A Brand New Emily Bites!

Hi friends! You may have noticed it looks a little different around here…Emily Bites got a makeover! I want to give a huge shout out to Lindsay at PURR Design for giving my site a whole new design with increased functionality and for handling all my questions with ease during the transition. She’s the best!

In addition to getting a fun new look, there are also some new features and some things that have been rearranged. Change can be scary (but good, I promise!), so I thought I’d take you all through a few things about the new site to get you up to speed. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment here or shoot me an email and I will try to help!

Subscribe by Email

Let’s start right up top on the main page. The first thing you’ll see is a dark blue bar where you can enter your email address to receive email updates every time I post a new recipe. I did have this option on my old site but it was buried halfway down the page in the sidebar so I was always getting emails asking how to get on the email list. Now it’s easy!

Recipe Box

Whether you’ve used this feature before or not, it’s a great one to know about. What used to be the “Ziplist” tab on my old site is now labeled “Recipe Box.”

What is Ziplist? Well, have you ever wished you could save recipes from all over the web to one central recipe box? Even better, have you imagined you could then select a few of those recipes that you want to make next and have all the ingredients transformed into a printable grocery list with the click of a button? Hey, while you’re dreaming you might as well wish this recipe box also had a mobile app so you could create/carry that grocery list with you anywhere you go (no more “Oops, I forgot the list! What was I here for again…?”). The super-organized among you may even wish for a Meal Planning feature where you can add meals to your queue or schedule them for specific dates.

Guess what? That’s all real! Ziplist.com is a great site that actually does all of those dream-features I listed above. While Emily Bites is undoubtedly your favorite source for recipes on the web (*cough cough*), a lot of other really great sites use Ziplist as well, and you can save recipes from any of them directly to your recipe box! You’ll need to make an account with Ziplist (which you can do by clicking the Recipe Box tab at the top of the page) if you don’t have one already, but then you’ll be able to access your recipe box anytime, anywhere! To save a recipe from Emily Bites, simply scroll down to the recipe portion of the post and click the blue “save” button (as pictured below):

New Social Media Icons

I’ve added a few new ways to follow Emily Bites and I want to make sure to point them out. From top to bottom you can click these icons to follow my RSS feed, Twitter feed, Facebook page, Pinterest pages, Instagram account, or Google+ page. I’ve always been a big fan of both Facebook and Pinterest, but I just picked up Instagram in the last year and it’s now one of my favorites as well. My Instagram account is more of a mix of my personal life and my blog so if you have any interest in knowing more about me as a person, that’s a fun place for us to interact. I also follow some fellow motivational Weight Watchers members there who continuously post their snack ideas and workouts – it can be great inspiration! Follow one or follow ’em all, but make sure you don’t miss a recipe!

Feature Slideshow

This is a new feature that I’m really excited about. The slideshow at the top of my sidebar allows me to feature seasonally relevant recipes and I can update and change it as often as I’d like. Think “Superbowl Snack Ideas,” “Summer Picnic Must Haves,” or “Valentine’s Sweets.” This is going to be a great way to discover recipes old and new that are perfect for whatever you’re planning right now. Currently I’m kicking it off with a selection of hearty Winter Soups and Stews, but make sure to keep an eye on this slideshow as it changes throughout the year!

Recipe Index

This is hands down my absolute favorite part of my new site. If you click on “Recipes” in the main menu, you can now browse recipes by category or ingredient! Looking for a casserole to feed your family? It’s easy! Have a zucchini or some ground beef in your fridge and not sure how to use it? No problem!

Once you choose a category or ingredient it now shows you the results with both photos and recipe titles, so you can easily find a recipe that appeals to you:

Recipe Format

I’m not 100% done reformatting my old recipes (it takes for-e-ver) but this is what most of my recipes will now look like (and all will look like soon). Note that the number of servings as well as serving size is now located directly underneath the recipe title. The “print” friendly and “save” recipe buttons are now located to the right of the recipe:

At the bottom of the recipe you will find the Weight Watchers Points Plus and nutrition information per serving as well as the social media share buttons in case you’d like to pin, email or share the recipe on Facebook or Twitter. Please do! I’m sure many of you will be searching for the “Pin It” button, so here it is:

I think that covers the big changes. I hope you all love the new design as much as I do!