{Contributor} Made by a Princess Parties in Style

Top O’ The Mornin’ St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast

Hi! I’m Kylie from Made by a Princess Parties in Style and I am so excited to be the second member of Flaired Affairs Contributor Circle!  Today I am sharing some St. Patrick’s Day recipes with you. Yesterday, I hosted twelve toddlers and their mommies for a Top O’ the Mornin’ breakfast.  Since we all have active little ones I wanted to serve finger foods that we could grab and go with kids on the run.  The first are green pancakes.

I used a Krusteaz mix and made according to the directions on the box.  I don’t like using syrup on my pancakes but still want a little of that sweet flavor so I always add:

•  1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie mix
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract,
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

You can’t have plain old looking pancakes for St. Patrick’s Day so I also added a generous amount of Leaf Green food coloring.  I only use AmeriColor soft gel paste and probably used about 1/4 teaspoon. I really just kept adding slowly until I had a really nice green.

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While the kids munched on Lucky Charms, well, the marshmallows anyway, the moms enjoyed St. Paddy’s Chex Mix.  I actually found this recipe on the Pillsbury website:

•  4 cups Lucky Charms
• 2 cups Corn Chex
• 1 ½ cups broken mini pretzel twists
• 1 cup dry roasted peanuts
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup butter
• 2 tbsp light corn syrup
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• ¼ cup green candies (I used M&M Dark Chocolate Mint)
• ¼ cup powdered sugar (optional)

Place cereals, pretzels, and peanuts in a large microwave safe bowl and set aside.

In a 2-cup microwave safe measuring cup or bowl, microwave brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup on high about 2 minutes.  Stir after one minute. Continue to heat slowly until melted and smooth.  Stir in baking soda until completely dissolved. Pour over cereal mixture, stirring until evenly coated.

Microwave uncovered on high 1 to 2 minutes, stirring, scraping, and tossing every 30 seconds.  Don’t over heat, you don’t want the cereal to brown.  Let cool about 5 minutes.  Stir in candies.  I tossed in powdered sugar at this point but you don’t have to.  Spread on waxed paper to cool.

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Another great recipe I found online comes from the Cookin’ Cowgirl.  She actually made these at Christmastime and called them Grinch Crinkle Cookies but I saw green and thought they would be perfect for my St. Patrick’s Day party.  These are so easy and everyone loved them!

•  1 box of French Vanilla Cake Mix
• 6 tbsp butter
• 2 eggs
• Green food coloring (I used at least ½ tsp of AmeriColor Green Leaf)
• ½ tsp mint extract (my addition)
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp corn starch

Preheat oven to 375.  Melt butter and set aside to cool.  In a shallow dish or bowl mix powdered sugar and cornstarch together with a fork. Incorporate well.  In a large bowl mix together the cooled butter, cake mix, and eggs.  This is going to take some muscle as it is thick and sticky. Once everything is all mixed well add the green food coloring. Keep adding coloring until you are satisfied with the color.  Add mint extract and incorporate well.  I added a bit more extract because I wanted them to be really minty but don’t overdue it.

Take two spoons and drop a “blob” of dough in the powdered sugar.  Roll it around in the sugar until it is completely covered.  Place balls of dough on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.  Don’t put the cookie balls too close together because they do spread out.  Bake for 9 minutes.  They will look puffy when they come out of the oven but will settle once cooled.  There were only two cookies left at the end of party so I think it’s safe to say these are a keeper!

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The last thing I made was Crock Pot Irish Cream Coffee.  I made this many many years ago and lost the recipe and through my searches this week found one very close to it over at Crock Pot Ladies.  This was so good!  It does take some prep work but it’s so worth it!  If you like coffee you’ll love it. If you don’t like coffee you’ll love it.  I saved myself a little cup and am enjoying right now as I type.  So good.

*serves 10-12

• 12 cups strong brewed coffee
• 2 cups Baileys Irish Cream
• 1 1/3 cups heavy whipping cream
• 4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tbsp sugar or to taste, if desired
• Whipped cream
• Garnishments like sprinkles or sugar crystals

Add brewed coffee and Irish cream to your crock pot and stir.  Add whipping cream, stir.  Add cocoa powder and stir slowly until well incorporated.  Add sugar if desired.

Cook on low for 3 hours or high for 90 minutes.  Serve with whipped cream and garnish with whatever fun things you like. I chose chocolate sprinkles and green sugar crystals.

That’s it!  You have here the start of a lovely Top O’ The Mornin’ St. Patrick’s Day breakfast! Lá sona St. Padráig…Sláinte!