Leprechaun Dinner Party for Kids and Parents

It’s a personal challenge to see how my vegetables I can get kids to eat. Jumping on St. Patrick’s Day as a great opportunity to make “green food”, this turned into a super fun dinner party for my 7-year old and friends—with parents. With 10—TEN!—vegetables, it was a meal everyone enjoyed.

I set out the appetizer—Edamame Guacamole and green veggies—when they first arrived.  The snap peas were a big hit with the kids, the other veggies not so much. I’ve discovered many kids are likely to eat the broccoli if it is steamed (soft but with a bite, never mushy) rather than raw. I steamed the appetizer broccoli with the Green Mac n’ Cheese broccoli.

For those who needed encouragement to eat their veggies, my daughter showed them the graham cracker Leprechaun house “constructions” supplies.

After they’d munched some veggies, they were allocated their construction supplies, including a “preview” of two M&M and two jellybeans to eat—yes, before dinner. It’s not realistic to expect them not to eat any candy while using the candy to make their leprechaun house. My daughter reminded them that those who ate more than the allocated share, would lose their leprechaun house constructing privilege to those who did follow the rules. It was pleasantly surprising that her friends followed the rules and everyone got to build their own leprechaun house.