New Website Things.
Hi hi hi.
It’s been a full week since the new website design has been up and I wanted to take a quick sec to show you a few thingamajigs. I worked with Lindsay from Purr Design and the experience couldn’t have been more perfect, especially for someone like me who knows as much about technology as an 85-year old granny. Lindsay is incredible and so very talented and I also developed a huge girl crush on her in the process. As if you couldn’t tell.
Perhaps the most exciting thing we’ve got going on here is a new recipe format (including time, yield, etc), that makes it super easy to print and save the recipes. But yeah… I need to go back in and reformat all of the recipes by hand, so they aren’t all printable yet. I know – so annoying. I promise that I’m trying to get it done as quickly as possible, but it’s just me, myself and I over here and it’s sort of time consuming. Hopefully in a week or two all of the recipes will be printable and I won’t have drowned in wine, but until then can you do a little copy and paste handiwork with the old recipes? Promise I’ll make it up to you.
Along with the print button comes the nifty little save button. The save button comes into play because we’ve implemented Ziplist on the site, which enables you to add recipes to a personal recipe box that creates a shopping list for you, as well as a menu plan. Tons of blogs are using Ziplist these days (and many of you have requested it here) and it makes it easy to keep all of your recipes in one place. All you need to do is create an account with your email address so you can access it anywhere. If you aren’t interested in using Ziplist, don’t worry – you don’t HAVE to use it. The recipe index is still available in the navigation bar above. I’m a pencil and paper girl myself so I totally get you.
If you choose to use Ziplist and click the “save” button in the right-hand corner of each recipe, you will be prompted to add it to your recipe box:
And if you simply want to access your recipe box, shopping list and menu plans, you can click the recipe box tab in the navigation bar:
While the recipe index now includes pictures instead of a plain list, it is still easy to access all of the recipes. They are categorized the same as they once were (with a few helpful extras), and if you want to bring up a list for a certain dish (such as pasta or poultry or meat) you just need to click on the category. This is also still a work in progress but will be finished shortly. If all else fails and you can’t find whatever you are looking for, leave a question in the comments or shoot me a tweet or email.
Some of you may recall a few years ago that I had a section on the website called “what we’re eating” that listed our weekly meal plans. It’s been one of the most-requested pages on the site, so I’ve included a list in the footer below that links our (hopeful) weekly menu – and while a day or two in real life may include a date night or dinner out, I’ve still listed seven full days just in case it doesn’t.
These include the links from my favorite websites for the meals that I get so excited about… oh and you can be assured that if a meal is vegetarian, there definitely has to be chicken on the side for the biggest carnivore in the world, aka my husband.
Lastly… I still have to work to put together a new links page, so in the meantime I’ve listed a few of my current favorite reads next to the weekly menu in the footer.
If you’re looking for something, there is a search bar at the top of the right hand side of the site, and underneath is where you can subscribe by email or by RSS feed. You can also do things here like follow along on facebook, twitter, instagram and pinterest… and I’d be oh so excited if you did.
May still be working out a kink or two, but I think that’s a wrap. If you have any questions, make sure to leave them in the comments or email me… and thank you so much for reading because I love your guts. No, really. I do.
71 Comments on “New Website Things.”
It all looks so fabulous, Jess! A few of my other favorite sites have started using Ziplist too, so I may have to check it out. But congrats on your upgrade! :)
The site looks amazing! I love Ziplist and use it just as much as Pinterest for recipes. Very often, I have one of them pulled up on my phone in the kitchen as I’m cooking.
I don’t remember the weekly menu, so I’m really interested in that. I’d love a post some day (if there isn’t one already that I missed) about how you plan your weekly menu, do you *really* plan a whole week ahead at a time, do you shop for it once a week, etc. I’m always interested in how people manage the cooking thing in real life. It might be fun to see what your readers do, too. I feel like everyone says they menu plan and I wonder if they actually do. (I need to start doing it more.)
Hahaha! I actually made this so I would *start* to plan better! The old “what we’re eating” page was actually a menu plan of the things we had eaten the previous week – so on Sundays I would go back and list what we had eaten. That way it was 100% accurate and even though it was the previous week, it still gave others ideas for dinner.
That’s sort of the gist here – I often hate creating menu plans so far ahead because if I grocery shop, I feel so pressured to eat the things I may not be in the mood for that night. This also ranges greatly because many days per week I spend all day cooking recipes for the blog or freelance projects, so I have a ton of food and it just ends up being lunch/dinners. As well as my husband having work dinners or traveling… straight 7-day meal plans just aren’t feasible for us now, though I’m sure one day with a family they will be.
To make this long story even longer, I loosely plan out meals with staples and go from there. Because I do so much cooking, I have to have the staples around. :)
I definitely use menu planning as a jumping off point. Most of the time, I’d much rather tell people what I ended up making last week than tell them what I may or may not make this week. I feel pressure to actually make those things on my list and sometimes I REALLY start craving something else.
But I do love having the menu plan in the footer. That’s so cool! I’ll have to try that to motivate myself to actually use my ZipList plan instead of just wandering around aimlessly in the kitchen around lunchtime.
Site looks great!
Nice changes! Looking forward to the Ziplist.
Absolutely LOVE it!! The changes are great and I love the new additions! Congratulations on the new design, girl!
I fought Ziplist for a bit because they stored some pages I would have liked to change on their own server…but since they’ve made it easier to modify the stylesheet I use it for my own and client sites and have to say…it’s a great product. Like you I had to modify a LOT of recipes. I committed to an hour once a week to do nothing but and I’m almost done…which is good because I’m about as sick of that process as one person could be! Good luck with that, seriously! Your readers will love it though; absolutely worth the effort.
I agree with this – I fought it for a long time too… the only thing I really, really hate (besides having to reformat the recipes, obviously) is that it works best with the blog post cut off (so you have to read more) on the front page. I am someone who loves the ease of reading blogs and want everything – the post, the recipe, etc – on the front page so I can just bring it up and go from there without multiple clicks. It kills me to have to shorten the post, but if people enjoy using Ziplist so much then it will be worth it. Otherwise I’ll have to rethink the decision!
PS: That’s ambitious to go back and redo all your old recipes in ZipList. I’ve done that with a few…but I don’t know about going back and doing all 500 or so. That sounds like several bottles of wine.
I LOVE your new look. Seriously LOVE. And, ugh…I have way too many recipes that still need to be reformatted, too…I hear your pain.
I honestly don’t think I could do it. It hurts just thinking about it. Maybe there’s a service where someone whose eyes don’t bleed from all that copy/pasting will do it for you. Anyone? Anyone?
Love it! Looks great and with lots of nice tools for us fangirls and boys. xoxo
Website changes are so time consuming and things that seem simple take about 100x longer than you think they’re going to take. Given the scope and depth of your archives, I think reformatting ALL your recipes in a couple weeks is like…extremely, supremely, highly ambitious of you! I was thinking like….6 mos! 5 a day every day til they’re done type thing. I remember when ziplist contacted me and I turned them down b/c I was scared to reformat everything knowing how LONG it would take me. You’re a better woman than I and your site is just so gorgeous :)
The new website looks great! I am in the process of sorting out ziplist for mine too :)
FREAKING LOVE THE NEW DESIGN!!!!!!
Looks beautiful! I love the colors and design layout. Look forward to all you do! Cheers!
Seriously awesome! Lindsey does such a great job. I need to check out ziplist, I have seen it but never really looked into it. I Love all that you do!
Love all the changes! I’ve never used ziplist, but I’m interested to find out about it. I also look forward to looking at your weekly menus and getting some good ideas.
Awesome Jessica. I’m working on switching to WordPress and site redesign (when I say I”M working on it, I mean someone else smart is doing the work, not me). LOVING your new digs!
I have to giggle when you say your working on making your recipes all printable for us. wich is very nice and all. but to be honest, i have always copied and pasted your recipes and any other ones i come across on the net that i like. I place them in Evernote and thats my computer cook book! I love Evernote and dont know what i would do without it! Its on my computer and its on my ipad. there is a function on it called sync that sends all the recipes to my ipad. anyways.. I love your website always have and always will. Never change being your cute fun self ya hear!? :)
Love the new look, girl! So very you! xoxo
The sight looks amazing! I love all that you’ve done with it! You are definitely my website crush! I can only dream to be a organized as you are on my site. I am in need of a complete overhaul now that I have some new things I’m working on. I just need to find the time to focus on it. Love the new sight Jessica! Can’t wait to play around on it!
you are so legit!
can/t wait to see and use it up and running- am I the only forty-something having a little difficulty with the light blue font?
love the new website design! so pretty :)
I’m sorry to be a nitpick, but there should be a comma in your banner after “who.” it should be “For people who, like, totally love food.” it’s really grammatically confusing the way it’s currently written.
Seconded! You’re using slang and the phrase is colloquial, which is cute, but the punctuation is wrong and confusing. So sorry no one pointed it out earlier but it’s easy to fix (I think?)! One little comma… and I agree, it’s admirably ambitious of you to reformat/recode all of your old recipes so quickly. Good luck and congrats on the new design! I always enjoy your recipes and stories.
Thanks guys! I was writing this like I talk and wasn’t paying attention to that. Will get it fixed!
I am in love with your new blog, Jessica! It’s so streamlined and gorgeous, and the new sprinkly heart up top is too cute. Super jealous! Also, I LOVEEEE the idea behind “what we’re eating.” Since I have to cook dinner every night for a family of five, plus grocery shop, clip coupons and do the meal planning, I need a LOT of help sometimes with easy recipes and meal-planning. Awesome idea!
My head is spinning just thinking about all the work you have been doing. Seriously…updating ever y recipe?! I want to hug you and drink wine with you. It looks amazing.
I LOVE the new website layout, especially now that I can save recipes!!! I am obsessed with your site already but this is amazing, must have taken you so much time. I must say my favorite part is having pictures in the recipe link! ( this is my first post although I have been following for a long time :) there will def be more to come!)
Looks so fantastic!! I love watching your site, numbers, and popularity grow :-) Way to go, Jess!!!
So cute! Love it.
I love the new website – great job! and the printable recipes are super helpful. thanks!
I’m loving your meal plans; Helps give me ideas. Your blog is one of my faves & you are too funny; brightens my day. Please tell us about the formal cocktail party you went to dressed casual. (might need a separate post from tuesday things; im sure you were gorgeous still!)
It’s incredible! What a fantastic investment. :)
WHAT?! ZIPLIST?! Never even heard of it….
I’m just going to keep writing everything down with pencil and paper so I can continue shoving 8 million small pieces of paper into my purse.
New format looks great though! :)
Love the new design and features. :)
The colors make me smile.
PS Isn’t Kendi Everyday the best? I seriously want everything from her closet… and from Bloom.
Looks awesome…easy to use!
The blog looks great! Kind of really hoping you post a recipe for brown butter lentil soup :)
love the new design. so happy you are using ziplist. it is the best thing ever. all food blogs should be required to use it.
Love the new design! So fresh.
I love your new site! It’s wonderful!!!
So glad you’re adding Ziplist.
I love it, so pretty :)
LOOOOVVVEEEEEE it!! Thanks =)
I love your new design. : ) I can’t wait to save your recipes to my Ziplist account.
Love Love Love the new design (not that there was anything wrong with the old one!)! Your recipes are in my go-to folder on g-mail so the Ziplist doohickey is great for me!!!! Need more neon pink tho! :P
I love the new look! Totally fitting :)
I agree with all of your readers, the new look is amazing! And the idea of the weekly planner is great! I’ve been doing it for the 25 years I’ve been married, it makes grocery shopping easier and quicker! Your banner logo is so you, and it doesn’t really matter if the punctuation is off, it’s not a doctorate thesis!! My humble opinion!!
Your site redesign is pretty darn cute!! And so is your burger – it looks delicious!! And I love that you topped it off with avocado. Definitely one of my favorite foods and such a flavorful way to boost your daily fiber intake just a bit.
Oops! Was definitely reading more than one post on your blog and then preceded to post on the wrong one! I was referring to your sweet potato burger post – it looks great!! :)
love love love!
we love the new site!! love the look, feel and colors of it! great job!!!
Well done!! The changes (find, print, save, share) have bumped your site from one of my many favorite foodie blogs to a top three Go To resource. Well done and thank you!
Love the new site, definitely brings a smile to my face every time I visit! Great Job!
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