All Natural Food Colors Safe for Kids (Kid Activity)

So I must admit, I never really cared about all natural products or trying to avoid the word “artificial” until recently. Ms. Tiger has eczema and gets really bad outbreaks that are itchy and uncomfortable. It seems like there has to be something that causes it. When I was growing up I don’t remember anyone having eczema, but now a days it seems like most moms I talk to have a kid or know a kid with it. It makes me wonder if it is more prevalent because of all the artificial fillers in so much food today. Maybe the health crazed all natural people have been right all along? 

We use a lot of food coloring in our activities so I was excited to try making all natural food coloring. I found this idea on Pinterest, however ours did not turn out anywhere close to how they were pictured. Ours where a more earthy tone, where as the ones in my pin looked exactly like store bought colors (because it didn’t work as pictured, I didn’t include a link to the original post).  We still had a lot of fun making them, and I loved being able to use them without worrying about artificial stuff.  See below for pictures of how we used our All Natural Food Colors.

Supplies:
2 C. Spinach
1 C. Blueberries
1 C. Beets (we used 4 canned beets and juice)
1 tsp. Curry powder
Water
Coffee filters
Strainer
Cooking pans

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Directions:
1.  Add each ingredient into a separate pan with 1 1/2 cups water each. Turn on high so the pan can start to boil. Once it boils, turn the pot to medium. Boil for 20 minutes, or until the water reduces and you can clearly see color in the water. 

2.  Let the pans cool a bit. Put a coffee filter in the strainer and strain the food coloring into a container for use. (The original post used cheese cloth, but I figured more people have coffee filters and I didn’t want you to have to run to the store :).  Use a new coffee filter for each color. 

Beets-red, Blueberries-purple, Spinach-green, Curry-mustard yellow

Activity Ideas for kids with All Natural Food Colors

• Colored Noodles Sensory Play

I let our cooked noodles sit over night in the remainder of our beets and blueberry food coloring with 1/2 cup of vinegar. Look how lovely they turned out. Both kiddos loved playing with these wet, cool, and colored sensory noodles.

• Colored Ice Cubes Sensory Play

Colored ice was fun to make with our homemade food colors. Then we played with our ice cubes and watched the colors mix together as they melted.

• Colored Bath Water Bath time Fun

I have always wanted to color my kiddos bath water, but I didn’t want their skin to get irritated. I loved surprising them with colored bath water, they were so thrilled, bath time just became even cooler! Art time

We used our natural food colors to paint with. Our red and purple colors turned out the best and where the most fun to use. Ms. Tiger thought is was really cool to paint with colors she made with mommy.  More Art Recipes: Easy Edible Paint Recipe