Dying Easter eggs using plant-based dyes is a tradition in Eastern Europe. It’s so easy to do, and everyone should give it a try at least once! To create these gorgeous eggs you need some herbs and colorful veggies. You can use spinach leaves, beets, red cabbage, or onion skins for the dyes. As for the designs, herb leaves work well, or you can go outside and look for interesting leaves and plants. What better way to welcome spring than with some natural Easter eggs decorated by Mother Nature herself? Let’s get started!

Supplies:

1) A dozen eggs

2) Vegetables, fruits, and spices (red cabbage, spinach, carrots, onion skins, blackberries, blueberries, paprika, and turmeric are dyes that work well)

3) About 1 1/2 cups of white vinegar

4) Salt

5) Leafy herbs or fresh leaves that you’ve found outside

6) Two pairs of sheer stockings, cut into tubes

7) Pots (each dye will need its own pot)

Step #1:

The first step is to make your dyes. To make a green dye, add about 5 cups of water to a pot with 1 pound of fresh spinach leaves. Add in a pinch of salt and bring it to a boil. After it starts boiling, turn down the temperature to a simmer. Allow the dye to simmer for 1 hour. If you would like an orange dye, add about 5 cups of water, 10 carrots, 5 tbsp of paprika, and a pinch of salt to a pot. As before, bring it to a boil and then turn down the temperature to a simmer for 1 hour. For a blue dye, do the same using 1 whole red cabbage. If you’d like a reddish-brown dye, use onion skins (you need about 5-6 onions worth of skins). For a pink dye, use beets (about 3 cups). If you want your dye to be yellow, use turmeric (2 tbsp). When your dyes are ready, strain the vegetables and fruits, leaving only the liquid. Pour your dyes into a measuring cup to see how much dye you have. For every cup of dye, you need 3 tbsp of white vinegar. When you’ve measured out the amounts of dye, pour the dyes back into their pots and add the required amount of vinegar.

Step #2:

Once you have made your dyes, it’s now time to decorate your eggs! Rub a paper towel soaked in vinegar over each of the eggs. Place an herb leaf on each egg and arrange it any way you want. Take a stocking tube and place the egg inside the tube. The stocking will hold the leaf in place. Tie the ends of the stocking and repeat this process with all your eggs.

Step #3:

Place your eggs in the dye pots and boil them for 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes are up, take them off the heat and allow them to cool completely. Place them in the fridge overnight. If you’d like them to be a pale color instead of a vibrant color, keep the pots in the fridge for 1 hour.

Step #4:

When the eggs have reached the shade you like, you can take them out of the stockings and place them on a wire rack to dry. When the eggs have dried, you will notice that the colors may not seem so bright. To make them shiny, you can rub a tiny bit of oil over them to bring out the beautiful colors.

Photos: Adventures in Cooking, Craft Hubs, Indulgy.

We love cucamelons! They look like tiny watermelons, and are a must-have for your garden in the summer. This tasty fruit is native to Mexico and Central America and it grows on a large vine. It usually yields a large bounty, and the vines will take over your garden if you don’t keep them under control.

To get started, plant the seeds indoors from April to May. When the risk of frost is over, transfer them outside and provide them with a trellis to climb. Keep them well-watered and watch them thrive!

Cucamelons have a unique taste – like a combination of lime and cucumber. They go great on salads, and can even be pickled, too! If you’re not a fan of either, just eat them straight off the vine!

Photos: BNPS, She Eats, Homegrown Revolution, Garden Posts.

Fresh fruit is perfect for hot summer days. It’s light, thirst-quenching, and is great for a healthy snack. These fruit skewers are great for balancing out all those salty snacks, and they make a wonderful healthy dessert. Make them for your July 4th BBQ, picnic, or get-together! Read the recipe below to find out how to put together these tasty patriotic skewers.

This is what you will need:

– 12 wood skewers

– 6 oz. blueberries

– 1 lb strawberries

– 3 bananas

– serving tray

Directions: Rinse the berries and dry them. Take the strawberries and chop off the stems. Cut them in half from the stem to the point. Then, cut off the point and set it aside. Cut the bananas into slices and set them aside. Start with the blueberries and skewer 6 on top and alternate between 2 banana slices and 1 strawberry slice. Do this until you reach the end. Place the skewers on a platter and keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

Photos: Evite Blog.

These sangria recipes are a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, and will have your guests begging for more! Fizzy champagne and sweet fruit are a few of the ingredients in these recipes that will make your sangria the life of the party. Read the recipes below!

Champagne Sangria Punch

Ingredients

• 1 bottle sweet Riesling or Moscato
• 1 orange, sliced
• 4 kiwi, peeled and sliced
• 1 pomegranate, seeded
• 1 bottle Brut Champagne or sparkling wine
• 1-1/2 cups orange juice

Instructions

1. Pour the wine into a pitcher or a punch bowl. Add orange slices, kiwi slices, and pomegranate.
2. Refrigerate for 2-24 hours.
3. When ready to serve, add champagne and orange juice and serve over ice.

Pear and Apple White Sangria

Ingredients

• 1 bottle Moscato wine
• 1/2 cup lemon liqueur
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 Granny Smith apple, cored, halved, and thinly sliced
• 1 pear, cored, halved, and thinly sliced
• 1 can (12 ounces) seltzer

Instructions

1. In a pitcher, add wine, lemon liqueur, lemon zest, and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
2. Add apple slices, pear slices, and lemon juice to the pitcher and mix.
3. Place the pitcher in the fridge for 4 hours.
4. Before serving, top off the sangria with seltzer.

White Strawberry-Lemon Sangria

Ingredients

• 2 lemons, thinly sliced
• 1 apple, cored and sliced
• 1 cup strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 1 bottle dry white wine
• 1/2 cup rum
• 4 cups lemon-lime soda

Instructions

1. Add lemons, apples, and strawberries to a pitcher.
2. Add in wine and rum.
3. Cover and place in the fridge for 4-5 hours.
4. Before serving, add lemon-lime soda and serve over ice.

Pineapple Sangria

Ingredients

• 3 cups pineapple juice
• 1 bottle dry white wine
• 1 cup brandy
• 1 pineapple, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 cup pineapple soda
• 1 bunch fresh mint, chopped
• 1 orange, sliced

Instructions

1. In a pitcher, add juice, brandy, wine, pineapple, and soda. Stir and add ice.
2. Pour into wineglasses and garnish with the mint and orange slices.

Watermelon Sangria

Ingredients

• ¼ a medium-sized watermelon, cut into small chunks
• 1 bottle blush wine
• 1 cup vodka

Instructions

1. 24 hours before you plan to serve, put all the ingredients in a pitcher. Stir and put in the fridge.
2. When ready to serve, fill glasses with ice and chilled watermelon chunks. Pour the sangria over the ice and fruit.

Photos: Iowa Girl Eats, Love Grows Wild, Kitchen Treaty, Erin’s Food Files, G Free Foodie, Ask Missa.

Backyard and balcony gardens are increasing in popularity, with many people choosing to grow their own vegetables and fruits, as an organic and money-saving option. If you thought that tending your own garden is hard work, think again! Having a small garden requires only frequent watering and fertilizing, and the fruits of your harvest make everything worth it! Why not give some of these unique and different veggies and fruits a try?

1. Silver Slicer Cucumber

This white cucumber has tender skin, a good crunch, and is sweet. Easy to grow and maintain, this vegetable requires full sun.

2. Goji Berries

Goji berries are said to contain more Vitamin C than oranges, and are relatively easy to grow once established. They can grow in poor soil, and expect it to yield berries 2 years after planting.

3. Pineberry

Pineberries are smaller than the average strawberry, and they taste like pineapples! They can be grown in pots, but make sure they have good drainage, as they can suffer from root rot.

4. Indigo Rose Tomato

The purple skin of this tomato contains anthocyanins, which help fight cancer and slow down ageing. It produces a heavy crop, and grows well in pots.

5. Malaysian Dark Red Eggplant

This slender eggplant is about a foot long, and is great for frying. They’re a little hard to find, but everyone agrees that it’s worth it because they’re so delicious!

6. Papaya

Surprisingly, papaya is really easy to grow, and it produces fruit all year round! They do well in a frost-free climate, lots of sunlight, and good soil. Papayas are fast growers, so expect to be picking your own fruit in only 10 months!

7. Watermelon Radish

These radishes may look white and boring on the outside, but on the inside, they’re bursting with color! They have a slightly sweet taste, and are best planted in the spring and summer.

8. Acai Berry

This plant grows well in pots, and is well-known for its high antioxidant properties. Acai berries grow in rainforests, so make sure you keep yours in a greenhouse or indoors.

9. Purple Passion Asparagus

This asparagus has a sweet, nutty flavor, and 20% more sugar than green asparagus. They’re cold hardy and very heat tolerant. You can harvest them from early April to mid May.

10. Purple Sweet Potato

These sweet potatoes are great for roasting and frying. They can be stored for months in a cool, dry place and are planted in early spring.

Photos: Flickr, Oregon Live, Ali Express, Grow Organic, Planet Natural, Green Value Nursery, Essential Living Foods, The Watermelon Radish, Mamashayna, Beautiful Now.

We’ve decided to ditch the store-bought deodorizers in favor of natural, home-made ones. Free of any toxic chemicals, they’re completely safe for you and your pets. These natural home deodorizers can be made in almost any combination. Simply add the ingredients (cut any fruit into slices ) to a pot and fill 3/4 of the way with water. Bring to a boil, then lower the temperature down to a simmer. Leave the scent to simmer for a few hours, adding water as needed. If you like, you can use a crock pot instead of using the stove. You can also freeze the scents for future use. Remember, there are no measurements in these recipes! Experiment a little to find which scent suits you best.

Here are a few recipes to get you started:

1. Cinnamon sticks, orange rinds, apple peels, and whole cloves.

2. A few drops of vanilla and orange peels.

3. Lime, coconut oil, and vanilla.

4. Oranges, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and vanilla.

5. Rosemary, lavender, and lemon.

6. Cedar twigs.

7. Lemon, black peppercorns, and basil.

8. Earl Grey tea and vanilla extract.

9. Lemon, peppermint extract, and rosemary.

10. Orange and almond extract.

Photos: Day Break Houses, Eliza Domestica, A Joyful Dwelling.

These soft cranberry scones are made with kitchen cupboard staples, and are quick to whip up for breakfast or brunch. You can spread them with butter or jam, and even dip them in your tea or coffee. In this recipe we used cranberries, but you can use blueberries or strawberries as well. Remember, when mixing the dough, don’t over-mix or you’ll end up with a hard, dense scone.

Soft Cranberry Scones

These cranberry scones make the perfect Sunday breakfast or brunch. Quick to prepare and bake, they’re great for unexpected guests!

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cold butter
• 3 tbsp 3% milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 tsp coarse sugar

Instructions

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
2. In another bowl, combine milk and 2 tbsp of the beaten egg. Add to the crumb mixture and until just moistened.
3. Stir in cranberries.
4. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead gently a 6-7 times. Pat the dough into a 6 inch circle, and cut into 4 wedges.
5. Place the wedges onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Brush with the remaining egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
6. Bake the scones at 425° for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with jam and butter.

Photos: Greedy Guts, Food Coma Blog, In Good Taste Blog.

There’s nothing better than eating some sweet frozen yogurt after a delicious outdoor BBQ. This strawberry frozen yogurt is really easy to make, giving you plenty of time to prepare the rest of your BBQ meal. Simple ingredients like fresh strawberries, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and sugar are used in this delicious recipe. For a healthier alternative, try substituting the sugar for honey. Your guests are sure to enjoy it!

Home-made Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Easy and quick frozen yogurt perfect as a dessert after a summer BBQ. You can substitute the sugar for honey for a healthy alternative.

Ingredients

• 1 pound strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2/3 cup sugar (or honey)

Instructions

1. Stir strawberries and sugar in a bowl until the sugar begins to dissolve. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Put the strawberries in a blender and add the yogurt and lemon juice. Blend until smooth.
3. Chill the mixture in the fridge for 1 hour, then place in freezer and freeze until firm.

Photos: Two Peas and Their Pod.