This post contains affiliate links. We will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support. I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year! I'm still suffering from a little bit of back to work depression. Christmas was wonderful, and it's a busy time for our family since our daughter's birthday is three days later. We threw her a Minnie Mouse birthday party for her second birthday. She was so excited. She asked me for about a week afterwards what happened to her "birpay party" and keeps pretending that she is having a party. I made her a chocolate birthday cake using my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which you can find on a box of Hershey's Cocoa Powder. Our litte one loves blueberries, so I used this blueberry filling for the middle. I made pink buttercream frosting for the outside. For the polka dots I used these Wilton's candy eyeballs. I just turned them around backwards so they looked like plain white polka dots, and nobody knew the difference. On today's post, I am going to share with you my secret to perfectly delicious buttercream frosting! You can use this recipe for all your frosting needs and adjust it with any color you want it to be, and add chocolate if you want. Your sweet treats will always taste delicious. Perfect Buttercream Frosting
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When the girl's and I got together to discuss blog business over the holidays, one of the things we all agreed on is that we all want to be more healthy this year! Personally, I feel very motivated and I feel like if we all encourage each other throughout the year, we can achieve our health goals. Many times we have heard people say that if they just start to live in a more healthy way, weight comes off and they see progress. But, I know that in my case, I need specific goals set that I can work on and change about my eating habits and exercise plan or nothing will ever happen.
Many of us want to lose weight, some of us want to strengthen our core or our upper body strength. Maddy is training for a 1/2 marathon. So, to achieve these goals we each are making plans that will help us reach them. One part of my plan is to cut back on sugar intake and to avoid mindless eating. You know, when you walk by some cookies, pick it up, eat it and THEN remember that you were going to avoid eating sweets and your weren't even hungry anyway? In 2020 we will be trying to show you a lot of healthier posts when it comes to food, more activities that encourage a healthy lifestyle as well as our DIY posts that you have let us know that you enjoy. I am going to start this year with these Lighter Blueberry Banana Muffins. The original recipe came from A Sprinkle of Joy, but I tweaked it a bit to lighten it up and give it more banana punch. I replaced the sugar in the muffin with agave nectar, but there is still sugar in the topping. The sweetness of the fruit doesn't let you miss the sugar in these muffins. They were really good!
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support. Alicia and her family have been with us over the holidays! It has been wonderful! You would think that having the four of us bloggers together would be a great time for us to hammer out some blog business. Not so much, but one thing we did do was all sit down together and review our reader's favorite posts from last year. By doing this we feel like we can get a better handle on what you want to see on the blog, what you enjoy the most and what is most helpful to you! The results are a good mix of food, crafts and Hot Cocoa Bombs with a surprise #1 post that I will reveal at the end of this round-up. Wait for it..... Here are the top 12 posts in chronological order: January: DIY Winnie the Pooh Ears- It is so much less expensive to make these than buy them. Ours require a little sewing, but they look so much better for it and being able to personalize them will be great for our upcoming Disney Family reunion! They are pretty simple to make and we provide a video tutorial to help you. February: The Kitchen Scarf- My friend Anita gave me my first one of these and told me that I could blog about them if I wanted to. Of course I did! They make great gifts and these have been a big hit on PInterest! March: Wood Burned Garden Markers- These were so much fun to make with my new heat gun and word burner set! They came out pretty cute and would be a great gift to a gardener! April: DIY Magnetic Poster Frame- Alicia came up with this clever idea for this poster frame using paint sticks! There is a video tutorial to help you with this. Be sure to get the strong magnets that she suggests! (There will be enough to make a few of these as gifts!) May: Tomato Basil Tea Sandwiches- Anita came through for me again! This time she gave me some of the delicious San Marzano tomatoes from her garden. They were perfect for these little finger sandwiches that would be just right for a bridal shower or spring party! June: Bao- Alicia did a series of international dishes this past year that were very popular. This one about her adventures in making Bao was very popular! I have yet to try it, but reviewing this post has made me want to. July: Nut-free Fresh Pesto- I grew basil in my garden this year and I was able to make this delightful condiment with my over abundance of it. This is a tasty pesto that allows even those with nut allergies to enjoy it. August: Blueberry Hand Pies- My granddaughter Emily got into the act of helping to make these delicious little pies with her mommy, LIndsey. You can find many more of our pie recipes in our For The Love of Pie ebook on Etsy. September: Halloween Light Up Wreath- Oh My Goodness! This wreath came out so cute, even if I say so myself! All of the supplies were from Dollar Tree! People came up to us in person who had seen the blog and told us how much they loved it! Make it for next year! Your front door will thank you. October: Apple Salmon Bake- I rediscovered this recipe from early in my marriage when we lived where there was an abundance of fish. I shared it with you in this post. It is so delicious that I may want to make it this week because I am thinking about it! Many of you must be salmon lovers like I am, because this recipe was a big hit! November: Sister's Get Away to the Coast- My sisters and I took a trip to Cayucos, CA. We had so much fun and I shared it with you when I got home to Phoenix. Since it was so popular, I guess I will have to take more trips like this to share with you! I'm generous like that! Now my daughters and I think we should plan trips together like my sisters and I are doing. Pretty good idea, don't you think? December: 10 Days of Hot Cocoa Bombs (Copyrighted)- It does my heart good to see so many of you enjoying Cocoa Bombs, the reason we started blogging! They are still a staple around our house during the holidays. Now, if you are curious about which post was our most popular of all, I think you are going to be surprised! Drum roll...........
It was Sister's Get Away to the Coast! It surpassed all of the other articles on our blog by twice as many likes! Who knew? Well, it was a pretty awesome time! If you have anything that you would like to see us address on the blog, please leave a comment below! If you remember any special posts that we have shared, please let us know that as well! We are looking forward to a lot of growth in the coming year and new things to share with you. Thank you for all of your support so far! |
Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
March 2024
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