Your Greeness

You really don’t have to wait for easter if you want to see if these organic des will work out!! Why not make a fun afternoon out of it! You can make your own organic dyes from the food and other products you may already have at home!

1. Use natural fruits and veggies to make the dyes that you want.

2.If you use the juice from canned produce, you will come out with paler shades

3.If you boil the eggs with the dye in vinegar, the colors will come out so much deeper.

4.You can use vegetable oil to polish the dyed eggs after.

Here’s an easy tutorial on the dyeing method:
This method involves boiling the eggs in the dye, which gives darker colors. Roll eggs around in the hot, dye water, they take on a uniform color. Place eggs in a single layer in a saucepan. Use this ratio for your mixture: one tablespoon white vinegar for each quart of water! Keep on adding liquid until the level is an inch or two above the eggs. Add dye ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Rinse with lukewarm water.

I will show you how to get natural dyes in the colors you want in a future post!

Rye bread is not particularly difficult to make. It is especially healthy for the body too. The fact that it doesn’t taste half bad is another bonus!

Make your own with this simple recipe:

You will need:

500 grams whole rye flour

500 grams strong white wheat flour

molasses or malt - 2 tablespoons

1/2 pint tepid water

2 teaspoons dried yeast

salt

Here are the directions:

Sieve together equal quantities of strong white flour and rye flour and the sea salt. Next, add 2 tablespoons of molasses or malt to 1/2 pint of warm water. Next, add in the two teaspoonfuls of dried yeast and leave the mixture to bubble up for more or less 15 minutes.

Put a little shallow hole in the centre of the flour mixture and add the molasses then add 2 tablespoonfuls of vegetable oil. Work the fluid into the flour gradually until you get a slightly sticky mixture. Knead the mixture thoroughly for five minutes, so that the dough feels more elastic

Set the dough to rise in a warm place for 1 - 2 hours or until it doubles in size.

Knock the dough down with your fists and give it another really good knead for another 5 minutes. Divide your dough into two loaves and shape them into round balls. Let the covered dough rise again until they are double in size again.

Put the loaves into an oven and bake for about 40 minutes. Take them out and turn them over after 30 minutes, so that the bottom cooks properly. Turn the oven down a notch at this point.

Don’t use up paper in wrapping gifts! Get creative, and save some trees! Plus, the recipients will totally be pleasantly surprised!

1.Instead of using paper, why not wrap bottles of wine in dish towels? Just tie it up with a little ribbon and you are good to go!

2. Instead of using bows for a huge gift, make a bow out of a jump rope. The kids will especially appreciate this idea because they’ll have an extra gift in the jump rope!

3.Tie up your gifts with scrunchies or pony tail holders. This will work best for a fast fix and if you’re not a very good bow tier!

4.Use old newspapers as wrapping paper- If you want some color, why not use the cartoon section. You will save up so much money from wrapping paper!

5.Reuse old greeting cards for gift tags. Simply cut the nice picture or part of the card, and punch a whole! It’s so much better than throwing it away!

A Refreshing Salad recipe to cool your palette is among my offerings today! This is a great way to utilize fresh, green and organic produce!

For the dressing, you will need:

1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Here are the directions:

Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Prepare a bed of arugula or your favorite mixed greens. Add some pear chunks and crumbled blue cheese. Drizzle the dressing on top. Enjoy how the sweet and tangy dressing perfectly compliment the sweet and strong flavors of the pear and blue cheese. Yummy!