Safe, Non-toxic Coloured Play Dough!

I came across this idea in the local community newspaper, and wanted to ensure I remembered it for when my own kids are old enough to want to play with play dough.  Instead of spending your hard earned cash on that smelly, neon play dough, this is a homemade, toxin free recipe that will be sure to get your kids sculpting and creating in no time!

Recipe for Uncoloured Dough:

Mix together:
3 cups white flour
1/2 cup table salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Boil 2 cups of water.  Add 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil and stir.***
***(eliminate this step if adding any of the homemade colour recipes found below)

Pour water/oil (or homemade colour mixture) into dry ingredients.

Mix with a spoon and add more flour as required for kneading (most likely ~1 more cup).  Knead until smooth with the consistency of bread dough.

This play dough can be stored in an air tight container in the fridge for 3-4 weeks.


Homemade Colour Mixtures

For these mixtures, substitute them in the above recipe in place of the water/oil mixture.

Green--Spinach  Boil 2 1/2 cups of water.  Add two handfuls of spinach and simmer 15 minutes.  Add 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil and puree.  Add the puree to dry ingredients.
         --Liquid Chlorophyll  Boil 2 cups of water.  Add 2-3 tablespoons of liquid chlorophyll.  Add 3 tablespoons of oil and add to dry ingredients.

Yellow--Turmeric Powder  Boil 2 cups of water.  Add 1-2 teaspoons of turmeric powder, stir, and strain if desired.  Add 3 tablespoons of oil and stir.  Add to dry ingredients.

Orange--100% Carrot Juice  Bring 2 cups of carrot juice to a slow rolling boil.  Add 3 tablespoons of oil and stir.  Add to dry ingredients.  (can also use boiled carrot puree in place of juice)

Red/Pink--Red Cabbage  Boil 3 cups of water.  Add 1/2 a cabbage, diced.  Simmer for 20 minutes and strain.  Add 3 tablespoons of oil and add to dry ingredients.
              --Red Beets  Boil 2 1/2 cups of water.  Add 1 large diced beet.  Simmer for 15 minutes and strain.  Add 3 tablespoons of oil and stir, then add to dry ingredients.  (Red beet powder can be used as well)

Baking Soda Blue--Boil 3 cups of water and add 1/2 a cabbage, diced.  Simmer for 20 minutes and strain.  Add 1 teaspoon baking soda and stir.  Add 3 tablespoons of oil and add to dry ingredients.
**note:  I have no idea how this creates a blue colour, but if anyone tries it, please let me know!**

Brown--Cocoa  Boil 2 cups of water.  Add 2 tablespoons of cocoa and stir.  Add 3 tablespoons of oil, stir, and add to dry ingredients.

Feel free to mix and match, and experiment with other naturally coloured items in your house!  This non-toxic, colourful, kid-friendly recipe should be a staple for any mom wanting


I would love to hear from you below, or if you try this, or have tried it, leave some feedback or other colour options you've discovered!  Happy sculpting!

Welcome Back!

Hello my friends, and thanks for coming back!

I realise I have left you for far too long but as I'm sure we all know, life can get crazy in a hurry!  My apologies for not posting in over a year, however I'm hoping to change that!

The website will be taking a minor turn in content to one of a more broad category as my life mirrors this change by taking a new turn itself.  My husband and I have recently found out we are going to be welcoming a baby boy in September 2013 after almost 2 years of trying to have a baby and enduring the painful ups and downs of that process.

Because of this, some of the blog content/reviews etc. will likely be more "mom" and "baby" oriented, however I still hope to post my favourite recipes, eco products, gardening, and composting experiences!  I am SO VERY excited to take this journey, and I hope you will come along!

With all the new changes in my life (and changes to come), I would love to connect with some other moms/moms to-be, or blogs that you all like, so please feel free to post in the comments below, or email me using the "Contact" form above!

Thanks for your patience over the last year's silence!

--Amy

Spring Tea Party Favours

There's nothing like hosting a themed party with some of your closest lady friends. Especially in the springtime, it's fun to get together and see what the girls have been up to over a long hard winter. One of many popular themes these days for a party is a "High Tea" theme. In fact, I have been to 2 of these bridal showers in the last 3 months. For these parties it's a chance to put on your finest dress, your dainty gloves, and fascinator and channel your inner Royal as you sip tea, munch scones and catch up on the most recent gossip.

I was recently given the task of providing favours/prizes for a High Tea party themed bridal shower and decided to create a "Tea Party in a Jar". A simple idea, it was created with mostly things I already had in the house! See below for all the ladylike details!

Materials:
-Mason jar of whatever size you like or have
-Fabric (preferably with a cute pattern)
-Twine
-Stiff cardboard for gift tags
-Assorted gift items to place inside

For the gift items within my jars I kept it very simple, small, and related to the theme (Tea Party!).  I printed out a recipe for Tea Scones which I placed in the jar, as well as a variety of tea bags of differing flavours, and some small, delectable chocolate truffles.

 

 

After filling your jars with all the ladylike details, simply close up the mason jar and secure circles of fabric over each lid with twine.  I hand printed little tags that say "Tea Party in a Jar" on one side, and the name of the bride and groom and "2013" on the other side.  Simply slip the cute tags onto the twine and secure, and then you're done! The great thing about this prize is that it cute, customizable depending on the personality of the bride, and relatively inexpensive to create.  In total I think each "Tea Party in a Jar" cost about $2.50 to make (although I DID already have many of the components already at home).

Hope this helps you think of some fun ideas for a Tea Party of your own.  As always, love to hear from you below!

Snack Taxi Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations Diane!  Look for an email shortly!

Kale Chips for One and All!

Oh my heart, I am in LOVE!  I have found a new favourite healthy snack.  This tasty treat is homemade with 3-5 ingredients and takes a total of 10 minutes to make, from prep to mouth.  I perused many recipes on the internet and came up with a version of my own.  Below is a photo documentary of how these delicious, tasty treats came to be.  I hope you try it at home and enjoy them as much as I did!

The Journey to a Perfect Kale Chip

Kale is a green leafy vegetable that is high in calcium, manganese, potassium, folate, Vitamin C, and Vitamin A.  Pretty much, it is a WONDERFUL veggie to have in your life.  While some of us may love to work the greens into our meals, some of us have to fight to sneak them into our own diet, or that of our families.  Kale chips are an excellent way to introduce your palate to kale and also an excellent snack to substitute for popcorn, potato chips, or other salty snacks you crave while watching your favourite sitcom.

For kale chips, you want to try and use the "curly", "wavy" like variety shown above.  I purchased this bundle at my local farmers market.  For a large serving for 2-4 people, I would use the whole head of kale (probably approximately 10 leaves)

Remove the stalk of the kale and discard (COMPOST!!!) it.

Remove the centre "vein" from the each leaf.

Cut the kale leaf into bite sized pieces.  Something to note about kale chips is that they are very delicate, so once you bite them they will shatter.  This is why you want to cut them into a size that you can comfortably fit into your mouth in one tasty, tasty, bite.

Wash the bite sized pieces in a salad spinner and spin dry so there is no excess water hanging about.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

I added simply one tablespoon of olive oil to my bowl full of dried bite sized pieces, and mixed with a spoon until I could see that all the leaves were coated lightly and evenly with the olive oil.

Every recipe you see for kale chips will season with something different.  I found mine to be extremely tasty by seasoning with garlic powder, a touch of salt, and a Cajun spice mix.  Be careful when seasoning to not add so much that it coats the kale.  You want to accomplish a nice dusting of flavour without it overwhelming the natural flavour of the leaf! 

Lay the kale on a cookie pan covered in parchment paper without overlapping the leaves.  Don't worry if they curl over and won't lay flat.  Pop them in the oven and STAY NEARBY.  I baked my first batch for approximately 6 min, but depending on the oven it could be faster or slower.  What you want to achieve is for the kale to be green with the slightest tinge of browning on the curled edges.  If you let them get any more browned than this, they will taste burnt. 

Remove them from the oven.

Enjoy this tasty, amazingly delicious, inexpensive and healthy treat!

Let me know if you try this out, and if you feel as passionate about this snack as I do!

Snack Taxi Reusable Bag Giveaway! **CLOSED**

In the United States, over 20 million plastic sandwich/lunch bags make it to the landfill EVERYDAY.  Such a huge amount of waste is created by something so small, which is why Erin Kelly-Dill started SnackTaxi in 2003.  With 3 kids of her own, Erin wanted to decrease the amount of lunch waste her family created each day by making reusable sandwich and snack bags.

All the materials used in SnackTaxi products are lead, phthalate and BPA free, and can be hand washed or machine washed and then air dried.  All SnackTaxi products are made by local sewers, in Massachusetts, USA.

At $6.95 (USD) for a snack sack and $8.95 for a sandwich sack , these cute, fun, reusable bags are a total steal!

SnackTaxi was kind enough to send me a sandwich sack, and a snack sack to try out!

These SUPER cute prints had all my coworkers talking, and even my husband asking if there were more "manly" prints available.  The bags are made out of 100% cotton (they will be releasing organic cotton versions shortly) with the inner being made of polyurethane lined nylon.  The inside of these sacks are spill and stain resistant (I am a mustard ADDICT and generally have mustard spilling out the sides of my sandwich) which means any stains or spills, etc. stay contained, and clean up easily!  I  hand washed my sacks with my after dinner dishes (no dishwasher but me in this house!) and found they easily air dried by the next morning for next use.

The long strips of Velcro create many options for pocket size, which ensures a good fit no matter what size of sandwich or snack you put in the sack.  With the food tucked securely away in the sacks, I was able to pop the reusable bags into my lunchbag and head to work.

SnackTaxi is offering one lucky reader a snack sack and sandwich sack duo!

*Please read the rules and regulations of this site’s giveaway policies here before entering!*

This giveaway is open from July 25 to August 8, 2011.

This giveaway is open to THE USA & CANADA only.


PLEASE ensure you have a valid email address entered on EACH comment.

To enter:

MANDATORY ENTRY:  visit SnackTAXI.com and mention one product or fabric you like.

Extra entries

 -“Like” Wholesome Abode on Facebook

-“Like" SnackTAXI on Facebook

-Follow @wholesomeabode on Twitter

-Become a GFC follower of this blog

-Tweet this contest and tag @wholesomeabode (max. 1 tweet per day). Leave the permalink in the comments section. (1 entry each tweet) You can use the following tweet:

Win a set of reusable sandwich/snack bags by SnackTAXI from @WholesomeAbode  
http://bit.ly/nEiryJ (ends 8/Aug) #eco #green #giveaway

Wordless Wednesday! Well, not so wordless....

Hello my friends, so sorry for the long silence!  Summer has finally fallen in my northern land, and up here we get pretty crazy about spending as much time away from TV, computers, etc. during these long summer nights.  Hopefully you are all experiencing a wonderful summer thus far as well.


For the photo portion of "Wordless Wednesday" I thought I would tell you a little tale.

While driving through this:

We came across:

(momma bear AND 2 cubs--harder to see)

I arrived home to work in the garden, and to my dismay, discovered that this is what happens when you neglect your garden and it rains more than ususal....

(by the way, what type of weed IS this....it is EVERYWHERE, I cannot pull it fast enough!)

But not all hope is lost, there are still some jewels hidden among the wild growth: