Recipes for Big Families: No Grinches Playdough

Raise your hand if you’re ready for Winter to be over! It doesn’t matter if it’s the first day or the 45th day, all my people indoors, all day long, starts to grate on my nerves. Unless! Unless we have something to keep our hands and minds occupied. This No Grinches Playdough in our recipes for big families is so helpful for our indoor time!

I believe every family, not just a large family, needs an on-hand, homemade playdough recipe. Part of the reason why this playdough makes it into our recipes for big families file is its everyday ingredients we have on-hand in the pantry. Another reason, it can be made easily and quickly and tailored to individual families. No Grinches Playdough recipe fills all the requirements.

We’ve made homemade playdough for almost 20 years, but this year I’m adding a little something special, essential oils.

Playdough is such a lovely, tactile tool for sometimes, hours of fun. In the past I’ve found one way to add more enjoyment to our playdough playing time is playing lovely music softly int he background or listening to an audiobook. This year I decided to take it up a notch! This year as I make our playdough, I add different essential oils, depending on the mood I want to promote.

I can add Lavender for a calming, peaceful playdough. I can add citrus oils for a bright, cheerful playdough. Or I can mix up a batch of seasonal playdough as I did for our No Grinches Playdough using Christmas Spirit and Peppermint essential oils.

The more I learn about the benefits of essential oils, the more I look for ways to incorporate them into our household. Of course, there are cleaners and cleaning recipes, supplements, and the oils themselves–diffused or applied topically. But there are so many more uses I’m learning about, like cooking with them or adding them to our homemade playdough.

Daily, we use our essential oils in a diffuser to promote better moods–whether we need a healthy way to wake-up our mind and body to be ready for the day (Lemon, Peppermint, and Frankincense are great for that!) or a refreshing citrus to put a spring in our step as we tackle all the things life has to offer–a more pleasant way to say, “Whatever life throws at us!” (Orange essential oil is great for this.)

We used to just keep a diffuser in the main living room or the bedroom of a sick child. Lately, since we signed up with Young Living and a diffuser came with our Starter Kit, we’re diffusing in the dining room as well; this is where we do most of our homeschooling.

In the evenings, when we’re ready to wind down–whether we think we need help or not, essential oils can play a natural role in relaxing our minds and bodies. It can be as simple as Lavender in our bedroom diffuser, a calming massage with oils, a nice hot, oil infused bath, or some calming oils rolled onto the bottom of our feet right before bed.

But back to my No Grinches Playdough. I used our playdough recipe for big families and added some seasonal mood-boosting essential oils to it. You’ll notice I did not add food coloring. There are a few reasons:
1. I didn’t have any in the pantry
2. I’m not a huge fan of my children wrist deep into food coloring
3. I have children–some like colors, some don’t, some don’t like colors mixed, some could care less, someone always wants the color someone else has, etc. This is not my first mothering rodeo.

Recipes for Big Families No Grinches Playdough

2 Cups of All-Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup of Table Salt
4 Teaspoons Cream of Tartar
2 Cups of Water
2 Tablespoons of Oil (Olive, Coconut, Vegetable, whatever you have in your pantry)
Essential Oils

Add all the ingredients to a heavy bottom saucepan and mix well on medium to high heat until a stiff dough starts to form. Take off the heat and continue stirring and mixing until all the flour is incorporated and it’s playdough consistency. Dump onto a counter, parchment paper, whatever, and form into a big ball. Add the essential oils. For this No Grinches recipe I added 3 drops of Christmas Spirit and 3 drops of Peppermint. You can adjust the drops according to your family. Next time–and there will be a next time, I will up the oils to at least 4 if not 5 drops. Knead the oils into the playdough. The playdough should last, stored in an air-tight container or bag for about 3 months. Unless your house is like mine and someone forgets to seal the bag or put the lid on and then it will dry out sooner. *Since this does have Peppermint essential oil in it, I’m keeping ours in a glass bowl. I have no reason other than it just seems to make sense to me. I’m sure a plastic bag would work fine.

Tell me in the comments some other ways you’ve found to add essential oils into your daily life. And if you’re not sure how to use essential oils effectively, you can click this link and I’ll send you a Facebook link to some amazing videos on how essential oils can support our health and wellness–mentally and physically. I have a post on why we use the oils we do, hint, it came down to education and learning to use the oils from a medical doctor’s perspective.

Here are some more recipes for big families:
Large Family Recipes: Easy Pinto Beans-This is one of my most popular posts!
Breakfast Recipes for Big Families-Perfect roundup of yummy breakfasts to feed a holiday crowd.
Free New Year’s Eve Printable and Black Eye Pea Dip Recipes-The only ways I’ll eat the obligatory Black Eyed Peas.