Top 10 Most Helpful Apps

Here is a list of my 10 absolute favorite MUST HAVE apps that will help you better your life and home. These are good for both Ipad and Iphone. For my Ipad, i got a refrigerator wall mount so i can easily see and access my ipad, as well as a wall mount for my bedroom upstairs. I love it and would recommend it.

1. Motivated Moms: This is going to be your most used app. Everything you need to do on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis is on this app. Each day it will give you a few weekly chores (different each day) so you dont have to dedicate an entire day to cleaning. It also has your daily chores, and monthly chores such as buying and sending out gifts or cards, grocery shopping, etc. You have to pay a price but it is money well spent to keep you and your family organized and on top of everything. You can even add your own chores you want on there. It has boxes to check off when you are done to keep track of what you have done.

2. Nike Training Club: This is the BEST workout app. You can pick what you want to work on, what level (beginner, intermediate, advanced), and what workout you want to do. Then you can set music too it and push "do workout". It then begins to tell you what equipment (if any) you will need and then will start telling you what exercise to do and for how long. It starts counting down the timer and keeps you motivated, then switches and tells you your next workout. It even has a video you can watch while you work out so you know exactly what to do. I HATE working out, but with this app I am LOVING to work out and cant wait. You can even share your progress and get workout rewards.

3. Big Oven: This INCREDIBLY useful and helpful cooking app, has over 250,000 recipes and its all the kind of recipes I would literally make, unlike other apps where it has food that has a million ingredients or stuff that doesnt interest me. Not only are the recipes amazing, but you can add your own, view friend's recipes, plan your meals on a weekly and monthly basis, add your favorite recipes, and more. It has a "use up leftovers" button, where you can type up what leftovers or ingredients you have in your pantry and refrigerator and it will give you tons of recipes you can make with it. You can even choose one of the recipes on there and click on the ingredients you need to buy at the store to make it and it will automatically make a grocery list for you.

4. Big Fork Little Fork: Is a great app if you have kids. It has easy to make and delicious food for kid's breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and treats, desserts, picky eaters, and more. It even has tips, tricks, videos to watch with your kids on making meals together, and fun games to teach and get them interested in cooking and learning. Instead of making the same meals, get this app for tons of tasty and healthy foods to make for your children.

5. Irewards Chart: My children love this app and so do I. It keeps track of all their chores, and has a star they can click on when they finish the chore. You can set different rewards as well and how many stars it will take to earn the reward and it keeps track of how many stars all together that they have. It has tons of behavior and chores to choose from or you can make your own. My children now love helping around the house and using manners because of this app.

6: Mint.com: This helps keep track of your spending and budgeting. Get your finances back on track with this app.

7. Reqall: When you need to remind yourself of something and dont want to write it down, you can make a voice recording and have it remind you at a later time. This works much like an alarm clock, setting a time you want to be reminded and doing a voice recording of it. Great for when you dont want to write or have a shopping list, etc.

8:Coupon Sherpa, Islick, Groupon, Living Social, and Red Laser: These are my coupons, deals, and savings apps.

9. Night Stand: This is an alarm clock, night clock, and bedtime companion. It will play whatever music you want for your alarm or to put you to sleep. My alarm is set to "Seriously, wake up". It's nice to have some upbeat music for my alarm to get me up in the morning.

10. Drudge Free: This is where I go to stay updated on major news around the world. I hate to watch the news but want to stay updated on current events. and this gives a list of headlines and articles of events and news around the world. I like it cause I can just read the headline to get the gist of the article or I can click on the headline and read the whole article.

Below are some other helpful apps: 

yelp, stumble upon, houzz, pinterest, facebook, calendars, grocery IQ, urbanspoon,
key ring, mark on call, one kings lane, catalog choice, stylish girl, my mini wallet, cozi family organizer, intuition:mom's personal assistant, pedometer free, find my iphone, flashlight, makeup alley, pandora, savingstar, lose it, doing time, myfitnesspal.

Quick Tip to getting you and your family organized

I got these cute frames at Michaels, buy one get one free, plus military discount. I took the documents from my Life Organizer Binder (these documents can be found and printed off on this blog. Just click on Organize Your Life Tab). You can use dry erase marker on the glass and wipe it off everyday to save paper. Since they are in nice frames it will look nice on your wall where everyone can see it and use it. I have the Daily Chore Chart and Weekly Checklist in these frames. You can even print off the Household Rules or any other document you want to post for everyone to see and use to keep your family more organized and put together.

Valentines Day Treats

I made these homemade valentines day treats for my husband. These are great for any occasion. I'll post the recipes below:)

Chocolate-Peppermint Cake Pops

1 box of cake mix (any flavor..I used Red Velvet for valentines day)
2 large eggs
1/3 C. vegetable oil
Frosting
2 bags of super white candy coating disks (I got them at Michaels)
4 drops of peppermint oil (optional)
6 oz red candy coating disks
Assorted topping decorations and colored sugars

Directions

1. Prepare the cake mix according to package directions (or use the first 3 ingredients above) using any of the recommended pan sizes. When cake is done, crumble while warm into a large bowl, and stir in the frosting one spoonful at a time until well blended and can form into balls. After making them into little balls, place them in the refrigerator for 2 hours or freezer for 20 minutes.
2. Melt chocolate coating in a glass bowl in the microwave, or in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
3. Use a melon baller or small scoop to form balls of the chocolate cake mixture. Dip the balls in chocolate using a toothpick or fork to hold them. Place on waxed paper to set. If you are putting sprinkles on them, do it right after you dip them in the chocolate so they will stick before they harden. If you want to drizzle another color on top using a fork, let the first coating dry first.

 

 

Peppermint Bark

 

2 bags of white candy coated disks (i used 1 bag of white and 1 bag of white peppermint in mine)

1 C peppermint candies or candy canes

 

Directions

1. LINE baking sheet with foil. .
2. MICROWAVE morsels in medium, microwave-safe bowl on MEDIUM-HIGH (70 percent) power for 1 minute; stir. 
3. PLACE peppermint candies in heavy-duty plastic bag. Crush candies using rolling pin or other meat tenderizer. Pour half of crushed candy into the white chocolate. Shake to release all small candy pieces; reserve larger candy pieces. Stir morsel-peppermint mixture.
4. SPREAD mixture to desired thickness on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with reserved candy pieces; press in lightly. Put in the refrigerator and let stand for about 1 hour or until firm. Break into pieces. Store in airtight container at room temperature.

 

Chocolate-Covered Pretzels

 

1 bag of white candy coated disks

8 oz red candy coating disks

1 bag of chocolate coating disks

36 pretzel rods

Assorted colored sugars and nonparrels

 

Directions

 

*Melt coating disks in separate bowls.

 

*Dip the pretzels into melted chocolate and decorate with colored sugars, other melted chocolate, or nonparrels.

 

 

 

 

 

 Use the same recipe above!







How to Make Sopapillas

I made these awesome sopapillas today. It was super easy and the ingredients are the usual ingredients you have around the house anyway...at least in my case. Here is the recipe below! Try them out for yourself. I love to put honey and cinnamon sugar on mine. If you tear off bigger pieces of dough and stretch it out and flatten it they make scones and you can put jelly or your favorite topping on it for breakfast:)

Sopapillas

1 env. active dry yeast                                                    1Tbsp. melted butter, cooled

1 tsp. sugar                                                                      1 tsp. Salt

1/2 C. very warm water                                                  1 egg

3 C. Flour                                                                       Oil for frying

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. In a separate bowl, mix flour, butter, salt, and egg. Pour flour mixture into yeast mixture. Add enough water to create a consistency like bread dough (I used a little less than 1 C.). Knead for 15 minutes. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Place in a warm, draft0free area, and let rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Punch down dough. Divide dough in half, since it is easier to work with half at a time. On a lightly floured surface, roll each half of the dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 2-inch squares (if you dont have a dough cutter, a pizza cutter works great). Heat oil to 375. Stretch squares gently and drop into hot oil. Hold down in oil until dough begins to puff, then turn squares over. Fry only 3-4 sopapillas at a time, turning often until golden. Drain on absorbent paper. Serve hot with butter and lots of honey, and/or cinnamon sugar. Makes 3 dozen.

Where to File Taxes

I HAVE to tell you about my awesome experience! It's tax season and everyone is filing for taxes. For many years we have used HRBLOCK but had to pay $300-$540 to file with them. Lots of people go to HRBLOCK cause they dont know how to file otherwise. We went to hrblock the other day and they said they could only get us back $1600 and that we would have to pay them $540 to file. We decided to look at other options and last night, TURBOTAX had an even in San Diego. They gave us a $20 subway gift card, water bottles, food, and drinks and they were able to get us over $5,700 back! HUGE difference when compared to hrblock. They were SO friendly and helpful. They even paid for us to file our taxes (which we would have had to pay $70 since we are renting out our house so it was a little more complicated). But they paid for everything! And everyone that was working there was a tax professional volunteering their time. They didn't even get paid to help us! Not only was their one person walking it through with us step by step, but at times we had multiple people look at our tax return to make sure we did everything correctly. Their website is easy to use and walks you through it step by step and you can talk to a tax professional at anytime and its FREE for military E5 and below. Just go to www.turbotax4military.com. Jay and I are were so impressed last night and I just wanted to share our experience with all of you. They said they do the event again next year so make sure you go next year! They are amazing! If you missed the event, go to turbotax4military.com and file your taxes for free. From experience I can tell you it is super easy and it walks you through it step by step so you know what to put down and where. You can even talk to a tax professional like I did, and it is all for free! If you have insurance with USAA, you can login with USAA.com and click on the tax center which will be at the bottom and get your discount that way too. I will definitley be using TurboTax every year. Not only did we get over $4,000 more with Turbo Tax. It was FREE for us to use. Where with HR BLOCK we were only getting $1600 back and had to pay them $540 to file. Remember, you can go to turbotax and check and see how much you can get back before you file with them. So dont be afraid to just try it out for yourself!

Easy Corn Chowder

I LOVE easy to make homemade recipes! Here is one of my favorites!

 2 cans of cream of potato
1 can of milk
1 can of cream of corn.
When it's close to being almost done, add cheese. And I like to add a little bit more once I dish it out. Super easy!