Ahh, Easter time. For me, it’s the unofficial start of Spring, because let’s be honest, even though Spring officially starts in March, it almost never feels like it! Speaking of March, does anyone else agree that Easter should NEVER be in March?! It is an “April-only” holiday to me, because if Easter is in April, then I get to eat double the carrot cake (hey, it’s the little things in life!). My sister Jen’s birthday is in April and her favorite is carrot cake, so naturally we have that for her every year, and carrot cake is an absolute must at our Easter dinner. I have such a sweet tooth, and I can’t say no to carrot cake, so better to get it all out of my system in a month and then I’m good until next year. 🙂

Anyway, besides carrot cake, Easter makes me think of dying eggs! It something I always did with my family growing up. This year, instead of buying dye at the store, you can use items sitting in your kitchen! That’s right, there are many food items that will stain/dye the eggs just as well, if not better. If you follow my Instagram, surely you’ve seen my red-stained hands when cooking with beets, or my yellow-stained hands when cooking with lots of turmeric. Follow the directions below and click the links at the bottom for other ways to dye eggs using food!

Beet Juice: Boil 4 cups chopped beets in 4 cups of water + 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Let it simmer for 30 minutes and then strain to remove the chunks of beets. The remaining liquid is what will be used as the dye. Soak eggs in the liquid until desired color is reached, you can even soak it overnight! Remove eggs and set to dry. Your eggs will be a deep pink!

Turmeric: Mix at least 3 tablespoons of turmeric with 2 tablespoon0 of vinegar and 1 quart of water. Add eggs to mixture and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 15-20 minutes, and remove pot from burner. Remove eggs and set to dry. You will get a perfect springtime yellow-green!

If you want a deeper color, leave the eggs in the pot until cool!

Check out more ways to use food items as dye!

http://www.rd.com/home/decorating/homemade-easter-egg-dye/

OR

http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/home/natural-easter-egg-dye/slide/1

Happy Easter everyone!