5 Healthy St. Patrick's Day Party Food Ideas

St. Patrick's Day parties usually evoke images of green beer, corned beef, cabbage, and some sort of dessert colored green with food coloring. If you are watching your weight, St. Patrick's Day parties don't usually offer the best in low calorie or nutritious food choices. Here are a few ideas for nutritious, delicious, and appetizing St. Patrick's Day party foods you can feel good about serving and eating.

1. Fresh fruit rainbow. Arrange fruits such as red grapes, green grapes, mandarin oranges, strawberries, blueberries, or chunks of melon into a rainbow shape. A fresh fruit platter with the Luck of the Irish.

2. Green bell peppers as shamrocks. Thinly slice a whole bell pepper cross wise. Save a few slices to cut into stems. Serve with a low fat dip made from Greek yogurt.

3. Shamrock chips made from spinach tortillas. Using a cookie cutter in the shape of a shamrock, cut out festive shapes from whole spinach tortillas or sandwich wraps. Bake in the oven at 400 for 5-7 minutes or until crisp. Serve with pot of gold cheesy dip.

4. Miniature spinach quiche. Using a basic spinach quiche recipe of frozen spinach, eggs, milk, and Swiss cheese, make mini-quiches perfect for finger foods at a party. For an easy crust, use Phyllo dough or crescent rolls.

5. Guacamole deviled eggs. Sort of along the lines of Green Eggs and Ham, but with a St. Patrick's Day flair. Just add some avocado to a basic deviled egg recipe and you have a high-protein, low sugar, low carb green party food.

Easy Spinach Quiche Recipe

Make a healthy spinach and cottage cheese quiche or lower-calorie soufflé with one easy recipe.
 
Bake inside a flaky pie shell for a rich quiche sure to impress guests, or skip the crust and create a light soufflé without the shell.

Quiche or Soufflé From One Easy Recipe
For a more low-key healthful meal, serve as a soufflé without the crust using reduced fat, fat-free, and/or cholesterol-free ingredients. When preparing dishes for parties or special guests, use the richer, full-fat ingredients and crust to make a delicious statement. Whether baking the quiche or soufflé, however, fat-free cottage cheese and fat-free shredded mozzarella will create an even healthier low-fat version of this delicious favorite, while sacrificing only a little flavor.

Easy Spinach Quiche:

Ingredients:

• 1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach (thawed)
• 1 pint cottage cheese (use fat-free to reduce fat and calories)
• 3 large eggs (use egg substitutes to lower cholesterol content)
• 6 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese (use mozzarella or fat-free mozzarella to reduce fat content)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• 9-inch regular dish pie crust (for quiche)

Note: Using 2 tablespoons of real butter provides moistness and richness, although margarine can be substituted if desired. Wheat flour is heavier than all-purpose flour and is not recommended for a light, fluffy soufflé or quiche.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Thaw frozen spinach, either overnight in the refrigerator or in the microwave (use low power level 3/defrost level in one-minute increments until thawed). When using the microwave do not cook the spinach or let the edges become dried out.
3. Drain water from thawed spinach. Allowing water to remain in the mixture impedes proper baking.
4. Place thawed, drained spinach in large mixing bowl.
5. Crack three large eggs in a separate small bowl. Beat eggs lightly and add to spinach.
6. Combine the rest of ingredients into the large bowl and stir gently until thoroughly mixed.
7. For quiche: Pour mixture into pie pan with 9-inch regular dish pie crust. For soufflé: Pour into greased soufflé baking dish.
8. Bake for one hour or until top is firm. Cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.
9. Not recommended for microwave preparation. Serve with side garden salad and fresh fruit to make a complete meal.

Serves 4 to 6.