Monday, January 4, 2016

Easy Chile Relleno Dip

This hot, spicy, cheesy vegetarian dip has the flavor of a cheese-stuffed chile pepper similar to a jalapeño popper without all the fuss (or the jalapeños).  Salsa verde provides the heat in a smooth dip great for parties and game day snacking.


This hot, spicy, cheesy vegetarian dip has the flavor of a cheese-stuffed pepper without all the fuss. Salsa verde provides the heat in a smooth dip great for parties and game day snacking.


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I know I'm supposed to be all "eat healthier in the New Year" but the fact is that New Year's Resolutions, made during the post holiday let down while you're hungover from too much akavit, don't stick.


My small change for today is to offer a vegetarian alternative for your game day snack spread, evening cocktail party, or Cinco de Mayo fiesta.  While this recipe may not qualify as healthy, my grandmas--born around the turn of the previous century--would recognize the ingredients used to make it.

This hot, spicy, cheesy vegetarian dip has the flavor of a cheese-stuffed pepper without all the fuss. Salsa verde provides the heat in a smooth dip great for parties and game day snacking.


I tried my first Chile Relleno in Cody, Wyoming over the summer vacation. A roasted Hatch chile stuffed with Monterey Jack cheese, dipped in an egg batter, fried, then covered in a sauce made from more roasted chiles. And more cheese. I've ordered that dish twice more since we came home, made the flavor combo into a pizza even, but didn't think about making it into a dip until I spied twin warming trays at a holiday party. Little signs labelled one tray Buffalo Chicken Dip and the other Jalapeño Popper Dip. 

It was like dueling hot spicy cheesy dips--one for omnivores, one friendly to vegetarians. What a brilliant idea.
For more awesome veggie apps and snacks, please see my Pinterest board. For more game day snacks, just use the search bar on the sidebar to search for 'game day snacks'. For more recipes using Hatch chiles, please see my Hatch Chile Recipes Collection. For more recipes using tomatillos, please see my Tomatillo Recipe Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks trying to support their local producers by sourcing winter game day snacks out of produce grown locally during the summer.

Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015, the Year in Review Clickable Collage-Palooza


I like the format of a Clickable Collage and the arrangement of the Instagram Hashtag2015BestNine,  so I decided to offer up 3 Best 9 Clickable Collages to summarize my 3rd full year of blogging, along with some thoughts about moving forward into 2016.

My top 9 most visited posts of 2015 were all published in earlier years.

(Click on each image to go to the recipe it represents, hover over each image for the title)


A review of the best recipes posted in 2015, most popular posts visited in 2015, and top-performing pins of 2015, along with thoughts on the coming year.
The most visited posts from 2015.
Image Map


This further reinforces a few things to me:



  • Social Media is the present. The area I really need to work on is getting my content seen by my ideal audience--people looking to eat locally who are unfamiliar with lots of the vegetables they encounter. People looking to feed their families more vegetable-filled meals. People looking to save money by using their garden abundance throughout the year. Some of the best sources of traffic for me come from participating in recipe round ups. I've got a routine down for finding bloggers looking for my content, what I need to improve on is other ways to share my content on the internet.


A review of the best recipes posted in 2015, most popular posts visited in 2015, and top-performing pins of 2015, along with thoughts on the coming year.
The most visited posts published in 2015.

Image Map
As with farmers hunkering down and working behind the scenes during the winter months, I too will scale back. I'm not going to fix a tractor or set up irrigation lines. I intend to post twice a week and spend my found hours on Instagram on Facebook updating my 500+ recipes so that they are formatted for easy searchability. After all, 28% of my traffic comes from people googling things like 'garlic scape recipes' or 'green tomato recipes', seeing my posts appear in their search engine, and clicking on my page. Thank you! I've said I plan to do this back end work before, announcing that I'm on vacation, but then I actually take a vacation and don't spend my blogging break working behind the scenes. I'll try this in a different way and report back.

A review of the best recipes posted in 2015, most popular posts visited in 2015, and top-performing pins of 2015, along with thoughts on the coming year.
My top-performing pins on Pinterest in 2015.

As for numbers, I don't have a blow-by-blow to report on but they are up. After I added social media sharing buttons in October I had a definite increase in traffic. I have no idea why I didn't do that sooner. It was on the Blogging To Do list, and I'm glad I finally got around to it.


A review of the best recipes posted in 2015, most popular posts visited in 2015, and top-performing pins of 2015, along with thoughts on the coming year.

 I'm joining in Meghan's party over at Clean Eats Fast Feets. Check it out!Image Map


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Have a lovely 2016. Let me know how I can help you achieve your eating goals.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Healthy Morning Glory Muffins

This recipe is a terrific breakfast muffin. It combines oats, orange juice and raisins with the sweetness of maple syrup plus crunch from coconut and sunflower seeds in a whole grain bite that is free of refined sugar. Looking for a healthy breakfast muffin? Here you are.

This recipe combines oats, orange juice and raisins with the sweetness of maple syrup plus crunch from coconut and sunflower seeds in a whole grain muffin that is free of refined sugar.


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This time of year I am enjoying copious amounts of citrus thanks to the Band Fruit Fundraiser (here's a link to 156 food blogger recipes using seasonal fruits like the kind my son sold at his recent marching band fruit fundraiser--support a band near you!). I'm also baking--and eating--rich holiday treats like those I recently shared during #ChristmasWeek--have you entered the Amazon Gift Card Giveaway yet? As such, I will take any opportunity to boost the nutrition in my other meals.


This recipe combines oats, orange juice and raisins with the sweetness of maple syrup plus crunch from coconut and sunflower seeds in a whole grain muffin that is free of refined sugar.


When I fix muffins as a breakfast food I know I'm giving my kids something nourishing that will power them through the morning. My mom is Canadian {I'm American so she's not my mum, she's my mom} and thank goodness for that. She raised me on Canadian muffins. Compared to American muffins, Canadian muffins have less sugar and less fat. American muffin recipes seem like cupcakes to me. I love cupcakes. Just not for breakfast.


This recipe combines oats, orange juice and raisins with the sweetness of maple syrup plus crunch from coconut and sunflower seeds in a whole grain muffin that is free of refined sugar.