Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Irish Blessing

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

We had a wonderful weekend with family. Since we were traveling I did not bento ...well ok except one quicky road food one for me since I got my new bento box and picks from El Lunch de mi Enano awesome giveaway. Thank you, these are my first picks and first bento box for me.  Perfect size for healthy portioned snacks.

In this bento : 

• Leftover chicken in a multigrain wrap
• Grapes
• Almonds
• Note - This is more than it is designed to hold but perfect for the console in my van, when I was done I stacked it and closed it so no mess on the go.

Knowing that we had a busy weekend ahead I also made some dessert ahead of time while packing. Sugar free brownies with buttercream frosting. Stuff I already had in the pantry...which lead me to decorate them with leprechaun hats and rainbows using our candy stash.

 Ingredients:

• Sans Sucre Brownie Mix Sugar Free Chocolate Fudge made 14 mini brownies
• Duncan Hines Creamy Home-style Premium Frosting, Buttercream
• Leprechaun Hats - Large marshamallow dipped in mint chocolate candy melts then placed on a lime jelly ring candy, beards are mini M&Ms
• Rainbow Airheads Rainbow berry xtreme candy and mini marshamallows 

Rainbow cake, there are many fancy versions of this on pinterest and websites. In fact the only difference is I used squirt bottles to make my layers because I was not going to bake 6 different layers, but wanted even layering not the rainbow drop method. Again since I was doing laundry, dishes, and packing I just used boxed items from the pantry. We had a busy day at the rodeo so decorating and lupper had to be fast too.

 

 Ingredients :

• Betty Crocker French vanilla cake - water, vegetable oil, eggs per box directions nothing fancy.
• Food coloring, I just used the generic I had on. I used about 6 drops total to make each color using the ratios from the back of the box
• Condiment bottles from the dollar store

 Directions  - Make batter according to package or follow your favorite recipes, any white or even yellow will work fine. Divide into 6 bowls, mine was about 1/2 cup +3 Tbsp give or take. Color any way you like. For thicker layers try an 8" or smaller pan or you could make 2 boxes, I only had 1 on hand and I liked the condition on of my 9" pans better. Empty first color and gently shake to get all the way to the edges. Working one color at a time, I used a squirt bottle to gently add the next color, spreading with a gentle twisting motion in between layers. If you stir the layering is lost so try to squirt evenly, it took some practice for me to cover the whole thing. If you spin too much it'll just ride up the sides, its a gentle process. 3 colors per pan and then back according to the box...or recipe for you folks that have the time. ;) Once cooled you just stack and decorate any way you like.  I tried the Duncan Hines flavorings this time and it was pretty good. We had vanilla icing base and added the mint chocolate flavor packets. I also added oreos around the side, green cherries on top, and made a shamrock out of mint oreos and an Andes candy for decoration. This semi-homade dessert took about an hour to make between mixing and baking and decorating. I was doing so many other things I didn't time it, but it was fast and easy.

Of course we had a some tiny visitors too. My nephew started us off right with a lucky gold hunt he prepared in the backyard for our boys to do. Then like magic all liquids started turning green, our pancake mix staretd white and turned green as we stirred. The milk poured from the bottle turned green in our cups, as did water and beer ( for the grown-ups). Even the toilet water was green all day. The leprechauns decorated the table in streamers and we blinged up the boys with neckaces, mini hats, shamrock glasses, shamrock straws, and of course wore out greenesy clothing. I even had my shamrock socks. 

 
Lupper - a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner with baby red potatoes, baby carrots, and green beans, and of course a green Guiness! (Or green milk if you're under 21)

Sadly this ends our wonderful spring break and its back to school tomorrow so..I need to go to bed. Sure was a whole lot of fun!