Mindylynns Kitchen

  For most of my life I’ve struggled with my weight. In highschool and my early twenties I did all the fad “diets,” I still shudder when I think of cabbage soup…I developed a thyroid condition, suffered from chronic pain, heart palpitations, nausea, and poor vision…plus my weight kept going up. I was doing everything my doctors, the media and my mom told me to but I kept gaining weight. Fast forward a decade and you have a very overweight 30 year old housewife. I’m not going to write about wright loss today, although you should read nourishing traditions if you are struggling with health and weight issues. Today I’m going to talk about one of the irritating side effects of being fat…heat rashes. 
   When you are fat (or have big breasts) skin touching/flapping/rubbing against skin can lead to irritation and heat rashes.  Its maddening. At times it can get almost as bad poison oak *shudder.*
   My poor husband can attest to the fact that I have been suffering horribly from heat rashes for the past several months.  I made a special blend of essential oils to help, but it only helped a little.   I had mixed the oils with a carrier oil…which is not ideal for heat rashes.  Last night I had a TADA moment.  Why not make a spray. But how was I to mix oils with water???  As usual Mr. Google provided an answer. Alcohol! This spray is marvelous. It cools and soothes the heat rash instantly,  and it dries super fast so there is no moisture issues.  As a plus it smells so good that I’ll be using it as a perfume AND a linen/room spray. Talk about multi purpose.
  As a heavy woman this is a necessity for me, but it will obviously work for men, skinny women and teenagers who suffer from heat rash.  Also please note, I’m not a healthcare professional, this is just how I personally treat heat rash and you should use your own judgment when taking advice from somebody on the internet.

Lavedermint spritz:
1 clean/empty bottle with spray nozzle (I salvaged an old body spray bottle)
1tbsp vodka
15 drops lavender essential oil
10 drops peppermint essential oil
8 drops eucalyptus essential oil
Filtered or distilled water 1 cup

Mix oils and vodka, fill with water shake. Done.

Shake before each use.

Its that easy. You can adjust to make it weaker or stronger.  I wouldn’t use this on children under 2 or on anything that would come into direct contact with their skin. If you want something for children use lavender only. Eucalyptus and mint may cause respiratory issues in infants. 

My grandma’s A-Z bread has always been my favorite baking recipe. Period. It makes THE best banana nut bread ever. THE best zucchini bread…the best carrot raisin bread…the best apple bread. You get the picture. One day I ran out of baking soda, and after a suggestion from Mr. Google I substituted extra baking powder and suddenly I had the best muffin recipe too!!!
   I’ve been searching for a good from scratch corn bread recipe, for some time now.  It, finally, dawned on me to try grams’ A-Z bread…BINGO!!!!  I altered it a bit, but it was a good starting point.

1.5 cups unbleached AP flour
1.5 cups corn “flour” (I ground corn meal until super fine)
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 cup melted butter (or vegetable oil)
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of honey
1 applesauce snack cup (or 1\2 cup)
1 cup of sweet corn blended
1\2 cup sweet corn kernels

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together.  No need to do wet and dry, just start at the top of list and work your way down. Bake in muffin pan, until tooth pick comes out clean.

This my granola recipe, its a very delicious work in progress. Basically granola is oats, moistened, sweetened, with oil and slowly dehydrated or baked. I like the addition of chia and flax for the wonderful health benefits, but they also help hold the granola together due to their gel like substance they make when wet. When this gel dries it acts like a glue.

Ingredients:
Dry-
7 cups tolled oats
1\2 cup hemp hearts
1\2 cup hemp protein powder
1 1\2 cups chia and/or flax
1 cup chipped coconut or 1\2 cup shredded coconut
2 tsp cinnamon
*optional, raisins, craisins, pine nuts, pumpkinseeds, sunflower seeds etc.

Wet-
1\2 cup raw local honey
2 cups warm water
3\4 cup cold pressed coconut oil
2 tsp vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients (fits perfectly in a kitchen aid mixer) until all ingredients are well distributed. Stir all the wet ingredients together (your coconut oil will need to be melted) then slowly pour into the dry ingredients. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Dump the granola onto the sheet pan and press/smooth into one thick layer. You can precut bar shapes if that’s what you are using it for. Bake at 175° for 4-6 hours, until dry. A dehydrator would work even better, but alas I don’t have one…yet.

This batch had craisins and pumpkin seeds…..

As you can see its a big hit!

Just a quick snapshot of a rainy day craft the kids and I just finished.  A board to organize all my yarn art tools. Knitting looms and a bucket for my crochet hooks. Still room if I buy another loom or something 🙂

Sometimes I realize I spend all together too much time alone with myself and 3 small children.  Today I found myself cackling to myself when I realized I  could clean my big old windows without a ladder and without moving my couch (which would add a few minutes as I’d have to clean under the sofa as well…). All I had to do was use my swifter…duh. Forgive me if I’m late to the game with this idea, but for me its a game changer!

And of course this is a great way to get your window clean with little effort

Normally I’m all about cooking from scratch…BUT, I’m scared of baking.
I’ve been slowly learning how to bake bread, and I can make pasta (does that count?) but whenever I try and make a cake from scratch it…sucks. So for Easter, I decided to use a cake mix that was in my pantry…I’ll try not to buy any more, once they’re gone. BUT, it was there and I was feeling lazy.  As I was pulling stuff out I realized, that I didn’t want to make JUST a yellow cake, from a box.  So I started to think about what I could do to mess with the cake mix.  I subbed white wine, a rhine, for the water, and added half a box of pudding mix, ’cause it was there too. 😀  I made the mix like normal, except I withheld the egg whites.  When the batter was done, I swapped bowls and beaters in my stand mixer, and I whipped the egg whites to stiff peaks. Then folded them in.  What I got was a spongy lightly wine flavored cake. IT TASTES AWESOME! Now if only I could bake a cake this delicious from scratch.

  Weeding out all the toxic items from our diet, like high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils, can be daunting and frustrating.  One of the easiest (and cheapest!) ways to do this, is to make your own food. 
   Chocolate milk, is a treat I denied my children after reading the ingredients on the back of the chocolate syrup bottle.   And, they begged and pleaded frequently for it.  Luckily for me I found this recipe after only a few months into our chocolate syrup ban.  It is EASY to make, tastes JUST like the real thing, and its cheap to make.  I reuse an old chocolate syrup bottle…and my husband doesn’t even suspect. 

original recipe by goodthingbyjillee.com

Homemade chocolate syrup

1 1/2 cups organic evaporated cane sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
Pinch of REAL salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk together sugar, cocoa, and salt in a small pot.  Slowly, stir in water and bring to a boil.  Stir occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Store in the refrigerator.

Doesn’t it look like the real thing?

I made one of for myself a couple of years ago. And it gets a lot of use.  I’ve tried several different ways of storing the kid’s coloring supplies.  I’m always picking up crayons then looking for the crayon box/cup/holder.  I also replaced the desks they weren’t using with a table, I could use too.

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First off. This stuff works! It is not an antiperspirant. Most of what is on the market right now is antiperspirant that also deodorizes. This is purely a deodorant, or deodorizer. Due to the natural clay and baking soda it does absorb a little moisture but it’s purpose is to neutralize the odor that comes from sweat. And, for this purpose it’s excellent.
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I’ve developed a deep and abiding love for walnuts, late in life. So one day when I had some bananas that needed to be eaten I decided to try for banana pancakes and then wham…it hit me walnuts…and brown sugar and crunchy and OH my I had to try it. They are SOOOO good.

Pancake mix (prepared as directed on box)
Sliced banana
chopped walnuts
Brown sugar

Pour pancake mix on hot griddle
add banana, walnuts and then sprinkle with brown sugar.

Be careful when flipping as it can fall apart.