Healthy Easter Treats: How to Make Cheddar Bunny "Carrots"

Aside from all the plastic junk that accumulates around the holidays, the other thing that makes this green mom  crazy, is that Americans are conditioned to always celebrate holidays with large quantities of sugar. Candy candy everywhere! So if you aren't filling your little bunnies' easter eggs with candy, what do you put in their basket or bring as treats to class parties?

Creative Carissa's Favorite Healthy Easter Options

• Make your own playdough
• Books  (I just bought brand new Dr. Seuss books at Goodwill for $1 each)
• Socks
• Non-Toxic Nail Polish like Piggy Paint
• Sidewalk Chalk
• Healthy Snacks 
• Cheddar bunny carrots!

What you need
These carrots are super simple and were made with things I already had on hand. You will need:

• Annie's Cheddar Bunny crackers
• Plastic baggies **see my note below about plastic bags**
• Scissors
• Green Yarn or ribbon

**An important note about plastic bags**

Beware of the triangle shaped party bags often sold in the seasonal section of department stores as the plastics used often contain questionable ingredients like BPA. Instead, purchase baggies made for food that are explicitly labeled to be PVC, BPA and phthalate free. I personally use the bags from Whole Food's 365 brand as they are 100% polyethelene and free of these questionable ingredients.

Step 1: Fill the bag
Open a bag and pour in about 1/2 cup of crackers.

Step 2: Check for "carrotiness"

Make sure your bag is filled to the right level to make you happy with its carroty shape. Add more crackers if needed.

Step 3: Trim the top
Trim the top zipper edge off the bag.

Step 4: Tie the top
Pull out a length of about 2 yards of yarn. Keep folding the length in half until you have a large loop about 6 inches in length. Tie it around the top of the crackers.

Step 5: Make it pretty
Slide your scissors in the ends of the yarn loops and trim them to make a cute little tuft of fringe.

Step 7: Repeat
Keep going until you have all the little carrots you need. If you are bringing these to a class party or group event, be sure to keep or photocopy the ingredients list from the box so anyone worried about food allergies can check them out before enjoying.

If you have a favorite non-toxic or non-sugary Easter idea, I'd love to hear about it! Please feel free to share in the comments.

Green Your Easter: Grow Your Own Easter Grass

It's getting to be that time of year again. When our cultural traditions threaten to make every plastic-averse parent tremble in fear. When toxic chemicals combine with sugar to make our children run around in a weird haze. It's time for...EASTER!

Ok, so maybe it's not that dramatic.

But I hate unnecessary plastic and I feel like Easter "grass" is the epitome of unnecessary plastic. It's not pretty, lacks any kind of real purpose, is not recyclable and it gets tracked all over your house before getting dumped in the trashcan. Last year, we started a tradition of growing our own Easter grass and I love it!

Three Reasons to Grow Your Own Easter Grass...

1. It costs less. I paid $0.30 for enough wheat berries to grow 2-3 large baskets worth of grass. That's $0.15 per basket instead of $1 or more for each basket's worth of plastic shreds. That's an 85% savings! 
2. It's a fun activity to do with your kids before Easter. (plus Easter Bunny believers will love leaving it out as a fresh snack for their favorite cottontail)
   
3. No waste. You can compost your leftovers.

Look for wheat or rye berries in the bulk foods section of your local grocery or natural foods store.

What You'll Need: 

• A basket or other container (I used a small plastic storage tub I got at the Dollar Store)
• Approx 1/2 cup or wheat or rye berries per basket
• Water
• Small amount of potting soil
• Approx 7 days of growing time

Get Started!

Step 1: Get your basket or tub ready
If you are using a woven basket, line the bottom with a piece of foil or plastic wrap to protect the basket from the dirt and water. Roll up the edges to create a lip to hold in any excess moisture. I'm re-using a small plastic storage tub so I didn't need to line mine.

Step 2: Spread in some dirt
Spread out a thin layer of potting soil in the bottom of your container. Make sure that is is thoroughly damp.

Step 3: Generously scatter the berries
Generously sprinkle the rye or wheat berries across the top of the damp soil.

Step 4: Sprinkle with water.
Sprinkle the berries with water. I used a sippy cup which had the non-spill stopper removed. If you don't have a sippy cup, you can use a spray bottle or sprinkle the water with your hand.

Step 5: Put in a warm place and wait
For first few days I kept my basket on top of my fridge where it was warm (the plants don't need sun until they start looking like plants). On day four I moved the basket to a sunny window during the day and kept it warm at night. Make sure to keep sprinkling water on the seeds once or twice a day to keep the growing plants happy.

It's really quite amazing how quickly this stuff grows! If you're homeschooling, you can use this as a fun way to incorporate science and math (measuring!) into your curriculum, too.

After six or seven days, you should have some pretty hearty growth:

Please note: Do not be alarmed if the basket looks a bit sparse because you can still see the seeds when you look straight down into it even after about a week:

Once you add basket filler (it doesn't take much!), it shifts the grass around and you will have adorable tufts of living grass peeking up from between your eggs and other baskety gifts. This is the same "sparse" looking basket five minute later:

Pin It

This project is so easy and fun that I hope I've encouraged you to start your own Easter grass growing tradition, too!

Linking to:

* Made by You Monday * Brassy Apple *

[Easter] Sunday's Coming!

Last week was my birthday which means....Easter is on its way!  Just a little less than a month until Easter and I'm deciding what things we want to do to celebrate and decorate around the house.  Here are a few Easter ideas I'm totally loving:

1) Grow Your Own Easter Grass

(Picture from Zakka Life)

The number one Easter idea I am TOTALLY loving this year is growing your own Easter grass. Who wants that plastic, stringy stuff anyway? It's just going to end up in the trash. Plus it's a choking hazard for both my dogs and my kiddo. When you're done, juice it or compost it.

Basic how-to:
1) Pick a pretty basket
2) Line the bottom with foil or plastic. Add a thin layer of potting soil
3) Sprinkle some rye or wheat grass seeds on the surface
4) Water and keep warm

Sustainable. Pretty. Non-plastic.  I'm sold!  We're actually heading to the nursery tomorrow to get seeds so we can start growing our grass baskets this week.