Festive 4th of July Party Cupcakes and Toppers

Cupcakes are the perfect on-the-go treat for picnics and parties! I love them because they are no fuss on serving. Everyone can take one whenever they want and no cutting a cake. These patriotic cupcakes are fun for the up and coming 4th of July picnics! The cool thing about these toppers is that you can change out the ribbon and use this easy topper for any occasion.

For these particular cupcakes I did use the Bowdabra to help me create this bow. If you have ever used a Bowdabra or a Mini Bowdabra then you will know how easy it is to make the perfect bow. 

Instructions on the toppers which I used the Mini Bowdabra

1- Cut 18″ of Bowdabra Bow Wire and fold the wire in half.  Place the wire into the Mini Bowdabra. Add a 5 inch piece of ribbon into the Mini Bowdabra. Then with the navy blue ribbon I will be making an actual bow. Place 1 inch into the Mini Bowdabra 

2- Fold the ribbon at the 1″ mark to make your first loop. 

3- Fold the ribbon back over at the 1" mark to make the second loop. 

4- Then add in other matching ribbon pieces as you wish.  (see below). Scrunch down the ribbon with the Mini Bowdabra Wand. Thread the two tail ends of the wire through the loop. Pull the wire tightly.  Remove the bow from the Mini Bowdabra and knot the back. Tie the bow onto the cake pop stick. You can trim off the extra wire or wrap it around the stick for more decoration. 

ANOTHER option is to fold over ribbon on a cake pop stick and staple the ribbon together close to the stick. Very easy! We also wrapped red, white and blue ribbon wire around the cake pop sticks and the cupcake liners. Easy and festive. 

You can buy the cupcakes and then make the decorations. I prefer to make my own cupcakes and have the Best Ever Cupcake Recipe for you to try and well as our own Best Ever Butter Cream Frosting Recipe. Click over and check them out. 

Easy cupcake decorating tip. Add your frosting in a ziplock bad. Snip off a small corner and give it a whirl around the cooled off cupcake. Top off with sprinkles.

Find more 4th of July recipes here!!

Healthy Resolutions with Nutrition and Exercise Tips

Remember those New Year Resolutions you made way back in January 2014? How are they working out for you? You don't remember them? Pull out the list right now and check off the ones you have accomplished and circle the ones you are still working on. If you still have some left unmarked look at them and think about why you added them and why you aren't working on them. IF they are really important to you, get working on them today. Don't wait until January 2015 to start them. 

A few months ago I shared some of my "resolutions" for 2014. Here they are again:

1- Continue going to the gym 4 times a week. Keep up with walk to run app.
2- Drink 1/2 - 1 gallon of water a day.
3- Turn family favorite recipes into healthier recipes.
4- Focus on no bad sugar with exceptions in moderation.
5- Blog more about healthier lifestyle options.

I have to say that I have and continue to do all of these resolutions. Over the years I have learned that if I write something down and look at it on a regular basis I am more likely to do it. Can I check off any as completed? Absolutely not! Why not? I can't check them off because I'm not going for any absolutes. I can circle all of them as they are all being done. I'm on a healthier lifestyle journey that is my path to get me through this life. I've made these changes over the past 2 years and I'm not stopping now! Follow my journey here on my blog and share yours with me in the comments.

Here is a quick run down of what I'm doing and ask me whatever questions you might have.

1-Gym/Exercise- 

• I exercise 4 times a week, normally. During that time I take 2-4 classes at my gym including HITT and Cycle Class. The other 2 times would be a variety of other things like Crossfit, walking, running, strength training, ab workout,etc. 
• As part of my resolution I wanted to keep up with my walk to run app. Right now I'm in a 40 Day 40 Mile Run challenge that started Memorial Day and runs through 4th of July. This challenge is to run 1 mile a day for 40 days. I'm on day 7! You can follow my current journey on Instagram where I share photos and follow the hashtag #RWRunStreak on Instagram and Twitter to see others doing this as well. 
• I found that by joining a challenge of something that I don't normally do is the best way to learn how to do it better and to train my body and mind to do it. I've never ran more than 1 day in a row so to be on Day 7 is a huge accomplishment for me. Here are a few photos but do follow me on Instagram (I'll follow you back) so you can join in and follow! 

Day 1 of 1 Mile a Day Streak for 40 Days

Day 6 of a 1 Mile a Day Streak for 40 Days

#2 Drink Water - I easily drink 1/2 to 1 gallon a water a day. HOW do I do it? I just drink water and ice water. Those are my choices and my body is always asking for water. Once you get drinking it that is what you will want to drink.

#3 Healthier Family recipes and #5 Blog Healthier Recipes - Not only have I turned family recipes healthier but cook healthier almost ALL THE TIME. Funny and true story right here..... My youngest is now going to the gym with me. She started around Valentine's Day and didn't want candy for Valentine's Day but a gym membership with me. She goes to the gym about as much as I do. Anyhow she has always been the person who wants bread, potatoes, pasta, and meat. Guess what? She now is a huge fruit and veggie eater. The funny part is that she just spent a few days at her grandparents house and was helping with dinner. She came home and told me what they ate and that for both meals she asked if she could make a salad for the meal. YES! I'm so happy that she now craves salad. Keep checking in for more healthy recipes including recipes using the 21 Day Fix healthy eating plan. You can also follow my group, 21 Day Fix to get more ideas and to get more information on this healthier lifestyle eating plan. 

As promised, here are some of our healthier recipes. Enjoy! 

• Baked Carrot French Fries
• Spicy Whole Roasted Cauliflower
• Cucumber Cilantro Salad (VEGAN) 
• Homemade Cajun Seasoning
• Healthier Menu Plan
• No Bake Granola Bars
• 8 Salsa Recipes

ZONE Perfect Nutritional tips

Healthier Condiments

Healthier Drinks

#4 - Stay away from bad sugar - 

• I have to say that I'm good at this if I avoid all bad sugar. You know what I'm talking about....sugar in processed foods, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, sugared drinks, etc. 
• If I want any of these I will have a small portion but it has to be at a party where I'm with people. No more sneaking sweets for me. 
• One product that has helped with this are the ZONE Perfect Bars. I love them because they are protein energy bars. I can use them for an afternoon snack that will last me a few hours until dinner time without giving me empty calories or a spike in blood sugar. Some of my favorites include Greek Yogurt Chocolate (taste like Oreos), Chocolate Coconut Crunch, Chocolate Mint (taste like a Girl Scout Cookie), Cinnamon Roll (yes taste like a cinnamon roll) and all of the Dark Chocolate bars.

Are any of these tips helpful? I'd love to know. I would also love to know what you are doing or what you want to do to get healthier. Ask me any questions below.

Good luck with everything and stay tuned for more nutritional and healthier lifestyle choices.

Check in daily and I'll share many new recipes this month. I'll also post them on my Make Time for Healthier Lifestyle Group (you can share there), SusieQTpies Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Google + and Pinterest. So follow me on those social media channels so keep up and not miss some heart warming recipes. 

Join in our Weekend Social Linkup

Welcome back to our weekly social hop! You can share all of your social media links and find new friends. This is our 2nd week! Are you read for round two of the Weekend Social Linkup? Our goal is to double what we got last week! It will be open for the whole weekend, closes Sunday night, so more people can join! Please remember to follow the host & co-host up at the top on all social media sites! Starting next weekend, we will pick a random person who links up for the "Feature Blogger" for everyone to follow as well. So that will be awesome! Thanks again for making this possible :) Have a great weekend!

MMING?? FOLLOW AT LEAST 5 OTHER BLOGS?? FOLLOW THE HOST & CO-HOST!?? FAMILY FRIENDLY BLOGS ONLY?? ONE LINK PER PERSON PER SECTION

  Since I changed it to the whole weekend, not just Saturday, I had to change the button, so here you go, switch them out :)
  <a href="http://blog.nataliemadeit.com/tag/weekend-social/"><img src="http://blog.nataliemadeit.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/button2.png"></a>

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Red Salsa and White Bean Dip and 4th of July Recipes

Here is another salsa recipe which would be perfect for your 4th of July celebrations! This platter of goodness is red, white and blue! As you know we love salsa over at our house and will most likely eat this before Fourth of July, during and even after! Click here to find even more salsa recipes. 

Red Salsa and White Bean Dip Recipes

Red Salsa:

Ingredients

1 packet of Nueva Cocina Chipotle Taco Seasoning

1 can of diced tomatoes (10 oz.)

4 plum tomatoes

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 whole lime

½ cup chopped red onion

2 Tablespoons of chopped cilantro – optional

Salt to taste

Directions

Dice the plum tomatoes.  Add chopped onion, olive oil, seasoning mix and the can of tomatoes.  Mix together.  Add cilantro and salt.

White Bean Dip

Ingredients

Nueva Cocina White Bean Soup Mix

1 packet of Taco Fresco Seasoning

7-8 ounces of grated Queso Blanco cheese (may be substituted for another white cheese of your liking)

1 ½ cup of sour cream

5 tablespoons of olive oil (2 tablespoon for soup preparation and 3 tablespoons for the dip0

Directions

Follow the recipe on the soup, but only use two cups of water instead of three indicated on the package.  Once cooled, smash the beans for a smooth consistency.  Add the sour cream, 3 tablespoons of the olive, and the seasoning mix.  Mix together.  Add half of the cheese to the mixture and mix thoroughly.  Top with remaining cheese.

Arrange the dips on a party platter with blue corn chips. Perfect party snack and festive for the 4th of July. Thanks to Nueva Cocina at www.nuevacocina.com for sharing this recipe.

More Recipes for 4th of July

Tortilla Pinwheels
Texas Queso Dip
Jalapeño Popper Dip
Spicy Ranch Dip
Quick and Easy BLT Pizza
Antipasto Platter
Buffalo Chicken Dip
4th of July Picnic Food
Top 100 4th of July Recipes & Crafts
4th of July Menu ideas
Kristi's Sangria
4th of July Food Safety Tips

This Mama Rocks with Sprint HTC One #SprintMom #Sponsored #MC

I love listening to music when I exercise. Now this mama really rocks it out with the new Sprint HTC One (M8) Harman/Kardon Edition smartphone. I am a Sprint Ambassador and get to test various Sprint devices. I have to say that the kick off phone for this Ambassadorship has me in love with Sprint.  I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for Sprint. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and to thank me for participating.

So do you want to know what I love about this new phone? 

Sprint HTC One

LOVE this large phone and this photo next to the deck of cards! 

Here it goes:

• Beautiful 5-inch full HD screen which makes the photos crisp and clear. My current screen is way too small and I can't get over how much I love this large screen.
• Easy to hold, lightweight all-metal sleek design.
• Access to Spotify's catalogue of more that 20 million songs which gave me more music than I could ever use at the gym.
• Snazzy camera which has 6 different functions- Selfie (yay), Zoe camera,  regular camera, video, Pan 360 setting and dual camera. There is also a 3-2-1 countdown feature which my teen thought was annoying but then she starting posing for her selfies. The photos are crisp and rich in color. Look at some of my unedited sushi and coffee pictures. Want a bite? I love how great they turned out which will help me blog, too! The camera has easy to edit features which I love! 

• Most amazing sound which is using Clari-Fi™ technology to analyzes audio files in real time and restores what was lost in compression. What does this mean? The sound seems live with LiveStage™ on the headphones. This sound totally shut out any nose at home and the gym.
• Easy use of apps.
• Easy to use as a hotspot.

Harmon-Kardon Onyx Studio speaker

To top off this awesome phone I also got to review the wireless Harmon-Kardon Onyx Studio speaker which is the best bluetooth speaker I have ever used. This one speaker actually has 4 powered speakers in one unit. I have already told all the teens and husband that this is my speaker and only I can use it. I rocked all of my music and the best sound when watching Netflix. Last but not least the speaker is so easy to use and within 1 minute of taking it out of the box I was rocking out the speaker.

Here area a few edited photos that I did while hubby and I were on a trip. I used some of the fun camera features to edit and then loaded quickly on Facebook. 

Want more information? Check out HTC One (M8) Harman/Kardon Edition site and find out more. I am really loving this new toy and can't wait for Sprint to send me new devices and products to test! Stay tune. 

Easy Way to Cut a Mango and 9 Favorite Mango Recipes

My family loves mangos. I love mango juice and fun, tropical mango drinks. I do not have a lot of mango recipes because we just eat them straight up or tossed into smoothies. Do you have any favorite mango recipes? Here is an easy way to cut a mango and some recipes of mine and other foodie friends. These recipes are all on my to make list this summer. Share how you like your mango as well as any recipes in the comments.

Before I tell you how I cut my mango I want you to know that I started blogging my recipes so that I could have them written down with photos for my daughters. Back when I started blogging I didn't even know that others would come to my blog and enjoy them, too! So thank you for being here and I hope that you have found some tasty new recipes to try.

I was inspired to do this post because my 15 year old had no clue how to cut a mango. I also know that my older daughter is getting married and she does look at my blog for recipes. So this is to help them and hopefully help you!

Easy Way To Cut a Mango

1- Lay the mango down on the cutting board and cut a large section off the side. I usually cut about 1/4 of an inch from the bottom or top end. As I slice into it I let me knife flow around the seed. You can't cut the seed.

2- Do the same with the other side.

3. Put the flesh part right side up and cut 1 inch strips across mango and turn and do it again. I then take my knife and cut close to the skin to remove the pieces. This is how I get the chunks.

4. I then stand up the mango and cut off the side flesh around the seed. Do this for both sides and then remove the flesh and cut into chunks.

5. If there is flesh left on the seed, eat it off! The kids like this part, too.

More Mango Recipes

Mom Mango Tango Margarita
Individual Tres Leches Cakes
Easy Mango Salsa
Black Beans with Mango and Cilantro by $5 Dinners
Mango Lion Fruit Pizza by Bluebonnets and Brownies
Mango Lemonade by The Marvelous Misadventures of a Foodie
Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Mango and Black Bean Salsa by $5 Dinners
Fresh Mango Avocado Cole Slaw by Favorite Family Recipes
Mango Upside Down Cake by From Brazil to You