What’s New in 2014?

Dear readers, thank you for helping me ring in another year!

I am thankful for your participation in the Countdown to 2014, whether that was through linking up your recipes or viewing the best recipes of 2013.  Thank you!   If you missed the posts, you can visit them all right here. 

I am so appreciative that you take time out of your busy days to stop by my little corner on the web.  It is a treat for me.  When I started blogging in 2008 the blog landscape was quite different; very few people were making a living from their blogs, people commented regularly and competition was almost non-existent. It was a lot easier for part-time bloggers to food blog 5+ years ago.  

Now, things look quite different.  Its amazing how Pinterest and professional quality photos change things.  And, although the days of comments are of the past, I am delighted that you are still using recipes you find here, and take the time to pin the recipes that grab your attention.  

So what can you expect from Finding Joy in My Kitchen in 2014?

• A new logo (stop over and take a peek if you haven’t seen it)!  I love it; didn’t Leah do an outstanding job?!  She captured everything about my blog that I love in one simple logo.   
• Wholesome ingredients. 
• Family friendly recipes from scratch. 
• Real photos.  No staging or photoshop here.  I want you to see what you will get when you make the recipe. 
• Consistency. Weekly I’ll share 2-3 recipes plus a meal plan.

It’s my hope that Finding Joy in My Kitchen will continue to be a place you turn to for dependable recipes that your family will love, and that you too, will find JOY in your kitchen.  Here’s to a great 2014!

Hello 2013.

Dear readers – thank you so much for making last year what it was around Finding Joy in My Kitchen.  I appreciate all of you so very much, and your comments and Facebook conversations mean so much. 

I appreciate your readership, and want you to know that my commitment to keeping things real, sharing recipes that use everyday, “normal” ingredients remains as we head into 2013. 

My photos will remain un-staged – what you see is what you see!  As you make these recipes in your kitchen, I want you to have a realistic image of what the food looks like. 

And, I need you to know – we don’t waste any food.  We actually eat (or share) everything we post here on Finding Joy in My Kitchen.  We are a leftover family and most of the time like leftovers even better than the first night. 

We give a portion of our blog income to Feed My Starving Children regularly. 

We believe one of the best gifts you can give someone is food, and since we have so much and I blog about it constantly, I want to share that blessing with others.

These things will not change in 2013.  I’ll continue to share Friday Favorite Finds, Kitchen Tips, Menu Plans, and more healthy, easy recipes that will help you find JOY in your kitchen.  You can bet, we’ll Countdown to 2014 next December. 

But, some things will change in 2013. 

• My recipe index is updated! See it here.
• There will be layout changes and visual changes to the blog to make things easier to find & use for you, the reader.
• There will be new adventures and new collaborations. 

Since I don’t have a new recipe for you today, I thought I’d share a wintertime favorite: Cheese Crusted Lasagna Soup.  Think amazing lasagna soup, poured over a bed of cheeses at the bottom of your bowl.  Click here for the recipe. 

Thanks for making 2012 so wonderful!  Can’t wait to share 2013 with you too!

What would you like to see more of here this year? 

Kitchen Tip: Locating Recipes

The Kitchen Tip segment here on Finding Joy in My Kitchen is something I hope to include as a regular appearance.  I often get email questions that I will try to answer here as well as sharing tips from my own experiences.  If you have a question, please let me know!

Today, I’m going to share three easy ways to find recipes on Finding Joy in My Kitchen.  I hope this will help you find recipes more easily! 

Three ways to find recipes on Finding Joy in My Kitchen:

1) Use the recipe index. 

This is best used if you’re looking to browse all the recipes on our website.  You can look at breakfasts, lunch or dinner ideas, crockpot meals, desserts, snacks and more!  Each recipe has a photo snapshot as a teaser! 

 

2) Choose ingredients.

Do you have specific ingredients you need to use up?  By selecting an ingredient, you can easily see the recipes that use, for example carrots.  Ingredients that appear bigger in font size have more recipes associated. 

3) Search!

On the right sidebar, you’ll find a search box.  This option is helpful if you have part of a title of a recipe that you recall from my site, or have many ingredients that you want to find in a recipe.  Begin by typing your search terms in the search box. 

If you are looking for a recipe with multiple ingredients, use the “+” to separate the ingredients. 

Hit the search button and wait until your results pop up.  Here’s how to make sense of what you see:

I hope this has helped make Finding Joy In My Kitchen a more user-friendly site for you. 

And, if you have any questions you want me to address, send me an email (joyinmykitchen@gmail.com), or leave your question in the comments!

Our 5th Anniversary!

5 years ago today, I saw you standing there.

My heart was overwhelmed.
My spirit rejoiced.

On this day, our lives became one.

For better.

For worse.

God knew we needed each other.

God knew you & I belonged together.

Today, my heart loves you more than it did then.

Each day, I am drawn to you.

Happy 5th Anniversary, My Love!

I love you.

Finding Joy … on Facebook?!

I have a like-dislike relationship with Facebook.  I like it because of how I get to interact with all of you on my Facebook Page – it’s such a treat for me! 

However, what I struggle with is the constant changes to the algorithms behind Facebook that directly influence what you see or don’t see on Facebook. 

I know that when I “like” a page, I do so because I want to see their stuff!  But, recently, I’ve found out this is not the case.  “Liking” a page is no guarantee that I’ll see each post in my feed. 

See, Facebook algorithms will show you more posts from the pages and/or people that you interact with the most.  And, you tend to interact with those pages/people that show up in your news feed & so the cycle continues. 

To make sure I see the posts from people and pages I care about, I’ve done two things:

1) Like the page & check “show in news feed”

2) Create Lists.  And, add your people/pages to your lists.

Lists are super easy to create & allow me, to categorize the people & pages that I like so I can see all the posts from a list in one click. 

To create a list, go to the left-hand sidebar of your main facebook.com page after login.  Scroll down until you find the section titled “Interests.”  There you will see a place for you to “Add interests.” 

When you click on “Add Interests”, you will see a page that asks for your input to create an interest.  You’ll see that Facebook suggests many interests for you, but also allows you to create your own.

Click on “Create List” and then you’ll get a pop-up window:

You’ll see that you can choose from “Pages or Friends” on the left side-bar, or any pages that are categorized in the categories below.  You can also search for people or pages in the top right hand corner search bar. 

Simply select the pages you want to include and then click “next” in the bottom right corner.  Then, you’ll see this:

Here’s your chance to (a) see who is on your list (right hand side of the screen), (b) name your list, and (c) choose who can view your interest list.  Choose “done” when you are completed. 

Then you can return to your left-hand side bar to view the list – mine is one for Recipe Bloggers. 

Clicking on that list gives me access to all the recipe blogger FB posts in one place! 

Yes, it takes a little bit of time, but I’ve found it worth it. 

So, what can you do to make sure you keep seeing Finding Joy in My Kitchen on Facebook?

1) Like Finding Joy in My Kitchen on Facebook & interact with me there regularly.
2) When you "Like” Finding Joy in My Kitchen, choose “Show in News Feed.”
3) Create a list of your favorite blogs/topics, and add Finding Joy in My Kitchen.

Of course – be sure to do this for all the great blogs and pages you love and enjoy keeping up with!  This has been a tremendous help for me, and I hope it is helpful for you too!  What tips/tricks have you found for navigating the changing FB waters?

That Works for Me!

Have you heard? 

There’s a new ebook on the market – one that contains 800 tips from real people. 

Just like you and me. 

Tips for everything from cooking and blogging (yep, I’m all over those tips!) to organizing and strengthening your marriage.  Organized into one place.    

This e-book is one that I am incredibly excited about because I’ve participated in Works for Me Wednesday (the blog carnival that inspired this book) for the past few years. 

In fact, I started participating back when it was hosted by Rocks in My Dryer, a blogger I found online through our fascination with the TV series LOST.  Now hosted at We Are That Family, each Wednesday readers link up their tips on what works for them. 

I have learned so much from these ladies linking up each week & let me tell you, this e-book is FANTASTIC.

With summer around the corner, maybe you’ll want to know how to save money on swim diapers, or how to make your own sidewalk chalk to keep your kids entertained! 

Maybe your interested in refining your cooking skills… you’ll find tips (including one from me!) on how to keep apples from browning, canning 101, and even how to peel hardboiled eggs (sheesh… I could have used that one this weekend!). 

Whatever your dilemma, more than 300 bloggers have their in-real-life solutions for you. 

So, what are you waiting for?  Go get your copy of That Works for Me – the interactive .pdf e-book filled with 800 useful tips! 

The e-book is regularly priced at $8.00, but use the checkout code “SAVE1” and you’ll save $1.00 off the purchase price. 

Best yet, part of the proceeds go directly to Mercy House – helping women in Kenya.

Do you like tips from real people just like you, or professionals better?  Just curious!  Leave your thoughts below. 

DISCLOSURE: COMPENSATED AFFILIATE LINK USED

September Recap

Really, October 1st is tomorrow?! Wow.  This month flew by. 

{Crockpot Chicken Cheesesteaks… yum!}

One blog-related highlight for me, has been seeing a wonderful {and growing!} community participating in Friday Favorite Finds.  If you haven’t checked it out – go here to see yummy recipes people found all over the blogworld this week.

I love this linky for two reasons: (1) It helps me find great recipes that I missed during the week, and (2) It spreads link love to fellow bloggers by sharing their yummy recipes more widely. 

During September, I shared a few of our fall favorite recipes … pumpkin, apple, maple – some of my favorite flavors.

Here are my top 5 refers this for September {THANK YOU!}:

Organizing Junkie
Tammy’s recipes
Life as a Mom
Eat at Home
Amy’s Finer Things

And, my top 5 most viewed recipes from September:

Apple Pockets

Spiced Country Applesauce

Apple Honey Tea

Crockpot Ziti

Crockpot Baked Potatoes

My favorite recipe I shared during September was our family favorite – Apple Pie!  This recipe is very special to me because it is passed down from both sides of my family.  Every slice reminds me of my grandmas.  Just as every bite of this Stanley Scramble reminds me of my grandfather. 

I’m looking forward to October – more yummy fall foods, and a fun series coming your way all about learning to and starting to cook from scratch! 

Thanks for reading along. 

An appliance only a foodie loves

This weekend, the home appliance I’ve been itching for over the last year, finally made an appearance in our home. 

Yes, we got a chest freezer. 

Our freezer above our fridge has been spread to the max – overflowing at the gills at most points. 

And, now, we can allow the wealth of yummy foods in our freezer to have a little more breathing room. 

I took a freezer inventory today and I thought you might want to see a peek of our newly arranged chest freezer! 

Freezer Inventory

The two baskets on the top hold our breads, tortillas and pizza doughs (left) and our frozen fruits (right). 

Under the basket on the left, we have our meats. Staples in our freezer include chicken breasts, whole chickens, lean ground beef, ground turkey,  and ground turkey sausage (Italian seasoned).

In the center bottom section we have our veggies – spinach, mushrooms, shredded zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, and a Normandy blend.  We also have a larger bag of frozen raspberries here. 

The bottom right has spaghetti sauce, apple honey tea, extra yeast and whole wheat flours (we love white whole wheat). 

I’m loving the new arrangement – especially since we now have room to put our ice cube maker tray back into our upstairs freezer!  And, the upstairs freezer has our every day items in it: ice cream, some frozen veggies, ice cream maker bowl, and – right now some apple pies! 

Do you have a chest freezer?  Do tell. 

It’s Apple Time!

The early crop of apples is here and tomorrow, our kitchen will be overflowing with apple-y goodness.  While the boys are making us a pedestal for our new washer and dryer arriving this week, my mom and I are planning an apple baking day! 

On our list: 

Spiced Country Applesauce
This is THE.BEST.APPLESAUCE.EVER.
Frog Prince and I can eat our weight in it. 
And, it makes a delicious apple granola too. 

Apple Chips and Apple Fruit Leathers
We’ll puree a bit of applesauce and make some yummy fruit leathers in our dehydrator alongside apples.  These are two of our favorite apple snacks!

Apple Pockets
These are healthy-for-you breakfast or dessert pockets.
A whole wheat semi-sweet dough filled with apples and cinnamon. We love ‘em.

Apple Slices
Nothing overly special here – just slicing apples and flash freezing them. 
I try to have frozen apple slices in my freezer year round for recipes, including:
Apple Muffins, Apple Cinnamon Rolls,
Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal or Crockpot Apple Cake.

Our favorite way to use these apples, though, is for Crust-less Apple Pie. 

We use this crust-less apple pie as topping for our pancakes {favs include atop oatmeal cinnamon pancakes, and fluffy applesauce pancakes}, served with granola as a proxy for apple crisp, in oatmeal, or just enjoy it plain as a dessert. 

*     *     *

We’ll save our peels and make up a yummy batch of Apple Honey Tea. 
This freezes well and is a great alternative to apple juice/cider. 

Our baking day would not be complete without making….
Mom’s Apple Pie
We’ll make up a few of these and freeze them. 
They will be great for the upcoming fall months. 

{Note about this photo: This was my very first apple pie. ever. Made it for Frog Prince the first fall we were married – I was so proud I even called my grandmother!  This is was the recipe that got me into cooking… and blogging about it!}

I’ll be back later to share how we did, and, of course, to show some photos!  I’m looking forward to capturing some of our fall favs while we bake.  Oh, we’re also planning to have some spaghetti sauce simmering away in our crockpot since our garden tomatoes are ready! 

Hope you have a great weekend.