This is so good that it has to be shared. I’ve discovered a great new website featuring a family that I think would get along great with mine. Green and Crunchy is the adventures of Sheri and her family as they lead an organic, vegan, frugal life. And they have a great recipe for homemade play doh that fits perfectly into a frugal, organic life. I’m bookmarking this so that I can come back to it in a couple years when my son is ready to play with play doh. I love the idea of using vegetable dyes. Whenever I peel beets for my green smoothies, I am struck by the fact that I could dye anything I wanted with the beet juice (which takes a while to wash off my hands). I can picture our family using beets, swiss chard, sweet potatoes, and blueberries to make awesome colored play doh.
Our son’s favorite toy at the moment is a little saucepan and a spoon. I put him on a quilt on the kitchen floor with the pan and the spoon, and he entertains himself for quite a while. I know that eventually we’ll be getting real toys for him, but for now, he’s perfectly content to just discover the things that we already have. All we have to do is make sure that we give him safe, sturdy things to play with – other than that, it doesn’t really matter what they are.
neimanmarxist says
hi frugal babe,
just a quick question- we’re making pizza with biscuit crust this weekend :) do you add a little cider vinegar to the soy milk to curdle it before you put it into the biscuits? do you just stir all the ingredients up together, or do you “crumble” the flour with the butter first? this is such a great idea, i am excited about it!
thanks!
Jenna says
You’ll probably find that your son plays with that saucepan and spoon for many years to come… maybe demanding something to stir in it though!
Frugal Wench says
I got this recipe way back in 1975 in a little folder I got for homemade kid’s stuff. Don’t remember where I got the folder. I held on to it for many years, but can’t find it now. My kids both played with homemade playdoh all their lives. I didn’t use organic flour, but it worked just as well with regular flour.
FrugalBabe says
Neimanmarxist – I use half rice milk and half water in my biscuit dough. I don’t add vinegar, although if you’re using soymilk you could do that if you prefer a buttermilk biscuit flavor. I mix all the dry ingredients, and then mix in the butter until it’s a bit crumbly. Then I add the milk/water mixture and stir until I get the right consistency (I usually end up adding more water at the end to get it right).
I made this pizza again last night. I baked the crust for five minutes and then took it out of the oven and brushed on a mixture of olive oil, fresh basil, fresh garlic, salt, and dried oregano. Then I put it back in the oven for a couple minutes while I chopped up a pepper and some spinach. I added pizza sauce, the veggies and cheese, let it bake for another 7 minutes, and we had a wonderful dinner. It’s different ever time I do it, but we haven’t been disappointed yet. Have fun with it!!
sheri says
Hi there! Thanks for the shout-out re: my organic play-dough recipe!
I’ve been lurking here for AGES…your blog has been a bookmarked fave of mine for a very long time :)