Sweats, Slippers, No Makeup and Homemade Hot Cocoa!!

Last night I was going over my calendar. Everyday seemed to be full! Photoshoots, Army Ball, Preschool, Dentist, Visiting Teachers, Meetings...I could go on! However, today was COMPLETELY OPEN!! I decided to take advantage of it! I showered and got right back into clean PJ's! It has been a fantastic day. I picked up a litte bit, danced with Troop, edited photos and made bread! I suppose I could have taken a nap...NAW! As I was editing photos I suddenly realized how cold I was!! The downstairs of our house is an ice box. I even had the space heater blowing at my feet! STILL COLD! I decided I needed Hot Cocoa. Troop wanted some too! We are a little picky in this house and prefer our Cocoa mix homemade. We ran out a couple weeks ago and made the mistake of buying a box of it instead of ingredients to make more. It was just NOT the same! As I was making the cocoa mix I had an idea to share it with the rest of you! I got the recipe from my Mom so I quick text her for permission and she agreed! Thanks Mom! This recipe is SUPER easy and only has 5 ingredients! Here they are:

8 Qt Powdered Milk
1 lb Powdered Chocolate Milk Mix
11 oz Powdered Cremora
1 cup Powdered sugar
Salt (just a dash)

Mix it all together in a BIG bowl. I dump everything into my biggest mixxing bowl, put on the lid and shake it!

Here is my recipe for it! I LOVE this book! My Mom made it. It's full of recipes from 5 generations of my Family!

When you finish it, store it in an airtight container! Now, I DO NOT drink coffee. However, I LOVE flavored coffee creamers in my cocoa. I'm usually a hazelnut with a little caramel flavoring kind of girl BUT I recently discovered a Cinnamon Vanilla. It is amazing! There are so many flavors you can choose from too! I prefer the liquid creamers over the powders! Captain Hunks specialty is a scoop of ice cream and a candycane Hershey's kiss!

Adorable Magnet Boards!

I can't take credit for this one because I actually got the idea from a friend and "Jack" follower! As soon as she showed me, I knew I wanted to make one!! So we had a girls craft day and got it done! It was pretty inexpensive to make too because I had everything I needed except the frame and the metal! What you need to make this:

An old frame
A sheet of metal cut to the size of the opening of the frame
Spray adhesive
Paint/brushes
Fabric
Magnets
Hot glue gun

I got 12x24 sheets of metal at Ace. They do a Military discount so it was the cheapest place for me! :) I had tin cutters so I used them to cut our metal to the sizes we needed. Be safe and wear gloves because the metal gets sharp! First I painted my frame. While it was drying I sprayed the glue (that Elmer's spray glue is amazing stuff!) directly onto my metal and promptly wrapped the fabric around it. I glued down the excess fabric on the back. While that was drying I applied hot glue to my magnets and stuck one to the back of each piece of make up.

When I put it all back together, this is what I had!! Isn't it adorable?! No more messy makeup bag! Since I used hot glue, the magnets easily peel off so you can put them on your new makeup! You can take this idea and use it for pretty much anything! Another friend had an idea to use it for nail polish! It cleans out space in your drawers and gives you a pretty picture to hang on your wall! By the way, my brush holder is thee top piece of a plastic wine glass that I had in my cupbord! I'm thinking about cutting out my first initial with my Cricut and putting it on the cup!

Saving Money on Foaming Hand Soaps!

Like many people I know, I keep a cabinet STOCKED full of my favorite brand and scents of anti bacteria foaming hand soaps. When my favorite store has their big 75% off sale, I go! Sadly though, I missed the last one! :( Suddenly I realized one of our bathroom soaps and our kitchen soap was almost gone and I had already used the last of my stock pile! BUMMER!! But then I remembered "I have the foam pumps!" All it take is about 2 table spoons of any liquid soap and water to create a FULL bottle of foaming soap! Just put the soap in the bottle, add the water and shake! It's that simple! You can use any liquid soap and it will work. Also, I know a lot of people are starting to make their own liquid soaps. It works with those too! So the next time you find yourself with empty foaming soap pumps, or you are looking to save a little money, remember this!! Happy soap making everyone!!

Food, Food and MORE FOOD!!!

Now that moving, Holidays, and Birthdays are over in this house for awhile, it's time to get back to business!! That means more tips, recipes and crafts! Woo Hoo!! Today's recipe is a YUMMY breakfast recipe. The best part is you just get out of bed and it's ready to eat!! WHAT?! The second best part is it's LOW CALORIE!! Everyone knows how much I LOVE my CrockPots! Well I found an awesome magazine full of healthy, low calorie meals that you can make in the CrockPot!! Since most people's New Years resolution is to lose weight or get in shape, I decided to share the recipes, once I have tried them and decided if they were yummy or not!! We have now tried four of them and so far, they have all been amazing! Even Troop has eaten them with no complaints! So, to kick off the new year I am going to start with a Recipe for French Toast Bread Pudding!! You will probably have most of these ingredients already so maybe you can make it tonight!!

French Toast Bread Pudding

12 oz of challah or sweet bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
4 cups fat free milk
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
Fat free or sugar free caramel ice cream topping (optional)

1. Line the crock pot with a liner or foil. Place bread cubes in the CrockPot.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt. Pour over bread. Press down lightly with the back of a spoon to moisten bread completely. Cover and chill for 4 hours.
3. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Turn off CrockPot. If possible, remove liner from the crockPot. Cool for 30 mins.
4. To serve, transfer french toast to a cutting board and slice it. Or spoon it into serving dishes. Top with caramel topping.

When I made this I did not have any sweet bread so I used extra thick slices of white bread and added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to my milk mixture!

13 days until CHRISTMAS!!!!

Can you believe how fast the time is going by?!? Are you rushing yet to get everything done? Is your house full of craziness and excitement?? Have you started your baking? There is SO MUCH TO DO this time of year!! My Family has spent the last week moving so we haven't even had the chance to THINK about Christmas!! I know so many people stress alot this time of year making sure they have everything done and perfect! But don't forget to stop, breathe, relax and DANCE!! That's right! Grab your kids, your spouse, your neighbors kids or whoever, turn on some music and just dance!! I promise you will feel better!! AND it could even win you a GREAT prize!! Email me a picture or video of you, your kiddos or spouse dancing to be entered into the drawing!! I promise it's a GREAT PRIZE TOO!!! Here are the rules: Send me a picture or video of someone in your Family dancing to heapfamily1@gmail.com by Friday December 16th. I will post each of them and then you get your friends to "like" my page and go comment or like your photo. The person with the most votes wins!!! Happy Dancing everyone and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas is Coming!! Have Your Kids Been Nice?

Can you believe Christmas is less then a month away?! Is it just me or do kids seem to act up more around Christmas time? At least mine does!! And lately he has been TOP NOTCH NAUGHTY!! What would be a better way to scare your kids into good behavior then a personalized message from Santa Claus himself!! That's right!! My good friend Lee over at LDP Production is offering personalized messages from Santa!! You can listen to the demo here.  He is GREAT at what he does and because he is such a great guy he is offering a $20 deal for Cyber Monday!! You can email him at  Lee@ldpvoiceover.com  for details!! I can't wait to see the look on Troop's face when he gets his message!! Merry Christmas ya'll!!

Fantastic Fried Chicken!!

So I recently found out Cpt Hunk loves Fried Chicken. You would think after nearly 10 years and me ALWAYS cooking, he would have said something!! Oh well. It reminded me of a great recipe that I haven't used in years and thought I would share it! It's one that has to marinate so be prepared ahead of time! Remember, handling raw chicken can be dangerous so be sure to wash your hands thoroughly and spray your counter when you are done! I use Clorox anywhere spray!

Fantastic Fried Chicken
Ingredients:

4 lb chicken, cut in 8 pieces or 8 legs, thighs or drumsticks
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp ground dried oregano
2 cups buttermilk

Mix the spices together and add to raw chicken. Mix so the spices coat the chicken. Then pour the buttermilk over the chicken. Let marinate for 6-8 hours or overnight.

Flour Mixture:

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder

Fully coat the chicken in the flour mixture. Heat up about 2 quarts of oil (peanut or canola are fine) to 350 degrees. Then add the chicken and cook for about 20 minutes. Super easy, super crunchy and super yummy!! Goes great with mashed potatoes and gravy!! I used the chicken stock from my freezer meals to make the gravy!!