I’m not sure when St. Patrick’s Day became a national holiday nearly on par with Christmas. I know it can be a slow slog through the months of school between winter and spring breaks, but we still have a few stray pieces of Valentine’s candy around and now we’re in full-fledged leprechaun territory. And for kids, corned beef and cabbage has long since been supplanted with shamrock cookies and pots of gold. At least the chocolate is, well, slightly natural, but the barrage of bright rainbow-colored and artificially-dyed green treats flooding the internet frankly makes me nauseous. Even so, I wasn’t sure how my own little leprechauns would react to my latest green smoothie. Neither has touched avocado on its own since their first birthdays, though they will still dabble in guacamole occasionally. (I doubt anyone would suspect a toddler of being a rational being.)

Recently my five-year-old watched a VitaMix demonstration at the supermarket with rapt attention. When the woman placed handfuls of kale and spinach in the smoothie, he declared, “I LOVE kale and spinach!” Um, news to me, to say the least — but I determined to test his enthusiasm at home. And so my Leprechaun Smoothie was born — avocado, banana, orange juice and spinach. (According to the folks at Avocados from Mexico, a slice of avocado has a full gram of fiber — always something little ones can use more of.) Even if your kids load up on junk food the rest of the day, at least they can get a healthy start this St. Patrick’s Day.

As for my leprechauns? They both demanded seconds. To quote my five-year-old, “I’ll die if you don’t get me some more smoothie immediately.” That’s better than a pot of gold to this mama.

Recipe: Avocado Spinach Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 avocado, sliced
• 1 banana
• 1 cup orange juice
• several fresh spinach leaves

Instructions: Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Makes 2 small servings or 1 large smoothie.

A few other healthy green options for St. Patrick’s Day:

• braised cabbage and apples from Take Back Your Table
• zucchini muffins from In the Kitchen with Audrey
• chilled pea & asparagus soup from Foodie Tots
  
• I also highly recommend “I Am So Over the Rainbow Cake” at Spoonfed.

(and if you really want to go even more naturally green, check out my “Eat More Kale {and Other Greens}” board on Pinterest.)

We’re big fans of Dr. Seuss around here. The boy has been looking forward to PBS Kids’ Cat-in-the-Hat-a-thon all week — and, he even has the day off school so he can camp out in front of the tv in his pjs to watch. Meanwhile, I made a Seuss breakfast: Lorax pancakes, green eggs and ham, and pink ink. You know, of One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish:

This one, I think, is called a Yink.
He likes to wink, he likes to drink.
He likes to drink, and drink, and drink.
The thing he likes to drink is ink.
The ink he likes to drink is pink.
He likes to wink and drink pink ink. – Dr. Seuss

This breakfast smoothie is fast to whip up. And the best part — it’s all natural, no food dyes needed.

Recipe: Yink’s Pink Ink Drink

Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon honey (adjust to taste)
• 1 teaspoon ground flaxseed

Instructions: Place all ingredients in blender and puree until smooth and frothy. Pour into glasses, add a straw, and enjoy! Makes 2 small smoothies.

What’s the most read Dr. Seuss book in your house? Ours is probably Green Eggs in Ham, but One Fish Two Fish gets a lot of air time as well. Most exciting is that the boy is just about ready to start reading them to us — can’t wait!

One of my favorite breakfasts as a child was something so simple I’d nearly forgotten about it. It begins with an egg and a slice of toast, but is somehow elevated to something fancy when you stick the egg inside the toast. While I’ve since heard it called by various names, in my house it’s a toad-in-the-hole. (Oddly, I always assumed the name came from my English great-grandmother, but according to Simply Recipes, a British toad-in-the-hole is another dish entirely. The Pioneer Woman goes with the more descriptive “Egg-in-a-Hole.”)

I’m also a sucker for greens with my eggs, so when I spotted eggs with crispy kale on Pinterest I immediately gave it a try.* Fabulous. Hop on over to Happy Jack Eats for the recipe. As for the toad-in-the-hole, butter both sides of a piece of whole wheat sandwich bread. Use a biscuit cutter or glass to cut a circle out of the center. Put your skillet on over medium heat, add the toast (cook the cut-out circle on the side), and crack an egg into the center. Cover and cook about 2-3 minutes, until white is set, flipping for the last minute if you prefer your egg over easy.

(*Every time I type “crispy kale” I have to fight the urge to write “krispy kale.” I don’t want to get into a trademark battle with the doughnut chain, but wouldn’t that be something, a kale-centric breakfast food chain?)

Start your Leap Day off right with some frogs and greens, and enjoy the “extra” day!

Once kids enter the picture, New Year’s Eve bashes tend to shift earlier, or vanish altogether, often replaced by cozy evenings at home. Truthfully, I don’t mind too much. When I was growing up, we would get together with close family friends, play games, eat junk food (potato chips and dip) and wait for the Times Square ball to drop. At 5-years and 18-months, the foodie tots haven’t reached the staying-up-till-midnight phase yet, so we’re planning to celebrate with them on London time before sending them off to bed so mama and daddy can enjoy some quiet (and maybe a little bubbly) while waiting for the ball to drop.

New Year’s Day has become the bigger holiday for now, with a family-friendly brunch with friends. Here’s a shirred egg dish that elevates your every-day eggs into a celebration-worthy dish, perfect for starting off the year right. (I always thought that “shirred” referred to baking under cream, but apparently it’s just the baking technique. Nevertheless, the cream helps keep the eggs from drying on top, which is especially useful if your kids prefer their yolks well done.)

Serve these with coffee cake or leftover Christmas panettone (why yes, I did pick up another on sale…). Swap out the bacon for lox and you’ve got a classy, kid-friendly holiday brunch. Don’t forget the blood orange mimosas.

Recipe: Individual Baked (Shirred) Eggs

Ingredients:

• 4 cage-free eggs
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream
• grated parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter and divide among 4 small ramekins.
2. Crack one egg into each ramekin. Pour one tablespoon cream over each, and season each with a pinch of salt and pepper (I omit the pepper for the kids).
3. Place ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 9-10 minutes, until white looks opaque and mostly cooked through. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over tops and return to oven for another 1-2 minutes. Yolks will still be soft at this point — cook 2 more minutes or so for firm yolks if desired.

Serves 4.

Happy New Year to you & your family!

There’s a lot going on at the Foodie Tots’ house these days. The foodie tot himself graduated from Pre-K on Friday. We hosted a small post-graduation brunch on Saturday, there are relatives in town and we’re about to head out of town on the first of several summer trips. Throw in work and all the other more mundane items on the never-ending “to do” list and we’re lucky if we even remember to eat.

On busy days like these it’s nice to have a few basic recipes to fall back on. My protein-packed “Peach Power Smoothies” is one such recipe — a great breakfast for Meatless Monday and any other hectic day of the week.

Visit Babble.com for the recipe — along with 49 other family-approved recipes from Babble’s “Top 100 Food Bloggers.”

Did you make it to the farmers market this weekend? Around here, cherries are beginning to appear, and garlic scapes, summer squash and squash blossoms have been spotted as well. Visit us on Facebook to share what you found at the market this week.