Did you ever think to yourself, “Hey, it would be fun to make a St. Patrick’s Day meal, but I don’t have the time to figure out what I’d make?” Those were the exact words I thought a few years ago.
It was then, that I decided to try something new, so that year I made Irish Soda Bread for the first time. We loved it! Over the years I’ve found that making a traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal isn’t as hard as I thought it would be—and its important for our kids, and us, to step back and celebrate life as often as we can!
5 Simple Steps to Serve Your Family a St. Patrick’s Day Meal
1. Buy a corned beef brisket at your grocery store.
It will be in the meat department, and all the seasonings will be included in the package (if you want to use them). This will be very simple to make. Our favorite way to make it is adding a dijon mustard with brown sugar topping, wrapping it in tin foil and baking it in the oven. The quicker way is to add it to a crock pot as described below.
Buy some potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Throw the carrots into the bottom of a greased crock pot. Quarter the potatoes and lay them on top the carrots, adding a few onions too if you’d like. Lay the corned beef brisket on top of the veggies and then sprinkle on the seasonings. Add some beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, and a dry mustard. Cook on low for about 6-8 hours. Add some bite-size cabbage wedges to the top for the last hour of cooking.
2. Make or buy some Irish Soda Bread.
The first year I tried a St. Patrick’s Day meal, I made Irish Soda Bread. It was easy, tasted great and we all loved it! This year, I saw it in the store for $2.99 and decided just to buy it. You need this for your meal though—it is the perfect addition! I included a recipe for Irish Soda Bread on my St. Patrick’s Day Pinterest Board.
3. Make something green.
I highly doubt this is traditional for a St. Patrick’s Day Meal in Ireland, but if you have kids, have fun with the meal and make a green jello salad. We put some diced pears in ours!
4. Read a St. Patrick’s Day story.
If you don’t know much about St. Patrick’s Day, I encourage you to look up the history of it, or any St. Patrick’s Day story and read it during your mealtime. We read The Imagination Station: Challenge on the Hill of Fire a few nights in a row, and our kids kept begging to finish the story! I am amazed how much history we learn from the Imagination Station books.
5. Queue up some Irish dance music in your playlist and have it playing throughout your meal.
It will add a unique atmosphere to your dinner and probably spark some interesting conversation. Here is a playlist I found on YouTube of traditional Irish music.
If you want to go all out, head over to your Dollar Tree or Walmart and buy a green table cloth, paper supplies, napkins, or other special St. Patrick’s Day decorations. You could even have your kids make a green four-leaf-clover placemat for the place settings. You can find some other ideas on my St. Patrick’s Day Pinterest Board.
Most of all, have fun, take pictures and make lasting memories! (And don’t forget to save all your notes and recipes in a folder for next year, so you can do the same thing again.)
