Natural Food Dyes

Gosh, for so long, I have used synthetic food colouring for cooking, craft and activities with children....

Shocking that I haven't contemplated this until now..

NATURAL FOOD DYES...We should all be using them...they are SOooooo easy to make and we have access to pretty much all the ingredients and, better yet, we have governance over the exact colours should we choose to mix them. BUT, the best and top reason to be using natural food dyes is...the children!!!





We can get our hands even messier now but it's OK...it all washes off and it is all yummy in the process!!

A blender works just as well as a juicer.

Keep the pulp..it will come in handy for something.

Delicious juices...almost there

yum!

  



A lot of the time in cooking recipes, colouring needs to be added in a non liquid form. To get this you will need to boil down the fruits so the water evaporates.
This worked well for the raspberries and the mangoes.
As for the veggies, we used the pulp itself to dye the flour.
It kind of worked.

Finished, evaporated dye. Smells good!

 

It's so refreshing to be able to do things with the children that they can create, enjoy and remember!

Yes, this is time consuming, but it is sooooo worth it when you take into account the damage continued use of chemical food colourings can do.

***Inspiration for this activity came from Dule Delight Link

Natural Face Scrubs - Green Tea

Gosh, I feel like I haven't had the chance to research, make and try anything new for the past year...Am safely back in the game now!

There was a pile of used green tea leaves so high, that I was determined to do something with them.

Green tea is an antioxidant inside AND outside the body, so even in teabag form, it is worth saving to reuse.

What I am learning is that adding water into the mix is what might reduce the shelf life of any fun products that you might make, but in general, ANYTHING from your kitchen can work well as a home-made scrub...ANYTHING!!


Green tea, oatmeal, honey (worth mixing in a blender)

Green tea, lemon juice, honey

Basically anything with green tea would work....green tea + sugar, green tea + baking soda.....

What this teaches us is that we have everything we need and we do not need buy any of the high street store, mass-produced crap on the shelves. So much of this stuff contains palm oil, which is the main cause of rainforest destruction in Indonesia....more on that in the next post!

Keep it natural,for you and for the rest of the world.

Home made bath bombs! (My Reggio lifestyle...)

So, at work, I guess I am very lucky. I get to work in a wonderful, Reggio Emilia inspired school, which is basically a dream come true. The children are the leaders in their own learning, and I just guide them on their way! 

During the first month at the school, the theme was England. which was very appropriate for me!  We put places, animals, historical monuments on our big map and made anything from Stonehenge, Roses, bath bombs and a massive castle project that will continue for a few more themes too.

The finale was our bath bomb making session, putting the famous LUSH on the map (which the kids, aged 4-6 knew and told me was in Japan too! The power of advertising!)

I followed a simple recipe with corn starch , baking soda, salt, some squirts of food colouring and essential oil ...oh, and lots of kids helping me!

  The finished product ended up looking and smelling so good! It was certainly a great way to end a theme!

The 50's housewife!!

Just a blog entry to share the amazing tips for yore..

!!

Back in a world where half the chemicals we use today hadn't even been created and thrift was a way of life not a trend that had been set, there were hard working housewives, and maybe the odd hubby too (!) who relied on just a few ingredients to keep their houses in tip top shape!

Over the past couple of years, I have been able to step back in time too and enjoy the true meaning of elbow grease, while simultaneously removing any signs of grease that there might be!

Seriously, as the time has passed since our change over, I have noticed that we do not spend much (if any at all as we have bought in bulk ) on cleaning products AND we are, in the same cheap process NOT damaging the environment !!! Now, there is a thought! And if that wasn't enough good news to contend with,  the elbow grease does mean putting in a bit of hard work, but that is paid off quickly in the form of a short, vigorous workout!

So, what it is we need to find this eco-friendly, healthy and near priceless perfection?!

1) LEMONS

Lemons are acidic and act as a natural bleach! Apparently, cockroaches hate it, so you can clean the floors with it happily knowing that it might just be better than any horrid spray or roach repellent! Just don't use lemon juice on marble surfaces - it will eat away at the grout!

A bit of lemon juice with olive oil makes for a great wooden floor polish.

And, don't forget about the zests!

((Read this entry to find out how to use zests to make your own air freshner!!))

2) BAKING SODA / BICARBONATE OF SODA

This is just ridiculously cheap and works everywhere in the house!

Use baking soda on black, burnt pans - scrub / soak / scrub.

You can use it to clean your teeth (!), clean the bathroom sink, even the oils left around the bath. (My top tip is to add baking soda to washing up liquid to get your bath tub super shiny!)

If you want to really scrub the floor, add some baking soda to your hot water & lemon juice mix - enjoy the fizz and scrub away!

3) VINEGAR

Now, this is just unbelievable! Vinegar is right there on most of our shelves - waiting to be poured over our chips, but we hardly think about what else it can do....

Well - I would recommend keeping some spray bottles around the house, filled with half vinegar and half water. Vinegar is a natural disinfectant, which means, yes - it kills germs!!!

The sprays can be used to clean the kitchen surfaces, dining room table, even polish the floors.

Shake some bicarbonate of soda into the toilet, leave for a few hours and scrub with vinegar!

Vinegar along (1/4) with some olive oil (1/2) and water (1/4) makes for a natural toner too!

And, don't worry about the smell, it really does disappear after 30 seconds! If you can't even wait that long, then you can always add some natural fragrance oils to the spray bottles.

Because it is a natural disinfectant, vinegar sprays will also work on your dogs!! You can spray them down after a walk and clean their paws as well.

Oh, and vinegar is also the magical answer for vomit and dog pee!

So, there we have it - the genius that is nature!

The earth gives us so much, yet we do not give anything back. We need to, we should and we shall!