Southwestern Colored Easter Eggs {A very simple easy way to add a little more color and depth to your Easter eggs}

I'm always looking for simple ways to shake things up. Let's face it, in our world of craziness, there's just not always time to be "Martha." Last year while visiting my in-laws, we dyed Easter eggs as part of our holiday festivities. When my mother-in-law broke out the brown eggs, I thought she was certifiably crazy. "Like those are really going to take on any color..." I thought quietly to myself. Thank goodness I never uttered my thoughts aloud, because not only did they take the color, they turned out beautifully. Perfect for Sante Fe styles of Saint George, where we were enjoying the sunshine coloring eggs outdoors, as the eggs turned into different southwestern hues. Instead of the pastel or candy colored eggs we're accustomed to, the brown eggs ended up in deeper sapphire, ruby, emerald, and other jewel colored tones.  I laughed when my son saw these eggs and exclaimed the very same thought that I had the previous year, "Mom, you really think those brown eggs are going to actually change color?!?"

It has thrilling to watch as he experimented with the eggs. He'd dye a white egg one color, and then a brown egg the same color just to see the difference. He was delighted when the brown eggs did actually turn colors, and had such a great time comparing and contrasting the differences between the two.

The eggs in the top row started as white eggs and were dyed using the same color as the brown eggs on the bottom. See how much deeper the colors are?

Not only did he end up with a basket filled with tons of different colors, traditional and southwestern, he set his little brain to work, and made quite the experiment out of our Easter festivities. 

There's not much of a tutorial for this one - simply boil some brown eggs either with or instead of white eggs and color your eggs as directed on dye package.

We've also had fun making speckled eggs and also using vinyl to personalize our eggs. What tips and tricks do you have for coloring Easter eggs?

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Easter Bunny Coloring Pages

Enjoy the colorful and funny play of Easter with Bunny bringing along with him basket full of eggs and a feel to play egg hunt game. You can use these easter bunny coloring pages to download and present to your little kids and children.

Easter Egg Coloring Pages

Color these easter egg coloring pages to present beauty of Easter tradition associated with hatching eggs representing new life, new beginning just like Jesus after resurrection. Download them for free to gift to your kids and children.

Easter Coloring Pages

Celebrate Easter with your children, teenagers and kids through their play-way style of coloring activities. Exchange religious thoughts and feel of spring season celebration of Easter eggs and bunnies with these selected range of Easter Coloring Pages with free download option.

What To Do With All That Easter Candy

My home is now filled with empty plastic eggs, empty Easter baskets, half eaten bags of candy and sugar overloaded kids which only means there must be a few piles of candy around my house. So, now what will I do with all of this leftover candy?

Option #1 - Let my kids continue to overload on the sugar or Option #2 use a few of the creative ideas below:

Left over chocolate bunnies and eggs –

Melt them and create a yummy Fondu'

Melt them and create chocolate dipped strawberries.

Chop them up and use in your Chocolate chip cookie recipes.

Melt them over ice cream

Chop them up and add to a batch of brownies

Bake a batch of chocolate muffins

Shave the chocolate and use on top of other desserts and sundaes

M&M’s

Add into your cookie recipes

Add into your next batch of cupcakes

Add into brownies or Rice Krispie treats

Make a Brownie pizza

Add to your morning pancakes

Use in decorative jars for Spring

Peeps

Make microwave S’mores

for more leftover Peeps recipes click here

Jelly Beans

Jelly Bean Guess - During your next party or event place a jar full of jelly beans out allowing everyone to guess how many are in the jar. Winner gets to keep the jar.

National Jelly Bean day - April 22nd is National Jelly Bean day celebrate it.

Bingo Fun - Use jelly beans as bingo markers.

Trail Mix add in - Put some jelly beans in your trail mix. The added sugar will give you a boost or sugar high. Mix one part each of peanuts, pretzels, and jelly beans and any other yummy items you like in your trail mix.

Math Beans- Have your children create graphs with jelly beans sorting them by colors.

Creative Cupcakes - Use jelly beans to decorate cupcakes. With the variety of colors the decorating ideas are endless. Easy addition to making your cupcakes FUN.

Holiday Fun - Save your jelly beans in a zip lock bag to use on your Christmas Gingerbread houses.

Recipes - Create a Yummy dessert with Jelly Beans. Click here for recipes.

What are you doing with your left over Easter candy this year?

Happy Easter - Do You Know Him?

 A few weeks ago this Dr. S.M. Lockridge video from You Tube was aired during our church service. A perfect reminder us of WHO we are celebrating today and everyday.  Do you know Him?

Happy Easter ~ I Heart Macro

Lori over at Waterstone Jewelry hosts I heart macro/closeups every Sunday. This being Easter Sunday Ithought it fitting to share my Ukrainian eggs.  Hop on over and see what everyone else is sharing!

Every year I tell myself I am going to get out my kistkas and beeswax and make up a new batch of dyes and create some Ukrainian eggs for Easter/ Christmas and as i can see from the dates on these eggs, I have failed in that mission for a lot of years now. The latest date I can find on any of these is 1997!! Bad me!

I used to love to make these each year with the kids who were fairly young at the time. My son't first egg was when he was 4 and my daughter 9.

I went into the elementary school and taught my sons' second grade class to make these, yeah, what was I thinking, letting 7 year olds handle a traditional kistka with their own flame! But believe it or not, we only had one little girl get her finger burned and she was fooling around at the time.

I also taught my daughters' 5th grade classes, several art teachers and then ventured into the high school with newer kistkas ,for my children and nephews when they got there. I was pleasantly surprised to see the enthusiasm in the high school.

I asked my husband when I took these out, "How is it possible I had so much time back then to do all of this stuff and can't find the time now?" His wise reply, "You didn't have internet back then". So true. I guess it's no coincidence that we got internet around here in 1998 and the last date on the eggs is 1997!

I vow to do better. I may have missed Easter, but there's alway hope for Christmas! ( you can see in the pictures some have ornament caps attached for hanging on a tree)

Better get started now!

For anyone interested in learning this craft, I purchase all my supplies here. They also have a wonderful selection of cookbooks and books for the children.

This kit is a great starting point and has everything you'll need to make beautiful eggs.

P.S. I just found that they now offer an instructional DVD that would be a great place to start!



Five Egg-cellent Hard Boiled Egg Recipes

They have been boiled, dyed and hunted down only to potentially leave you with dozens of leftover hard boiled eggs once the  Easter celebration ends.  What egg-cellent recipes can you create with these lefts over eggs? We found five egg-cellent recipes to share with you

Old-Fashioned Egg Salad Recipe

From Taste of Home:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, lemon juice, onion, salt and pepper. Stir in eggs and celery. Cover and refrigerate. Yield: 3 servings.

Creamy Ham 'n' Egg Casserole

From Taste Of Home

Ingredients

• 2 medium cooked potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 4 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
• 1 cup diced fully cooked ham
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 cups (12 ounces) BREAKSTONE'S® Sour Cream
• 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, ham, salt and pepper. Combine the egg and sour cream; add to potato mixture and gently toss to coat. Transfer to a greased 11-in. x 7-in. baking dish.
• Toss bread crumbs and butter; sprinkle over casserole. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 20 minutes or until a thermometer reaches 160°. Yield: 6 servings.

 

L.O.V.E. Egg Salad Wrap - ( lettuce, onion, vegetable, egg salad)

From: Food Network
Ingredients

• 8 hard boiled eggs
• 4 teaspoons mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons fresh chives, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 4 pieces whole-wheat wrap bread (9 inches in diameter)
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 12 thin slices red onion
• 8 leaves romaine lettuce, torn into pieces (about 1/2 cup)

 

Layered Summer Salad

From Kraft Foods

What You Need

4 cups torn romaine lettuce

1-1/2 cups  KRAFT Shredded Mild Cheddar Cheese, divided

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

1 small  red onion, sliced, separated into rings

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 pkg.  (10 oz.) frozen peas, thawed

1/2 cup KRAFT Real Mayo Mayonnaise

1/2 cup  BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

4 slices  OSCAR MAYER Bacon, cooked, crumbled

Make It

LAYER lettuce, 1 cup cheese, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and peas in 3-qt. bowl. MIX mayo, sour cream and basil; spread over salad, completely covering top of salad. TOP with remaining cheese and bacon. Refrigerate 5 hours. 

Brunch Ham and Egg Muffins from: Betty Crocker

INGREDIENTS

8	large eggs
1	package (0.9-oz) hollandaise sauce mix
1	cup milk
1/4	cup butter
1	teaspoon lemon juice
1/4	teaspoon dried dill weed
	Dash pepper
8	oz sliced cooked ham
4	English muffins, split, toasted

 Directions:

1. 1 Place eggs in single layer in large saucepan or Dutch oven; add enough cold water to cover eggs by 1 inch. Bring to a boil. Immediately remove from heat; cover and let stand 15 minutes. Drain; rinse with cold water. Place eggs in bowl of ice water; let stand 10 minutes. Peel eggs; cut eggs into quarters. Set aside.
2. 2 In medium saucepan, prepare sauce mix with milk and butter as directed on package. Stir in quartered hard-cooked eggs, lemon juice, dill and pepper. Cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
3. 3 Place ham on microwave-safe plate; cover loosely with microwave-safe plastic wrap. Microwave on Medium for 2 to 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
4. 4 Place 2 muffin halves on each serving plate. Arrange ham slices on muffins. Spoon egg mixture over ham. 

1/2 Dozen Left Over Easter Ham Recipes

Cheddar Ham Soup Recipe

From Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 2 cups diced peeled potatoes
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup sliced carrot
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 1-1/2 cups cubed fully cooked ham
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Directions

• In a large saucepan, combine the potatoes, water, carrot and onion. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until tender.
• Meanwhile, in another saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add the milk, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cheese until melted. Stir into undrained potato mixture. Add ham and peas; heat through. Yield: 7 servings.

After-Holiday Ham on Biscuits

From Taste Of Home

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons cold butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 
  CREAM SAUCE:
• 1 cup cubed fully cooked ham
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1-3/4 cups milk
• 3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk just until moistened. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead 8-10 times.
• Pat or roll out to 1/2-in. thickness; cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter. Place 2 in. apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
• Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute ham and onion in butter for 3-4 minutes or until onion is crisp-tender. Stir in the bouillon, Worcestershire sauce and pepper. Combine flour and milk until smooth; gradually stir into pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Gently stir in eggs and parsley.
• Split warm biscuits in half horizontally; top with ham mixture. Yield: 4 servings.

Ham and Cheese Crescents

from: Pillsbury 


INGREDIENTS

1	can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
8	thin slices cooked ham (8 oz)
4	thin slices Cheddar cheese (4 oz), each cut into 4 strips

DIRECTIONS

1.	Heat oven to 350°F. Separate dough into 8 triangles. Place 1 piece of ham on each triangle; place 2 strips of cheese down center of ham. Fold in edges of ham to match shape of dough triangle.
2.	Roll up each crescent, ending at tip of triangle. Place with tips down on ungreased cookie sheet.
3.	Bake 15 to 19 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Serve warm.

Cobb salad ham roll-ups

From: PorkBeInspired.com

Ingredients:
8-12 slices ham, thinly sliced
2 slices bacon, crisp-cooked, drained, crumbled
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
2 eggs, hard-cooked, chopped
1/2 small avocado, chopped
1 Roma tomato, seeded and chopped
2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
Leaf lettuce or romaine

Directions:
Combine mayonnaise and mustard in bowl. Fold in eggs, avocado, tomato, blue cheese and bacon until combined. Set aside.
Layer each ham slice with lettuce. Place a heaping tablespoon of the egg mixture at one end of each slice. Starting at the end with the filling, roll up each slice. Secure with a wooden pick. Yield: 4 servings.
Approximate values per serving: 364 calories, 25 grams protein, 27 grams fat, 1621 milligrams sodium, 167 milligrams cholesterol, 7 grams saturated fat, 5 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber.
Source: PorkBeInspired.com

Ham & Swiss Hash Brown Bake

By:CARNATION MILKS

Ingredients

• 1 bag (16 oz.) or 4 1/2 cups frozen, shredded hash brown potatoes
• 2 cups (about 8 oz.) cooked ham, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
• 1 can (10 oz.) condensed reduced-sodium cream of mushroom soup
• 1 tablespoon Dijon or yellow mustard
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed of moisture
• 1 cup (4 oz.) shredded Swiss cheese

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 400º F. Grease 2 1/2- to 3-quart casserole dish.

COMBINE potatoes, ham, evaporated milk, soup, mustard and pepper in large bowl. Pour half of potato mixture into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with spinach and top top with remaining potato mixture. Sprinkle with cheese.

BAKE for 40 to 45 minutes or until heated through and lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

TIP:
• This versatile dish is great with many types of meats you may already have in your fridge. Try using chopped turkey or chicken instead of ham.

Ham and Cheese Muffins

from: Betty Crocker

Directions:

2	eggs
3	cups Original Bisquick® mix
1	cup milk
3	tablespoons vegetable oil
1	package (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese (1 cup)
3/4	cup chopped fully cooked ham (1/4 pound)

Instructions:

1. 1 Heat oven to 400°F. Spray bottoms and sides of 12 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray. (Spray will work better than greasing or using paper muffin liners.)
2. 2 Beat eggs slightly in medium bowl with fork. Stir in Bisquick mix, milk and oil just until moistened. Stir in 3/4 cup of the cheese and the ham. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup cheese evenly over tops of muffins.
3. 3 Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately remove from pan. Serve warm. Wrap and refrigerate any remaining muffins.

What to do with all those PEEPS?

Is it just me or are you also feeling like every store you walk into is being taken over by PEEPS? I see PEEPS in every color and variety as I stroll the isle of my stores.  I'm beginning to think the Easter bunny has a PEEP addiction - so what will we do with all those PEEPS once they are delivered to our homes?

Over the past few weeks 24/7 MOMS has shared a few fun PEEP recipes and ideas for our What to do with all those PEEPS after  the Easter PEEPS overload crisis.

I've quickly gathered all the ideas right here for you to easily find:

PEEP Easter Indoor Smore's

Easter Peeps make yummy and colorful indoor Smore's.  We found this fun idea over at Serious Eats.  Click here for complete how to.








 
Easter PEEPS Straws and Stir Sticks

Add a PEEP to your kids drinks after  Easter by placing one on their straws or Hot Chocolate stir sticks- We found this fun idea over at The Autocrat.  Click here for instructions.





PEEPS Rice Krispie Treats On A Stick

Simple and Fast to create these fun PEEPS Rice Krispie treat pops on a stick ( we used pre-made Rice Krispie treats) that we found over at Love From The Oven.  Click here for instructions.







Rocky Road Peeps Brownies

Create this simple and yummy recipe right from a boxed brownie mix with a few added ingredients from You know what you oughta do blog.  Click here for complete instructions.





Peeps Bunny Cookies
from: Marshmallow Peeps

Ingredients:
• 16 assorted PEEPS® Marshmallow Bunnies
• 1 tube ready-to-bake sugar cookies
• 1 container vanilla frosting
• Assorted colors of food coloring
• Egg-shaped cookie cutter

Directions:
1. Using a rolling pin, roll out sugar cookie dough to 1/4” thickness.

2.Cut egg shapes out of dough using an egg-shaped cookie cutter.

3. Bake according to package directions and let cool.

4. Divide frosting into separate containers in order to create multiple colors.

5. Combine different colors of food coloring with vanilla frosting to make desired shades of colored frosting.

6. Frost cookies.

7. Place PEEPS ® Marshmallow Bunnies onto cookies by pressing firmly into frosting.

Spring Cupcakes For Easter

Who knew that Tootsie Rolls could be shaped into bunny heads and Starburst candies could be chopped into chick beaks and rabbit noses? With a little bit of know-how and creativity, dash assistant editor Shannon McCook shows us how anyone can transform everyday candies and snack foods into adorable cupcake adornments.

Check out the how to instructions and videos on dashrecipes.com: Click here to go there now.

Dinner Conversation Starters For Easter

Create conversation at your Easter dinner table with these FREE printable Easter conversation starters from Skip To My Lou.

Click Here to print yours now.