Healthy, Green St. Patrick's Day Dinner

Naturally green foods make for a fun and healthy St. Patrick's Day dinner. For the main course I choose an already packaged green Buitoni spinach and cheese tortellini, and a packaged Pesto sauce. If you have the inclination, you could also make your own pesto by following this recipe at Simply Recipes. I heat the tortellini and a package of frozen spinach according to their directions. While those are cooking, heat a few tablespoons of butter until it is melted over low heat. Gradually whisk in a couple of tablespoons of flour. Then whisk in approximately two cups of milk and turn the heat up to medium. Grate a quarter cup of cheddar cheese into the sauce pan, add three packaged cheese slices (torn into pieces) and a pinch of sea salt. Keep stirring until the cheese is melted and the sauce bubbles. Then turn down the heat to low. Add two tablespoons of pesto and stir. Drain the excess water from the spinach and from the pasta. Mix the spinach and cheese sauce together and pour on top of the plated pasta.

Serve the green tortellini and pesto cheese sauce with a bittersweet shamrock salad that you can make the day before. This salad adds texture and contrast to the pasta. The fun part of this salad is shaping the cucumbers like shamrocks, which is done by carving the sides of the cucumber and then slicing them. I like to use baby cucumbers and larger cucumbers so there are a variety of shamrock sizes. After you've sliced up enough cucumber shamrocks to feed your family, put them in a dish. Just cover them with white wine vinegar. Chop some dill finely and chop off the cute green ends of clover and arugula sprouts. Add about a 1/4 cup of dill and sprouts per cup of cucumbers. Then add about the same amount of halved green grapes. Mix and let chill, preferably overnight, so that the cucumbers absorb the flavors. Serve with a slotted spoon as a side to your pasta. Enjoy a happy and green Saint Patrick's Day meal!