Self-sufficientish Easter

[Annpan]

How will you do yours

Any thoughts about how we can do Easter based around a 18 month old that involves no chocolate and no tat???

We will decorate eggs and maybe make wee cardboard bunnies and chicks.

I'd like to do an egg hunt but given time and material limitations, I can't think of a suitable substitute for chocolate

[ina]

I'd like to do an egg hunt but given time and material limitations, I can't think of a suitable substitute for chocolate

Hardboiled eggs, decorated or dressed up! Mind you, in this weather... but I remember one Easter when I was a child when I hunted eggs in snow.

I've also baked wholemeal pastry/shortbread eggs and decorated them with "natural" colours, i.e. icing died with turmeric, red tea etc. Still sugary, of course...

Kiwi eggs?

[Silver Ether]

this might inspire you ... stuff to buy .. yep I know its to late but there are also links to colouring pages and books...

http://www.eparenting.co.uk/easter/choc ... eats.shtml

What about biscuits cut in the shape of bunnies or chicks ... make her sandwiches that are bunny/chick shaped.

Salt dough can be used to make assorted stuff including plaques with bunnies on with her name ...
just realized I keep saying her ... sorry if its a boy

Oh and I say its a hare not a bunny

[Mainer in Exile]

I've heard that people used to use caramel as a substitute for chocolate, back when chocolate was too expensive for the masses. It might be an option for today, as a greener alternative.

[hetty]

I always make biscuits in the shape of bunnies and my daughter still thinks Easter isn't Easter without them despite being 21 now

Susan

[Annpan]

I am currently making some paper daffodils... I'll attach the flower heads to drinking straws, for stems and she can 'smell' them for hours on end (it is a girl SE) - she is suffering a bit from the pollen of the real daffs my sister brought us last week.

Why did I not think of biscuits ... of course, do you think I could use lemons for colouring icing sugar (I wonder if I use the zest, if I can get a yellow colour???)
I have other suitable berries for other colours (blueberries, cranberries and blackberries in the freezer)

Ina - I once wrapped a kiwi fruit in a Kinder-surprise wrapper for my mum, when she was trying to loose weight... She didn't see the funny side - why I bother - I'll never know

[red]

made my own hot not cross buns today.

oh and we had toad in the hole for tea. told son it was cos there are plenty of toads around at this time of year...

[circlecross]

despite my curmudgeonly ways, saying "please don't buy anything this year" we got:

8 eggs (one has a bucket with it, that the 1yr old has carried about ALL afternoon, and one has a ceramic breakfast set for the 3yr old)
1 box of FT chocs
2 nets of choc eggs and bunnies.

Ds1 has polished off most of one egg, and dh has eaten the cream of satan eggs that were in it.

Now, there are only 4 of us in the household! And we are going to see MIL and SIL tomorrow, so there will prob be more!

I was not excluded form this nonsense, we have got ds2 an egg but it is in a watering can - like the bucket he can make himself useful in the garden with it, and the ds1 has got a small world toy which is a caravan with a couple of hippies to live in it!

[ina]

Ina - I once wrapped a kiwi fruit in a Kinder-surprise wrapper for my mum, when she was trying to loose weight... She didn't see the funny side - why I bother - I'll never know

Your mum is a special case!

Lemon zest would make the icing slightly spotted, I think; turmeric gives a nice yellow: you only need a hint of it, and it doesn't taste like curry at all! Or you could use both - then the lemon would hide any suspicion of curry...

[Annpan]

Turmeric it is then

JohnM and I are going to make them after Shorty is in bed

We'll have to make a another batch for tomorrow of course... yummy biscuits... yummy

[ina]

ANd if you have any red fruit tea - that makes a nice pink (one teabag for a couple of tablespoons boiling water). Cocoa for brown - so with white that would give you four colours already. I suppose beetroot juice would be great for red, too; or spinach juice for green...

[Shirley]

I think we've escaped... apart from a dastardly cadbury's cream egg that J received from nursery (yes - the link to the petition has now been given to the school) and a mini cream egg from D that he got from school (another lecture!) I've got a wee packet of fairtrade mini eggs that I'll use to fill some chocolate crispy cake nests... that's more than enough for easter!

We'll decorate some eggs too - lots of fun... we've got plenty at the moment as everything is laying YAY!