Making Fun Activities for Kids with Pantry Ingredients: Step-By-Step

Dan and Laurie use a few pantry essentials to keep the kids entertained indoors.

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: Eddy Chen

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

Photo By: EDDY CHEN

When the Weather Outside Gets Frightful

With polar vortexes and foot-high snowstorms causing havoc outdoors every few days, are you running out of ways to keep the kids entertained? Fear not, Dan and Laurie have a few fun recipes that'll chase away the winter doldrums faster than you can say cabin fever.

Kitchen Art Kit

The Good to Know hosts use a few pantry basics like flour and sugar to whip up this spread of artistic playthings.

Rolling in Dough

To make a batch of old-school Fun-Dough, you only need water, flour and cornstarch.

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

To form, toss the three ingredients into a pot and place over medium high heat, stirring constantly. 

Color Me Happy

When the mixture is cool, add two drops of food coloring to give it a bright pop.

Caught Red-Handed

Before you move on to the next step, make sure to put on a pair of plastic gloves or things could get messy.

Dough Puncher

Got the gloves on? Good! Now, knead the dough and food coloring together until it's one even shade.

Fun Dough

Paint me a Picture

For Dan and Laurie's next kid-friendly craft tool, you'll need flour, sugar, salt and water.

Edible Fingerpaint

(Brush)Stroke of Genius

Whisk together the four kitchen essentials to create the edible fingerpaint base.

Mix and Match

Separate the paint into smaller bowls and add a few drops of food coloring to create different hues.

Paint by Number

When the paint becomes one uniform color, do the same with the next bowl. Remember to give the whisk a rinse so there's no cross-contamination.

Get Creative

Now that you have the paint palette together, it's time for the kids to show off their inner Picassos.

Blank Canvas

Pancakes are an easy-to-make canvas for the edible fingerpaint. Learn to flip the perfect, fluffy round in the video below.

Breakfast for Dinner

Leftover pancakes make for a great post-activity meal. Simply pop them in the oven to reheat and drizzle on Nigella's sweet blueberry syrup.

Get the Recipe: Blueberry Syrup for Pancakes

Paint on!

Sure things will be a little messy, but it beats watching cartoon re-runs all day — and doesn't require an arsenal of fancy art equipment.

Good to Know

Check out Dan and Laurie's entire fun-filled afternoon below.