{"id":8258,"date":"2020-03-10T20:29:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T00:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eatrightpa.org\/?p=8258"},"modified":"2021-10-30T03:37:32","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T03:37:32","slug":"st-patricks-day-surprising-history-and-green-recipes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/2020\/03\/10\/st-patricks-day-surprising-history-and-green-recipes\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Patrick\u2019s Day: Surprising History and Green Recipes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Helen Agresti RDN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Celebrating and feasting come easy on St. Patrick\u2019s Day with parades, Irish dancing, green beer, corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes.\u00a0 It\u2019s a day my family prepares to celebrate weeks in advance.\u00a0 We have a strong bloodline of Irish ancestry, which calls for decorating our home with shamrocks galore and mapping out our day to feast on Irish eats and drinks.<\/p>\n

However, let\u2019s not forget the true meaning of March 17th<\/sup>.\u00a0 It’s the day Saint Patrick<\/a> died.\u00a0 Surprisingly to most, Saint Patrick was not Irish.\u00a0 He was born in Britain and at the age of 16, he was abducted and taken to Ireland to work as a slave.\u00a0 Years after he escaped from Ireland, he returned there and began to convert the Irish to Christianity.\u00a0 By the time of his death, he was known for building churches, schools, and monasteries throughout Ireland.<\/p>\n

It was Irish settlers<\/a> in the United States who made St. Patrick\u2019s Day a holiday.\u00a0 It was a day they allowed themselves to eat meat and drink alcohol during Lent.\u00a0 In 1737, Boston<\/a> was the first city to hold a St. Patrick\u2019s Day celebration and New York City<\/a> had the first parade, recorded in 1762.<\/p>\n

Green hasn\u2019t always been the color of this Irish holiday<\/h4>\n

Saint Patrick Blue<\/a> (light blue) was the original color associated with St. Patrick\u2019s Day before green became the favorite.\u00a0 In terms of food and drinks, for obvious reasons, I am very grateful for the color transition.\u00a0 A legendary story that exists today states that Saint Patrick had used a green shamrock to educate the public on the Holy Trinity.\u00a0 Those who were proud of being a part of Christianity wore a shamrock to promote their faith.\u00a0 This evolved to what we see today-everyone in green.<\/p>\n

On St. Patrick\u2019s Day, everyone is considered a little Irish<\/h4>\n

Wear green and enjoy it with your family and friends.\u00a0 Below are a few of our favorite non-traditional but very green recipes for you to try.\u00a0 Cheers to all who find a way to celebrate by eating a little green!<\/p>\n

Before heading out to begin your St. Patrick\u2019s Day celebrations fuel up with a well-balanced breakfast.\u00a0 A poached egg on whole-grain toast topped with diced vegetables is an easy energizing meal to start your day.<\/em>\u00a0 (Tap photo for the recipe)<\/em><\/p>\n

Poached Egg Party Plate<\/h4>\n

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If you\u2019re pressed for time a smoothie can be a healthy on-the-go snack as long as it contains an array of nutrient-dense ingredients.\u00a0 Fueling your body with healthy choices every 4 hours during the day will help alleviate impulse convenience eating and prevent you from overindulging in the evening.\u00a0 Drink up before you join your friends at the bar.\u00a0 Try this nutrient packed clover colored smoothie recipe.<\/em>\u00a0 (Tap photo for the recipe)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Three Green Smoothie<\/strong><\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re hosting<\/em> a St. Patrick\u2019s Day party and want to offer your guests something nutritious, kale chips will provide the perfect green among your Irish day eats and satisfy those in need of a little crunch.\u00a0 (Tap photo for the recipe)<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Baked Kale Chips<\/h4>\n

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Helen Agresti is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) in private practice at Professional Nutrition Consulting, LLC. She provides Personal Nutrition Coaching & Counseling-specializing in gut health, weight loss, and food sensitivities.\u00a0 Helen lives\u00a0in Erie, Pennsylvania with her husband and their 5 children.<\/p>\n

Connect with Helen on Instagram @pronutritionconsulting<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Helen Agresti RDN Celebrating and feasting come easy on St. Patrick\u2019s Day with parades, Irish dancing, green beer, corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes.\u00a0 It\u2019s a day my family prepares to celebrate weeks in advance.\u00a0 We have a strong bloodline of Irish ancestry, which calls for decorating our home with shamrocks galore and mapping out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":8263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,108],"tags":[12,70,198,188,249,106,33,250,189],"class_list":["post-8258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-237","category-march-2","tag-breakfast","tag-dietitian","tag-eggs","tag-irish","tag-march","tag-national-nutrition-month","tag-recipes","tag-spring","tag-st-patricks-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10265,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258\/revisions\/10265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatrightpa.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}