount of unhealthy food. I couldn't believe the amount of candy my 3 yr old received from her pre-k class for Valentine's Day. I wish we could find new ways to celebrate holidays without the sole focus of candy and sweets.

I could not agree with you more. Others will even try to make you feel like a real scrooge if you say no to eating the crap!! Like you are some kind of "kill joy" for saying no. If eating treats were reserved for special times that would be one thing. But we live in a culture in which, WAY too often, there is a reason to celebrate with junk food. I too love to celebrate But.... lets celebrate with the goodness of fruit and veggies ! lets use these opportunities to teach our children to reach for health so when they are all grown up they will reach for goodness on there own. Oh I do feel better saying all that.

Thanks Snack Girl

I agree! It starts in Oct. with Halloween, and that loot lasts all the way through Nov. (even if you donate a bunch of it). Then you've got all the Dec. goodies. Maybe you're lucky if you have a break in Jan.--but our family has a birthday. Then comes Feb. candy (and why do I feel like I'm the ONLY mom who insists it's unnecessary to give any treat, whether candy or pencils or whatever, with the V day cards?). Then you've got both Fat Tuesday AND St. Patrick's in March, followed by Easter in April. We're on a 7-month binge of unhealthy eating in this family. I hate it. On a side note--pinterest is good for finding healthy fun ways to snack during the holidays. For example, I now love to try making a Christmas tree out of raw veggies each year for the extended family gathering. It's an awesome display, everyone loves eating the pieces of it, and I love that it's good for us. Also, when my son was in charge of making & bringing a snack for his cub scout den meeting, I looked for fun healthy snack ideas on pinterest and found a "vegetable skeleton", which we both were excited to make and all the boys loved picking apart to eat!

I have been making green smoothies in my magic bullet. Put about 1 cup fresh strawberries on the bottom, cram the rest of the container with baby spinach, about 1/2 cup or so of unsweetened vanilla almond milk and 1 tbsp. of ground flaxseed. Whir that baby up and you have a delicious, low calorie drink of ENERGY!!!

Super Bowl - small sandwiches, hot wings, sliders, salads

Valentines Day - Flowers, dining out, cards, jewelry?: )

Fourth of July - grilled steak, veggie kabobs, chicken, salads

Easter - Family dinner, cards, hard boiled eggs

Halloween - Fruit, popcorn, nickles or dimes

Kid's Birthdays - Flatbread pizzas or tea sandwiches, cake, ice cream

St. Patrick's Day - Kale and fruit smoothies!

It is a matter of choice. Why look at the negative side of things when you have the power to change unhealthy traditions? We are not weak pushovers for crap food!

agree totally with i_fortuna's comment!

who says we have to follow stick in the mud holiday

traditions? we hate cookie cutter holiday foods. they're

so predictable and boring. the kids all love the different foods we offer. we're FUN!

I think you're onto something good here . . . on another site I just saw reference to broccoli slaw. A friend's son printed labels "I'm bananas about you" to put on bananas for Valentine's Day . . . the variations one could do with that . . .

My in-laws always had fruit salad, oranges, bananas, coconut Christmas morning. Now I've reminded myself of how much I miss bananas (latex allergy) -- but there are so many other good foods.

I disagree with Easter. Parents give their kids junk on Easter but does it have to be that way? Besides Easter dinner was always the big thing in our house and it was a healthy wholesome meal. Focus was not on the candy. And what is wrong with boiled eggs? The rest I totally agree with.

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