St. Patrick's Day Breakfast

I'm sharing a St. Patrick's Day breakfast sure to put a little extra Spring in your family's steps.  St. Patrick's Day is the perfect opportunity to surprise your kids will a rainbow-filled kind of morning.  After months of bitter cold temperatures and snow still piled high in our backyard, mid-March rainbows are a much welcomed sight!  

I was so excited planning this surprise breakfast in my mind.   In one trip to the grocery store, I had everything I needed.  Before I went to bed that night, the table was set, the fruit was washed and cut, the straws were snipped in half, and the pillow floor cushions and napkins were trimmed with green ribbon.

I needed to get up 20 minutes early to make the pancakes, mix the hot cocoa, and assemble the fruit skewers.

Let's get started with the pancakes.  Divide pancake batter between six bowls:

Stir a rainbow of food coloring into each bowl.  Make sure to add enough food coloring to get nice bright colors.  If the red looks pink, the pancakes will be pink.  If the batter is pale green, the pancakes will be pale green.

Next, heat a skillet or griddle to med-high.  Using a full tablespoon of batter, dollop the batter (as close to a full round circle as you can get) on the griddle.

 When the edges firm (or dry) and the batter bubbles, it is time to flip the pancakes.

 Continue with each batter color:

Stack your pancakes red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple:

The base of the rainbow had 3 powdered sugar donut holes on one side and 2 powdered sugar donut holes on the other side to resemble clouds.  The black plastic containers are filled with dark amber maple syrup for dipping the pancakes.

The menu features the four leaf clover we found on a long hike in the fall.  It was one of my absolute favorite days with my kids.  We hiked for 4.5 hours- skipping and leaping and gathering fall leaves.  I think we all felt a little lucky that day.

For the rainbow fruit skewers, select fruit by color- there are several combinations you can come up with:  strawberries, raspberries, red apple, watermelon, oranges, cantaloupe, peach, mangoes, pineapple, bananas, kiwi, green grapes, honeydew, pear, green apple, blueberry, blackberry, purple grapes.  Slide the fresh fruit up the skewer according to the colors of the rainbow:

The kids were delighted as they came down the stairs in the morning and saw the little decorated table set up in the middle of the room.  Just like little Leprechauns, both kids went right for the gold coins.

Shopping list to pull off this 20 minute prep-time breakfast for your kids:

pancake mix, food coloring (packs usually come with 4 colors red/blue/green/yellow, so red & yellow makes orange, red & blue makes purple), powdered sugar donut holes, maple syrup, marshmallows, rainbow colored fruit, skewers, hot cocoa with rainbow marshmallows or any other beverage, gold chocolate coins and/or gold Rolo candies.  Extras:  flowers, green Easter grass, ribbon or felt to make shamrock decorations.

St. Patrick's Day is one of those holidays that can easily pass by pinning a little green to your shirt and calling it a day.  Why not create something a little more magical this St. Patrick's Day?  I can vouch that the giggles, smiles and chatter were well worth the extra effort.  Update 2021: I created this breakfast in 2013. My daughter is now 16 and still looks forward to her St. Patrick's Day surprise breakfast every year!