Way back in January 2012 I started a diet. Part of my plan was to find and learn how to cook recipes that are light, healthy and delicious. After working through a few recipes I decided to post some pictures of the food I was making on Facebook.
The pictures led to some of my friends asking for the recipes; I tried to email recipes to everyone that asked for them but I quickly became overwhelmed and realized that there had to be a better solution. The solution that I came up with was to post these dinners on a blog that I could send links to and that you, the reader, could look up and search for dinners that you want to try.
Several time I have referred to this blog as my experiment. When I started I didn't have a real plan or set parameters for my experiment other than to put it out there and see what happens. So here I am doing my 52nd. post(yes, this marks 1 year) and I'm ready to reveal what I've learned.
The stats - So far this blog has received 989 page views from people in the United States, Russia, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, India, Sweden, China, France, South Africa and Latvia. The top four sites that have referred to this blog are Google.com, Facebook.com, Stumbleupon.com and Pregolom.com.
Google is way out in front with a 4 to 1 ratio over Facebook which really baffles me since Facebook is the only venue through which I promote this blog. The most read posts are Crock Pot Chicken , Mushrooms and Brown Rice; Crock Pot Greek-Style Meatballs; Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken; Grilled Tandoori Chicken and Red Onion Skewers; and Chicken Poppers. Apparently the crock pot and chicken dinners are very popular. On the personal side I learned that writing a weekly blog is not easy. It requires dedication, planning, research and time. It has been a lot of work and there were a few weeks that I didn't think that I would get it posted by the Tuesday deadline and there have been a few weeks where I really couldn't come up with anything interesting to write about but I made it happen and now I have 52 posts behind me.
Let's switch gears for a little bit. One thing that I haven't written about and the one thing that most of these dinners have in common is My Salad.Unless the dinner I'm making includes a salad in the recipe or it doesn't seem like something I would serve with a salad I always try to have a salad with dinner. My salads are made up of a few basic ingredients and several different add-ons that I change on a daily basis. I like to start my salad with pre-washed salad-in-a -bag; usually something with a large variety of leafy greens and vegetables or occasionally just baby spinach and arugula. Next I'll put fat-free cheddar cheese and croutons on it. To top it off I'll pour on some fat-free salad dressing; a few of my favorites are Kraft Parmesan and Asiago, Thousand Island. and Raspberry vinaigrette. My regular salad add-ons in no particular order are diced tomatoes, mushrooms, sliced onions, diced hard-boiled eggs, broccoli, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. There are other ingredients that I haven't listed but you should get the idea by now. About once every two weeks I will change up my lunch routine and have a salad with either 3 ounces of pre-cooked steak or chicken. The point of all of this is that I try to make salads a part of my daily diet. If you are not a salad person, give it a try. Find the ingredients that you like, get rid of the ingredients that you don't like, and don't be afraid to try new things. The worst that can happen is you make a salad that you don't like and you end up throwing it out. At least you have the rest of your dinner to enjoy.
So, now that we've reached the one year milestone, what do we do next?
My first thought is that since there are 52 ideas here, I challenge you to make the ones that you haven't tried yet. My second thought is that there is no way I can keep this up, I have to cut back on the amount of time and energy that I put into this blog. With that said I have decided that I am going to take a month off. I will return to this in April with one post at the beginning of each month. I want to thank you for reading this blog and for trying these dinners. I hope that you have been entertained so far and that you now have some delicious dinners that you can make for your family and friends. Now, get in the kitchen and make a mess.
Next month - Porcini Chicken.
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