Quick and Easy Homemade Playdoh Using Healthy Ingredients

My kid loves playdoh. Every year, someone manages to purchase him some from the store, and it comes in a variety of tubs and colors. I like playdoh as it gives my toddler a chance to be creative, mold things with his hands, and discover what happens when he squeezes, smushes, cuts, smashes, and stuffs it in his hands and with his tools. He also learns about colors, sorting, making shapes, and mixing colors. It’s great stuff.

But at the same time, I don’t like it smashed into my carpet, in all of the lines on my coffee table and dining table, on the floor so my infant and dogs can eat it, and in every nook and cranny of the house. That stuff drives me crazy. Too many times I’ve just tossed it all in the trash can. I hate it. I do. But boy does my little one love it and ask for it all the time.

So we came up with a recipe to make it ourselves. I still don’t like it, but one bonus is that because it’s made from good ingredients, and even dyed with natural food dyes, I don’t mind my dogs, my toddler, and even my infant getting ahold of some and eating it. The all-natural ingredients are those that we would use in many of our recipes anyway, so it’s not as big of a problem.

I think because it smells good and tastes good, my dogs get most of it before it can smash into the carpet, and don’t leave much on the floor or table to worry about. It makes playdoh a little easier to cope with as somehow my toddler likes to spread it to the four corners of the house, from the kitchen table. Who knows!

Now you can have your own great playdoh recipe to make with your kids, and even better you can color it any way you’d like with the foods you already have in your refrigerator or pantry. Let’s see how!

There are so many great colors in the foods you already have in your kitchen, especially if you are willing to get creative. Check out your spice cabinet, your fruit and vegetable bins and even pantry for some pretty cool colors. Each these may need to be used in different concentrations (or amounts) to achieve the colors you are looking for, and the longer you cook your ingredients the stronger the color will be, meaning the more water that evaporates makes your color that much more concentrated.

See some of the best items for each color you are trying to achieve below:

• Pink: strawberries, raspberries
• Red: beets, tomato
• Orange: carrots, paprika, sweet potato
• Yellow: saffron, turmeric, onion skins
• Green: matcha powder, spinach, broccoli
• Blue: red cabbage + baking soda
• Purple: blueberries, purple sweet potato
• Brown: coffee, tea, cocoa
• Black: activated charcoal

There’s no reason why you can’t have a variety of colors in your playdoh just like the store offers, but don’t expect your colors to be quite as vibrant as the ones you’ll find in the store. They achieve those radiant colors using chemicals and dyes. You will be using food to natural color  your dough. They will be beautiful, and the playdoh will likely be tasty nonetheless.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures. My little one wanted to help, I had a baby on my chest, and it went so fast! I’ll have to get some pictures next time when I have a little less help from both of my kids.

I love that my toddler was able to use it before it even cooled down completely and he really enjoyed it! I caught him putting it in his mouth a couple of times and didn’t worry too much. I understand. It was colored with blueberries, which are his favorite. And if he and the dogs do end up eating it all, we can quickly make some more. Maybe next time I’ll flavor it with carrots and broccoli.

It was still a humongous mess, and it’s currently on top of the fridge to give mommy a break from sweeping, but he has a lot of fun playing with it and it’s a hundred times better than the processed, neon-colored version, with all of the same perks as the regular playdoh.

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