Best of 2019 Reader’s Choice Award Winners
Thank you SO much to all of you who voted in my 9th annual Reader’s Choice Awards (I can’t even believe it has been 9 years)! Your participation means so much to me and I love seeing which recipes were your favorite. My blog always gets new readers in January and it’s so helpful to be able to point them to this post as a starting place for my “greatest hits” of the previous year, so I really appreciate you taking the time to give input and share your thoughts. In case you missed it, you can look at past reader favorites (which are all still popular recipes today!) by checking out the 2018 winners, 2017 winners, 2016 winners, 2015 winners, 2014 winners, 2013 winners, 2012 winners and 2011 winners.
Whether or not you voted, I really, genuinely want to thank YOU. Whether it’s your first time visiting my blog or you’ve been cooking along with me since the beginning, thank you so much for being here. I can’t express how important you truly are to me, but trust me, it’s a lot. Thank you for reading my posts and for cooking my recipes. Thank you for asking questions, leaving comments and giving your feedback. Thank you for sharing my site with friends, posting pictures of what you’ve made on Instagram, pinning the recipes you want to try and sharing my posts on Facebook. Thanks for emailing me your stories and ideas and for sharing your successes. You motivate and inspire me so much and I’m genuinely thrilled that you’re here. I am so grateful for you.
Nine years ago on Christmas Eve 2010, I decided to start a blog. I was on Weight Watchers and had just recently started cooking more and I was so excited to discover how delicious and fun creating lightened up meals could be. I couldn’t wait to share my findings, but I never imagined so many of you would find my site and cook along with me. This site is now such a huge and important part of my life and who I am that it’s hard to remember what life was like before Emily Bites! This blog is my passion and your presence here makes it possible for me to keep living my dream. Again, thank you!
I’m so excited to start 2020 (a new decade!) with some fresh new recipes, but it’s also really fun for me to look back on how far my site has come. For the past few years I have recapped some readership, social media and posting stats, mostly for me to look back on. While I certainly don’t blog for the numbers, it’s fun to check in every year and see how much we’ve grown. Here we go again: Nine years. 672 posts. 67 million blog pageviews. 154,000 of you follow me on Facebook. 188,000 of you are my Instagram friends (my favorite!). 98,000 of you follow me on Pinterest. 28,000 of you subscribe to my recipes by email (if you haven’t done this yet, subscribing by email is a great way to make sure you don’t miss a recipe!).
I can’t say this enough: It overwhelms me that so many of you out there read my blog, make my recipes and give me such great feedback, encouragement and inspiration. THANK YOU!! If you don’t already and you want to follow my site on social, here are the links: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Email Club.
Without further ado, on to the Reader’s Choice Award Winners! The results are below and for each category I’ve pictured the winner and then listed the runner up along with my own vote (which didn’t count in the standings, I’m just listing it for fun).
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Best Breakfast Recipe: Ultimate Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole (by a landslide, you loved this one!)
Runner Up: Puff Pancake Bake with Warm Apple Topping
Emily’s Pick: I agree! The Tater Tot Casserole is amazing and has everything I want in a breakfast and I love the apple pancake bake as well. I’m giving an honorable mention to the Banana Blueberry Muffins as well though, because I made those a lot this year.
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Best Appetizer Recipe: 7 Layer Dip
Runner Up: Buffalo Deviled Eggs
Emily’s Pick: I also love the 7 Layer Dip, but my favorite in this category is the Cheesy Pineapple Prosciutto Bites. They’re so easy to put together and SO tasty.
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Best Soup/Salad/Sandwich Recipe: Barbecue Ranch Chicken Salad
Runner Up: Chicken Noodle Soup
Emily’s Pick: I think I’m most partial to the Chicken Bacon Apple Cheddar Wraps
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Best Handheld Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Egg Rolls
Runner Up: Chili Cheese Tacos
Emily’s Pick: I could not stop eating the Mini Buffalo Chicken Dip Bread Bowls when I made them so I have to say those!
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Best Meaty Main Course Recipe: Cream Cheese and Herb Stuffed Chicken (y’all loved this one!)
Runner Up: Baked Hot BBQ Chicken Tenders
Emily’s Pick: I made the Swedish Turkey Meatballs twice in one week because I love meatballs and gravy so much. SO MUCH.
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Best Pasta Recipe: Bruschetta Chicken Pasta
Runner Up: Chicken Tetrazzini
Emily’s Pick: I agree with Bruschetta Chicken Pasta!
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Best One-Pot Meal Recipe: One-Pot Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta (this beat the runner-up by just one vote!)
Runner Up: One-Pot Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese
Emily’s Pick: This is a tough category to pick just one, but I love Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese. It seems like I made a lot of Buffalo flavored recipes this year!
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Best Casserole Recipe: Deep Dish Taco Casserole
Runner Up: Chicken and Dumplings Casserole
Emily’s Pick: I’m obsessed with the Chicken and Dumplings Casserole, it’s a recipe right after my comfort food-loving heart.
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Best Side Dish Recipe: Classic Mashed Potatoes
Runner Up: Garlic Herb Mushrooms
Emily’s Pick: I don’t make them often because my husband won’t touch mushrooms, but I also love the Garlic Herb Mushrooms!
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Best Dessert Recipe: Apple Pie Egg Rolls
Runner Up: Banana Chocolate Wonton Bites
Emily’s Pick: I agree, the Apple Pie Egg Rolls are delicious!
Thank you so much again for reading my blog, cooking my recipes and encouraging and inspiring me with your comments. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2020 and I hope you’ll stay tuned for more lightened up comfort food recipes in the new year!
Just joined your email list! I’m so excited to try many of these recipes. Your food looks and seems “normal” to me which is just what I’m looking for.
Your recipes are my go to! Thanks for sharing with us!
Thank you so much for this recap! It reminded me of recipes I’d already forgotten about! They are now back on the menu plan!
I made the tater tot casserole and the puff pancake recipes for Christmas brunch. They were both a hit. Thank you also for including WW SP. I am doing the purple plan now so it is a big help.
In your collage picture for the Best of, can you tell me what the item is that is on the top row, and 3rd from the left. It appears to be a muffin! I search muffins and don’t find anything that I think it is. I would love to know. Thank you so much for ALL of your recipes.
Sure thing, here’s the recipe: https://emilybites.com/2019/11/chocolate-coconut-banana-baked-oatmeal-singles.html
I can certainly see why these were the top recipes in 2019, since your choice recipes is great. Every dish I have ever made from your site has always turned out well for me. My family loved them all. Thanks, & Happy New Year! All the best to you and your lovely family.
Congratulations on another successful year! I have followed you since the beginning, and I love this website!
I just recently found your website. I am so glad that I did. I follow the WW plan and was stuck in a rut making the few same meals over and over. I tried your Deep Dish Taco casserole and it was a huge hit for the entire family. Thank you so much for doing what you do.
The only thing that would make your recipes better would be a bar code that I could use to directly scan them into myWW app! I love your recipes. Keep ’em comin’. You are doing a great job. Thanks for the yummy foods you are bringing into my life.
(Your recipe for sausage in the Ultimate Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole would be a nice stand alone recipe)
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