In My Winter Kitchen + A Blog Redesign!

Happy New Year everyone! I am so incredibly excited to share my new blog design with you today, a project I’ve been working on with Lindsay of White Oak Creative for the past 5 months. As I’ve grown personally and professionally, with Heartbeet Kitchen and freelance work now being my full-time job, I felt it was time for this space to grow along with me.

Designing a food blog is not an easy task, and I am so incredibly grateful for all the work that Lindsay did. From the layout, the visual elements, and the functionality, she custom built what I had in mind in a beautiful way. Through several iterations, we worked on keeping my clean and natural branding the same, but polishing things up and making the site easier for you to navigate.

Here are a few of my favorite changes that I think you’ll enjoy too:

1. A whole new look and feel. The redesigned layout is much more user friendly and visual, without being overcomplicated. On the homepage, the slider at the top rotates with different seasonal recipes, and below that, you’ll find my most recent posts.
2. A visual RECIPE INDEX! Definitely the thing I’m most excited about. I was even having a hard time finding some of my recipes. There’s also different sorting capabilities – by meal, season, and types like vegan, paleo, nut-free, etc.
3. A recipe card for each post that you can save or easily print.
4. Designated space for my Travel and Lifestyle columns. The latter will be a spot for me to do more opinion based writing about self care, DIY natural skincare, and things I’ve got on my mind at the moment.

What hasn’t changed is how much I love real food, and real life. I can’t wait to share more of it with you this year. That being said, if there’s anything else you’d like to see on the blog, I’m all ears!

Now since cooking with the seasons is my jam, I thought I’d show you what’s been happening in the kitchen that doesn’t necessarily get posted on the blog, and some outtakes from everyday life. From the looks of it, winter so far has been filled with nourishing meals, appetizers + holiday celebrations, and sweet {gluten-free} treats.

This year was my first time trying persimmons, and wow – sweet as candy! I’m itching to try them in this cardamom milkshake.

Once I saw my friend Alison post this recipe for Spiced Lentils & Roasted Brussels Sprouts, I ran out and got the ingredients. We loved the flavors, and it was super simple to make. Makes great leftovers too.

And there were sweet treats, and sugar plum fairies dancing throughout the kitchen during the holidays. I slightly adapted a recipe from Robin Asbell’s terrific new book, The Whole Grain Promise, and made this snappy Pepita Granola Brittle, conquering my fear of the candy thermometer at the same time.

And it wouldn’t be Christmas without {gluten-free} Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles, am I right? Something so magical about them. Oh, and I finally found an organic powdered sugar – hooray! There wasn’t enough time to get this recipe on the blog, but next year.

This orange glazed brussels sprouts & butternut squash recipe has been on repeat…….

Some vintage thrifting scores…. I want to make one recipe a month from the Gourmet Cookbook, which was published in 1961. It’s so interesting to see how food has changed, and stayed the same over the years.

Our Christmas appetizer, which I aptly named Aloha Bites: Bacon Wrapped Pineapple with a brush of honey. Salty and sweet, my weakness!

And a holiday hello from Grace and I.

Would love to hear how your winter is going, so let me know in the comments below! Or you can always say hi on Instagram too. Cheers to a great start to 2016! xo

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