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Happy New Year, everyone! Can you believe it’s 2015? Time seems to be flying by at record speed, seriously! With the fresh start of a new year I have been contemplating a few changes for this blog of mine. “How can I make it better…” is a thought that runs through my mind frequently. I so appreciate your continued support and as always am working hard to make the site as user-friendly as possible. There are just shy of 900 recipes posts living here in my archives. That is a lot of food, any way you look at it. It’s my hope that the following changes will help make better use of these great recipes.
MENU PLANS: For over 5 years now I have been publishing a Monthly Menu Plan on the first Monday of each month. I know many of you use this feature, and to you I am so grateful. However, I feel like this hefty monthly list is sometimes overwhelming and have noticed these posts being accessed much less over the past year than they were several years ago. So, in an attempt to highlight past recipe posts, while keeping things a little more simple and easy to manage (on your end and mine) I will no longer post new Monthly Menu Plans. I will however, be posting WEEKLY MENU PLANS each week on Sunday afternoon, or early Monday morning. These posts will (most likely) stay on the home page until Tuesday morning and will include pictures and links to 6 complete meal ideas. There will also be a picture link added to my side bar for easy access to the WEEKLY PLAN. I am hoping to make these weekly plans simple, easy to follow and budget friendly. If you would still like to access my past MONTHLY MENU PLANS, you can! I will leave the MONTHLY MENU tab at the top of my site up and running. There are 3 full years of monthly plans there.
Hoping this change will be helpful to many of you!
NEW RECIPE POSTS: This year my goal is to shoot for 2 new recipes posts per week, complete with many step by step photos. Let’s keep the good food rolling!
NEW “Serve This With…” FEATURE:
This pretty graphic will be added to most new recipe posts (and as many past recipe posts I can manage!) with 2-3 recipe links listed below it, giving you ideas of what to serve with that particular recipe. Hoping this will help give you additional ideas to round out your meals.
TUTORIAL POSTS: I have had many requests for additional posts on basic cooking techniques, such as how to cook perfect pasta, how to make wonderful rice, how to cut a dang kiwi, etc. 🙂 Watch for these posts begin to surface in the coming weeks.
INSTAGRAM: I am hoping to use Instagram more this year to highlight food, recipes and fun within our little recipe loving community. If you are an Instagram user, and feel so inclined you can follow me at jamiecooksitup_ or by clicking here.
SEARCH BAR: The search bar here on my site has been acting up a bit. Thanks to those of you who have written in to let me know about it. I am working to get the problem fixed, it should be up and working shortly.
EMAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Many of you have written in to let me know your Email Subscription has stopped working. I am looking into this as well.
THE WEEKEND REPORT: I am planning to keep posting these random, journal type entries on Saturday mornings when I feel like I have something noteworthy to share. Thanks to those of you who read these family/life themed posts. I really enjoy writing them.
That’s it, gang. Here’s to a new year! Feel free to post any feedback you have in the comment section below and watch for the first WEEKLY MENU PLAN to be posted Sunday afternoon.
PS…for all of you book lovers out there, keep an eye out for my WONDERFUL WINTER READS list to come out in the next couple of weeks. You can access previous lists here, here and here.
i like to cook ur eyedeas r grate. keep itr up
I enjoy your email recipes every day. I am a vegetarian and not all recipes interest me. I wonder if in your subject line if you could include a 1 or 2 word hint along with “Jamie Cooks It Up!”, what that days recipe is about. My computer is old and not very fast which would mean I could skip an email that had any word referring to meat in it. Thank you
The changes are great! Thank you so much for sharing
Thanks for all your posts! I visit your site almost daily and use many of your recipes. I always looked forward to your monthly menu plans and took many ideas from it and now I look forward to your weekly menu planning ideas! I plan to follow them along as you go! Happy New Year!
Thank you for the time and effort you put into your blog! You offer so many suggestions/ideas and wonderful recipes! Happy New Year to you and yours!
I like the weekly menu plan idea and I love reading your weekend reports. Sounds like you are always having fun with your family!!
Hi Jamie!
Can’t wait for another year of cooking up your delicious recipes! I’m also really looking forward to your book reviews – I try and read them all because you always have great suggestions. Thanks for all you do to keep my family happy at the kitchen table 🙂
Oh, that’s a good idea with the weekly menu. It will give everyone a chance to watch the grocery ads during the week and get their shopping done accordingly. I’m also looking forward to the “serve this with” feature.
Love your site and recipes! Delicious. I made the ginger bread bars again for Christmas dessert. So wonderful! Keep up the great blog!
The last two weeks have been hectic with our kids that came home from N.C. I used your or adapted so many of your freezer meals & crock pot meals I prepped ahead of time & while we were out & about by dinner time we could all sit down & enjoy a healthy, home cooked meal. Thank you for your ideas.