Whether you have deep Irish roots or simply love a good shepherd’s pie, St. Patrick’s Day is a widely celebrated holiday often recognized by cooking up authentic, Irish-inspired dishes.
Fortunately for the frugal chef, many traditional Irish dishes use inexpensive (but delicious) ingredients. I decided to round up the best frugal recipes for St. Patrick’s Day — as well as where you can find them.
Sides and Starters
To pair with any Irish meal (or to eat entirely on its own), Guinness Bread is one recipe you can make from items you probably already have in your pantry. Frugal Coupon Living has a simple and easy recipe for the bread, and as long as you’re picking up some Guinness, they have suggestions for Guinness Stew and Guinness cupcakes with Bailey’s frosting, too. Irish soda bread is another ideal complement to soups and stews, and is frugal in nature and origin. The Frugal Chef recently shared a four-ingredient recipe that requires no kneading and takes less than an hour to make.
For a light and fresh start to your St. Patrick’s Day meal, try The Frugal Hausfrau’s Irish pub salad. This blogger uses in-season vegetables such as bibb and butter lettuces as a base for the salad, and tops it off with pickled beets, hardboiled eggs and bleu cheese.
Breakfast
Deviled eggs are a go-to for starting off St. Patrick’s Day with something delicious and festive. You can stick with a traditional recipe, or as Foodjimoto.com suggests, add green food coloring to your egg whites.
Need something a little more kid-friendly? Try I Am Baker’s guide to making old-fashioned pancakes with a little bit of food coloring — transforming the meal into a full rainbow of colors.
We don’t all have a ton of time on St. Patrick’s Day to whip up a home cooked meal. If you’re looking for an extremely simple way to kick off the holiday with your kids (or even if you’re just a child at heart), try blogger Thoughtfully Simple’s idea for Lucky Charms cereal with green milk. It’s amazing what a little food coloring can do!
Entrees
It doesn’t get much more Irish than corned beef and cabbage. The Typical Mom shares a recipe for corned beef brisket and cabbage that you can make in the slow cooker — so it’s not only frugal, but easy too. If you would prefer a traditional Irish stew instead, head over to Eating Richly for a recipe that costs approximately $4.90 to make if you have homemade beef stock on hand. If you don’t, you can always search for a coupon and buy it pre-made. Eating Richly suggests freezing the leftovers of this stew for another easy meal later on.
One last meal idea for St. Patrick’s Day is shepherd’s pie. This is another meal idea that freezes well. Blogger Mashup Mom has a frugal recipe and great visuals for those interested in cooking this dish.
Desserts
Don’t forget to add on something sweet to the end of the holiday. At Oh My! Creative, you can find Luck of the Irish Rice Krispies Treats that are festive and frugal. Mint chocolate chip cookies are another sweet option, as suggested by blog Raking in the Savings. And for something really easy and a great activity for the kids to join in, try making shamrock pretzels. Smiling at Home has a tutorial available, as well as other crafts for the holiday.
You have a week to plan your St. Patrick’s Day menu — and thanks to these bloggers, you won’t need the luck of the Irish to stay under budget. I hope these recipes serve up some ideas for a fun holiday.
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Frugal St. Patrick’s Day Recipes originally appeared on usnews.com
WTOP’s Meg Hasken contributed to this report.
