This is a story about how to make homemade playdough, be the "coolest mom ever" and why you will never use food coloring for playdough again, nor cream of tartar, nor your stove and those poor pots that you usually have to throw away after cooking the playdough.
The moment I thought playdough got boring in our house... it got to totally new level of AWESOMENESS!
It all started from kids being really bored due to bad weather and being stuck in the house all day. Playdough seemed the wise decision for this moment.
We have our favorite playdough recipe that we would never trade again, but we were out of food coloring.
By the way, all of our recipes come from this play dough book.
Meanwhile, Sofia asked if she could have some of the carrot juice that I squeezed earlier in the morning. "Sure", I said. She took few sips of it and put the glass on the counter. I glanced at her for a second, saw her carrot mustache and had one of those "why didn't I think of that before" moments. Use vegetables as a natural (super natural) playdough dye!
We simply used freshly squeezed juice (of beets and carrots) instead of water part in the playdough recipe. First, I wasn't sure how it will come out, but you guys, it blew my highest expectations.
Kids were amazed at the results too. That's when you get your "coolest mom ever" reward (even if it's for few minutes, if feeeeels good).
How to make homemade playdough recipe (our favorite)
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1 Cup of Salt
- 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed vegetable juice (today we used carrot and beet)
- 2 cups of plain flour
- few drops of your favorite essential oil (we used lemon one this time)
1. Mix salt and flour
2. Add oil and essential oil
3. Pour the juice
4, Mix well and start kneading really well.
Yes, no cooking no waiting, it's that simple. Truly the easiest playdough recipe.
Here are some moments caught on video while we were making (and playing with) playdough.
Why use essential oils in your playdough?
We used lemon essential oils today.
Yes, the playdough smells amazing, but it also has some other pretty incredible benefits. Lemon essential oils stimulate our immune system and also increases our clarity of thought. This is a great play dough choice for after nap time, or for an early morning activity. The scent is invigorating and so refreshing.
Our family have been using essential oils for few years now and we are so pleased with the quality of Natural Living Essential Oils.
If you are interested in these essential oils, there is a pretty good deal going now (affiliate/sponsor link).
Tugce says
This is truly genious :))) i've been looking for playdough recipes and tryimg to find sth that works. Because some of the ingridients that are apparently very reacable in US are very hard or expensive to find in Turkey, like cream of tartar. Would this work with just water for white playdough? And since it had veggie juice how long is it good for playing? Thanx 🙂
Birute Efe says
Merhaba! Thanks so much for stopping by. Actually, I have never used cream of tartar for our playdough. It's just water, oil and salt. If you want color - add either food coloring or like I did this time - vegetable juice instead of water. You should keep it in the air tight container and preferably in the cool place. I have mine over a month now and is still good. I think we will play with it few more times before we throw it away.
P.S. It's funny, we are in Turkey now. Where do you live?
Tugce says
Oh, that's great! i live in İstanbul, have a blog called evde oyun var and a facebook page with the same name 🙂 it's in turkish of course :)) hope you and the kids are enjoying your visit and eating lots of delicious turkish food :)))
Tara says
This looks great! I have celiac, so keeping my kitchen and surfaces free of gluten is vital...So, other than using a crazy expensive gf flour blend, do you know if tapioca or cornstarch would work to replace the flour?