Egg-cellent and All Natural!

It’s time to hop to it and get all of the last minute details in place for Sunday’s Easter celebration. Often times one of the last tasks to preparing for this holiday involves grabbing a box of dye and a dozen eggs. Dying Easter eggs is a great way to get creative and extend the Easter celebration, however boxed dyes can contain chemicals that are far from natural. In order to keep your egg-cellent Easter treat as healthy as possible, try making your own dyes with a little help from natural plant pigments.

In order to create your own dye, you will need a coloring ingredient (we recommend one from the list below), 2 cups of water, a teaspoon of vinegar and eventually hard-boiled eggs. To start, combine the 2 cups of water and your coloring ingredient in a large pot. Bring the ingredients to a rolling boil, cover the pot and reduce the heat to medium low. Allow the concoction to simmer for 10 minutes. When time is up, remove the coloring ingredient from the solution with a strainer or mesh material and stir in the white vinegar. Once the dye has cooled to room temperature, you are ready to begin decorating!

Coloring Ingredients

– Red – 2 cups of chopped beets

– Orange – 1 teaspoon of chili powder

– Yellow – 1 teaspoon of turmeric

– Green – 2 cups of spinach

– Blue – 2 cups of blueberries

– Pink – 2 cups of raspberries

After the decorating is done, make sure you store your masterpieces properly so they will be in perfect snacking condition. Often times you can store hardboiled eggs in their original carton in the fridge for up to a week. If you are planning to keep the eggs out on display during Easter, only keep them out of the fridge for a maximum of 2 hours, after this time they will become room temperature, which may make them unsafe for eating. Aside from the storage issues, hardboiled eggs are a great healthy snack. They are only 80 calories snack, packed 6 grams of protein, 80 and provide the body with nutrients to support bone and eye health.

Now that you know my all-natural Easter egg decorating technique, I would love to hear about some of your tricks. Once the dying is done, what else do you decorate your Easter Eggs with?