Muffin Tin Monday - I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover

For this week's Muffin Tin Meal, I wanted to do something St. Patrick's-y, so it would be up and posted before St. Patrick's Day. I just found a green clover muffin tin from Wilton at Party City last week, so decided to try for an all-green theme as well.

Celery w/PB, Green grapes,
Snappea Crisps, Green Kool-Aid (Lemon-Lime,)
Green Greek honey yogurt, Pesto Crescent dough Shamrock, Pirate's Booty

It's Not That Easy Being Green: I had brainstormed some quick green food ideas, then went to the kitchen to see if I actually had any. I had settled on green apple for the fruit, since we had just bought one last week. But apparently she had eaten it. So that meant I couldn't do my MTM on Saturday, I'd have to wait until Sunday, and go to the store in between. Until I found the green grapes! So I managed to slap one together in time for Saturday's lunch! I knew I could use frozen peas or something, if I didn't have any broccoli, but I found the celery, so we were good for veggies, especially with the Snappea Crisps (Original flavor.)

Pot O' Gold: I got the plastic cauldrons at Party City in their St. Patrick's section. These were too cute to pass up, so I'm glad I was got the flash of inspiration to add one in at the last moment, even though it means straying from the green theme. They were $3ish for 10, which is more than I'll ever need. But I was able to justify it because I wanted them can also use them as witch's cauldrons for Halloween. I actually used some cheese puffs from Trader Joe's, but they're just like the Pirate's Booty ones.

Pot O' Green: For the green Greek honey yogurt (without honey on top, for the first time ever!) I added around 1/4th of a packet of unsweetened Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid packet and mixed it (plus a drop of green food coloring, to make the color deeper) in my green Kinderville Little Bites storage jar. Got some Spring/Easter sprinkles at Target's dollar spot ($2.50/5 20-28g jars of assorted colored sugar, jimmies, confetti and other sprinkles.)  I used some light green sugar sprinkles, which didn't show up well, so I added a white and light green jimmies mix with yellow butterfly sprinkles. Dug out her "little green man" Headchefs Kids Spoon because it's little, green, and super cute. You know. Like a Leprechaun.

I mixed up the rest of the Kool-Aid packet with 3/4ths of the water listed on the back (12 cups instead of 16 cups) but only half the sugar (1/2 cup, instead of the 1 cup the instructions called for, or the 3/4 cup that my new ratio would have been.) I feel that most sweetened items are sweeter than I really need them to be, so I like the unsweetened Kool-Aid, because I can control the sugar. I add less, and can always add more if needed. More was not needed. I could probably try a little less next time too.

Four... err Three-Leaf Clover: I snagged on the idea for the shamrock roll last minute Saturday morning, as I was searching for green stuff in the fridge (or to make a list of stuff I'd need to pick up to make a green/St. Patrick's themed MTM for Sunday.) I decided I could do them just like my snail rolls for Halloween, except make the snails join at the stems instead of having heads!

This time I didn't have to fight with the pre-cut crescent dough, since I've been sitting on a tube of un-cut Pillsbury crescent dough, bought special for this eventuality. Not butterflake flavor though. :( So I brushed on some butter first, since I really liked how the pesto tasted baked into the butterflake rolls. Then I brushed on pesto. Since I'd have more than I needed, I decided to make more snail rolls as well. So I left a section at the top without pesto to make the heads for the snails, as well as the stem of the third clover-leaf stem. I used a pizza cutter to make strips.

Since I had spread the pesto all the way to the top on more of the dough than I needed, I made some spiral rolls out of the extra. (Snails in two left columns, extra spirals top right, shamrock roll bottom right.)

I baked them at 375 F for 10 minutes. My husband said they were a little underdone, but I liked them okay. Plus I left them on the warm pan for a bit, so they probably baked a little more after I took them out.

The shamrock looks more like a Fleur de Lis, but oh well.

She ended up trying some of the crescent roll, which was an unwelcome a pleasant surprise, as I had hoped to eat it all myself hadn't gotten my hopes up about her being willing to eat it. She spooned the peanut butter out of the celery sticks, and only ate the teeny-tiniest one (cut from above the leaves) because I told her that she had to eat some of the actual celery. She munched a little on the cheese puffs too. I don't think she even touched the grapes. Or the Snappea Crisps.

She called the Kool-Aid "candy juice." And she loved it. Plus she never once asked for honey or more sprinkles on her yogurt, which is a first. I've always felt that the Zoi Greek honey yogurt was plenty sweet, but I used to get plain and add honey, so that's how she expects yogurt to be served now. But apparently adding a little flavor via the Kool-Aid did the trick. The smattering of sprinkles got her willing to try it (I was worried, after the red yogurt debacle) and the flavor got her to keep eating it. She didn't end up finishing it at first, but the Little Bites jar has a lid, so we just put it in the fridge and she finished it off after nap. And cried when I told her I couldn't make more green yogurt, since I had used the rest of the green flavor to make the drink. But she's excited to try new flavors, which I hinted at, since I had stocked up when I had a coupon for free sugar (the small bag) with purchase of 10 packets of Kool-Aid, and Winco sells the Kool-Aid 5/$1, so I got a great deal!

And what's an Irish holiday without beer? Root beer, that is. Chug! Chug! Chug! My husband made us some tuna fish sandwiches (with pickles, of course!) and brought out a microbrewery root beer from the hoard he has stashed somewhere (so philistines like me, who are happy with Mug and Hires, don't "waste" it.)

Check out the other great Muffin Tin Meals this week!