Good morning! There’s a lot going on behind the scenes over here that I want to let you know about. I figured I’d just do a big update post, so I’ll get right to it.
1) New recipe rating system on Oh She Glows
I can’t thank Eric enough for creating this recipe rating system for us. This is something that many of you have requested over the years and I am beyond excited to finally have it in place. We installed it late last week and I’m happy to see the ratings flying in already for so many different recipes (especially for last week’s Crispy Quinoa Cakes recipe!). Your feedback is so important to us and I hope you find it helpful too!
How it works: To rate a recipe all you do is select your star rating at the bottom of your comment and then leave your review in the comment box. This will help you find reviews much more quickly as your star rating will show up next to the comment.
<— Here is an example of what a rating looks like in the comment section. [Thanks for your feedback April!]
2) Instagram Contest
I’m giving away a signed copy of The Oh She Glows Cookbook (your choice of cover) on Instagram this week! The contest is open worldwide and runs until Friday. See my Instagram post for how to enter. Good luck!
3) Vegnews Veggie Awards 2014
I’m honoured to be nominated in VegNews’ 13th annual Veggie Awards™ this year in the “Best cookbook of 2014” category and the “Best Blog” category. If you enjoy the blog and/or cookbook, I would greatly appreciate your support! There are a ton of prizes up for grabs, so head on over and vote for your favourite people, restaurants, products, blogs, cookbooks, and more!
4) A Blueberry Hemp Banana smoothie recipe
From time to time, I share quick and easy recipes on my Instagram account. This weekend, I shared this delicious, high-protein smoothie recipe that I’ve been making a lot lately. Head on over and check it out! Also check out this recipe for my favourite coconut oil chocolate bar and a fav way to sneak in more calcium. I also recently created a new Instagram account, @theglowspot, where I share non-food related pictures.
5) Baby section on the blog
I mentioned this new Baby section on the blog several months ago, but I’ve been getting a lot of comments from many of you saying you had no idea it even existed. We decided not to put these posts in the RSS feed because I want to keep my blog’s focus on recipes, however you can find the link to this new section at the top of the blog and on the sidebar. I’ve been using it as a pregnancy journal of sorts, talking about my journey, sharing pictures, and also a bit on prenatal vitamins and healthy recipes.
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I hope you enjoy some of the new features going on! I appreciate your feedback so feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions. And be sure to let us know if the recipe rating system is working for you. This website has been a labour of love over the past 6 years and I love finding ways to improve your experience. As always, thank you for reading, trying out the recipes, and sharing the blog with others!
I’m not super active on instagram, but will have to start following you!
I am loving your book so much. I’ve only had it for a couple weeks and have made so many recipes from it so far. What I keep telling everyone is “her recipes never fail!” since not a single recipe for your site or book have let me down. Unfortunately I feel like a lot of recipes that get posted (or printed) aren’t thoroughly tested, but I know you put it a lot of effort and I really appreciate that. Nothing worse than wasting time and ingredients and being left hungry. Anyway, will vote :)
Thank you Jill…I’m so grateful for your support and delighted to know how much confidence you put in my recipes. :)
I think everything you have been doing is wonderful! I follow your journey in both food and baby, and you are a total inspiration to me and my husband. I am finally pregnant after over a decade of trying, failing and finally coming to terms with infertility. Then, bam! We find out we’re expecting! Crazy!
Thanks to your beautiful posts and healthy living options, my husband and I have been able to have a wonderful first year of vegan eating. We have no regrets, and have loved each of your recipes that we have tried. We’re so happy for your success, both professionally and personally, and applaud you for caring so much for your readers and fans!
Congrats on your exciting news Cassie! Life works in mysterious ways, doesn’t it?
Thanks for your kind words about my blog. :)
Angela,
I see your book in Chapters/Indigo SO frequently and I get super pumped and point it out to whoever I happen to be with at the time. I confess that I haven’t yet bought the book — its a bit of a splurge for me right now, so I think it will have to wait until after my wedding… BUT i’m going to jazz on over to your IG account to see what the scoop is for this contest! I always love your IG posts – i get ultra excited to try out your recipes… in fact, I have the necessary ingredients for your quinoa cakes and might just make them after work/gym tonight!
thanks for being your amazing-awesome-glowing self!
S
hah thanks for spreading the word! Good luck if you enter the contest :)
Angela,
I wanted to let you know how much I love your weekly “baby” posts. Thank you so much for not turning you perfect, amazing, life altering and life saving food/recipe blog into a “Mommy Blog” and keeping the baby posts separate. With that being said, it has been so fun to follow you on your pregnancy journey. Your writing is funny, sweet, and endearing, and your new daughter is so, so lucky to have you as her mom! I also especially love the food and exercise anecdotes you share so the baby entries really tie into the overall theme of your blog and are very interesting to the types of readers who would visit your blog anyway. Great job! Can’t wait until that baby is born!
Lauren, Thank you for this lovely comment. It’s great to know that the posts are appreciated.
As a beginner vegan, my husband and I have been eating our way through your cookbook.I was so excited to see this new recipe rating system.This new system will help us figure out what to try next!
Looks great! What recipe app/widget to you use to post recipes?
Hi Vanessa,
Eric created the recipe uploader especially for the blog. I do know there are free recipe widgets/plugins you can find through WordPress though! Easy Recipes is a popular one I think.
I’m so excited about the rating system!! I already know which ones I’ll be rating right away – your lasagna, giant chickpea pancake (my new favorite!), no-bake chocolate torte, and butternut squash burritos just to name a few. And I’ve loved your baby updates. Good luck in these last few weeks!! xoxo
I am loving the new rating system. Your blog is so well done. Great work!!
I think I’m just gonna head on over and get my vote on! ;-)
So excited about the new rating system!!! I don’t think I can find a recipe on this site that is less than five stars (:
Just wondering… I would ask this on your Instagram post but I’m not on it… where do you buy your hemp hearts? I’m really interested in trying them but not sure if some brands are better/cheaper than others. Thanks in advance!
Hi Bethy, We buy the huge bags at Costco (Manitoba Harvest brand I believe)
Hi Angela!
Congrats on being nominated for VegNews’ 13th annual Veggie Awards! That’s very exciting news and I wish you the best of luck! I will be sure to vote and have my friends vote too! I sent you an email regarding doing an internship/co-op with you, but I haven’t heard back yet! I’m really curious if this is an opportunity you would welcome! Please let me know here or email me back when you get a chance! Thanks so much
just emailed you :)
Love all the new stuff Angela! Lucky I saw this now as I just entered the fabulous contest!
youtube.com/addalittlefood
Hi Angela :)
I just wanted to tell you congrats for everything that’s happened to you in the past year (and even six years!). Your blog is truly inspiring and I absolutely love the recipes and the easy-going vibe! As a vegan teen, it’s awesome to know that I have plenty of delicious options. Your blog also helped me slowly recover from anorexia (still in the process though haha) and I’m very grateful. I saw that there was a contest for the signed book and I was wondering if there would be a similar contest open to those who don’t have an Instagram account?
Thank you so much for everything :)
PS- you’ll def make a terrific mom, and good luck!
Thank you Gaby – I’m so happy to hear you are on the road to recovery!
I don’t currently have another giveaway planned, but I will keep one in mind for the fall. I’m sure I can run one on the blog for a signed copy.
Hi! My daughter told me about your lovely website last year–thankfully!–and so I ordered her a copy of your cookbook, because I knew she was a fan. Well, as soon as I saw it, I had to get one for myself, and have worked my way through almost all of the main course meals so far (first time I’ve done that with a cookbook since I bought the Moosewood Cookbook back in 1985!). It’s tasty, meals are a big hit with veggies and meat-lovers alike, and I don;t find myself tweaking recipes due to overly laborious instructions or wonky ingredients. So, thank you! Regarding the technical aspect of the blog, just as a heads up, I had a craving for the chocolate hemp smoothie just now, and searched for hemp smoothie, and then just smoothie, but it didn’t turn up the recent recipe (with the red and white straw), so I searched under the main recipe heading of “smoothies” under beverages, and found it. So maybe it needs a “fuzzy search,” (I think it’s called?) so you can find recipes even if you don’t recall the exact name? Cheers!
Hi Sarah,
Aw thanks for your support! So happy you are both enjoying the cookbook. :)
Thanks for letting me know about your search issues. I just did a search in the search bar (we’re talking about the search beside the “press” link, right?) and the smoothie came up as the first hit (under the ad) for me when I searched “chocolate hemp smoothie”. I’m not sure why it’s not working for you. Let me know if it keeps up!
Sigh, Murphy’s Law, I guess, or something…of course it worked when I tried it just now! Maybe in my pre-chocolate state yesterday, I typed it in somewhere else. Obviously, the solution is to never let my chocolate levels drop that drastically again!
Yes bad things can happen when the chocolate levels get too low! ;) Glad it worked today. If you have the problem again, just let me know.
Can we go back and rate old recipes? Of course the first one I want to go back and give a big HUGE 5 stars to (5 is the most, right?) is the Homemade “Rolo” Knock-Offs. But I think they might be too far back in the archives to rate : (
Also, I am on the edge of my seat waiting for this new business announcement. Can you give just a teeny tiny little hint? I’m hoping it’s food related so I can eat all of whatever it is…umm unless you’re going into the pet food business…
Hey Dayna,
Right now we have about 70 or so recipes that can be rated…and gradually we’ll be adding ALL of the old ones into the new system! So in due time. :) I’m glad you love the rolo recipe so much…it’s one of my all time favs! Just made a batch last week.
No hints yet, but hopefully when we get closer!
This was my question too! I have a few recipes that are in HEAVY rotation in my house and have been for a while – specifically the butternut squash mac’ n cheese. I want to go in and give our faves the five stars they deserve.
So many exciting things! I love your instagram account. It’s like a more raw version of the blog:) Pretty sure I went out and bought ice cream after I saw the picture you posted the other day of your ice cream bars:) Checking out the baby tab…now:)
hah…I know what you mean. Now every time I open my page and see the ice cream bar, I want another one! Why do they have to only put 4 in a pack? I need to find the Costco ones asap. ;)
Just Voted!! You were, of course, my fave in each category that you were nominated in! OBVI!!!!
:-)
Aw thank you, I so appreciate it :)
So many great updates! Tell Eric that he did an awesome job on the recipe rating system – I am definitely going to go back and rate some of the ones I’ve made in the past because they’ve all been fantastic! And your baby bump… just.so.stinkin.cute!! :)
I wish you had been able to get the star ratings retroactively! I have some favourites I would like to see shine. (Just posted a comment on that six star Eggplant Parmesan.
Hey Susan, We’re in the process of adding the recipe ratings to old recipes (right now we have them on over 70 or so) so eventually ALL recipes will have the option to rate. Hope this helps! :)
Just wanted to let you know that I LOVE that you keep baby stuff and recipes separate! It is just the worst when you read a blog for the recipes and then the blogger gets married or pregnant and all you get are life updates! My sister and I always joke that when a blogger gets pregnant we have to stop reading the blog! Thank you for finding a way to share your exciting news in a way that doesn’t interfere with the recipes!