Easter Ideas: Healthy Easter Treats & Natural Egg Dyeing

Easter has been one of my favorite holidays since I was a kid. And now that my husband and I get to have fun without little ones, it’s become one of my favorite holidays as a mom. Despite loving the easter baskets filled with chocolate bunnies and peanut butter eggs, we’ve made it a tradition in our household to make easter a little sweeter, but without all the sugar.

In this article, I’ll show you how we do easter in our home. Up first, dyeing eggs naturally with foods and non-toxic coloring.

How to Dye Easter Eggs Without Toxic Chemicals

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) continues to press the FDA to ban artificial food dyes, reporting that they can cause allergic reactions, hyperactivity, and even cancer. For example, red dye #40 has been associated with impulsive behavior in children while yellow #5 has been associated with insomnia, hyperactivity, and learning disabilities. And the sad part is, the European Union requires foods with food dyes to come with a warning label and has already banned many of the dyes still allowed in the U.S.

Add the foods listed below to boiling water when cooking the egg to make different colors. You can also juice or boil teh ingredients, cool, add vinegar, and use to dye the eggs after they’ve been cooked.

Green: Add 1 cup of spinach or a few teaspoons of spirulina to boiling water Yellow/Orange: Boil turmeric or saffron in water, cool, and mix with vinegar. You can also add a few teaspoons of the spices to boiling water when cooking the eggs.

Blue: Add 1 cup of purple cabbage to water when boiling eggs

Red/Pink: Add pomegranate or beet juice to boiling water. You can also add a couple tablespoons of vinegar in pomegranate or beet juice and use as a dye on pre-cooked eggs

Purple: Soak pre-cooked eggs in grape juice and vinegar mix. You can slo add grape juice to boil water when cooking the eggs.

If you want to dye Easter eggs naturally the easiest way, get some store-bought natural food coloring and mix with ingredients below:

1 tsp store-bought non-toxic food coloring
2 TBSP white vinegar
2 TBSP water

Healthy Easter Treats

One of the best parts of Easter is the Easter treats. I remember being little and running down the stairs to see what the Easter bunny brought for me; dreaming of peeps, chocolate bunnies, and peanut butter eggs.

But there is nothing worse than having three boys running around the Easter hunt on a wicked sugar high. That’s why I make healthy easter treats every year—and trust me, they’re just as tasty as the “real deal”.

Here are some of my favorite easter treats for toddlers and kiddos: