Family traditions and food, St Patrick's Day

It's been a tradition at my house to celebrate all kinds of holidays with special and colorful food.  The girls remembered when I dyed pancakes red and blue to celebrate the 4th of July.  St Patrick's Day has been a favorite and we've dyed mashed potatoes, rice, scrambled eggs and various other things green in honor of the day plus eaten naturally green foods.  Today continuing the tradition we had green glop on rice, (recipe to follow), spinach salad, steamed broccoli and Brussels sprouts plus key lime pie for lunch today.  When I told my family the menu I had planned, the first thing John requested was please not dye the rice green.  I did that one year and I have to admit eating green glop on top of a brighter shade of green rice was a bit much.  Aubree requested that I add food coloring to the key lime pie to make it greener which I did. She's always loved dying food.  So we had a very green lunch loaded with lots of veggies and was enjoyed by all, even John.  Happy St Patrick's Day, enjoy the green!!


Green Glop recipe
My mom made this up years ago and the greenness comes from a bunch of herbs added to the meat mixture.

3 to 4 lbs hamburger meat, cooked in skillet until brown then drain.  Add chopped onion, garlic and sweet peppers.  I keep baggies of chopped onions and sweet peppers in my freezer and added a handful of each plus 2 tablespoons of minced garlic.  Saute until almost done then add 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, 1 can of peas with the liquid and herbs.  Herbs include, parsley, oregano, marjoram, sweet basil, Tastefully Simple Spinach and Herb seasoning, Italian seasoning, seasoned salt and pepper.  I don't really measure the herbs, I just throw them it until it looks and tastes right.  At least a tablespoon of each except the salt and pepper.  Heat through until creamy and serve over cooked rice or noodles. It can be made ahead of time and heated in the microwave. It also freezes well.