Creative K Kids

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Tasty Tuesdays: Raspberry Cranberry Jello Salad

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Go HERE for more disclaimers.

By 2 Comments

It’s only one month until Thanksgiving and 2 months until Christmas!

That’s a little scary for me to consider as I still really don’t know what I am doing for either holiday yet. So when things are a little up in the air, it’s good to have some easy recipes that you can throw together no matter how your plans might change.

My sister made this jello salad for Thanksgiving a few years ago. Due to it’s beautiful deep burgundy color, it is perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and it only takes 3 ingredients!

This Raspberry Cranberry Jello Salad is perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas and only has 3 ingredients!

This jello could be put in a beautiful glass bowl or in a jello mold. My sister put it in a circular mold. You can see how beautiful it turned out.

Even though she had sprayed the mold with a cooking spray, we still had a hard time having it slide out of the mold. To get it to finally come out, we slid a knife around the upper edge to loosen it from the mold and then let it sit in warm water for probably about 30 seconds.  I was nervous that it was too long in the water, but when we turned it upside down, it slid out perfectly.

Make sure that you put it right on the plate where you want it before you tip it upside down as you will not be able to move it after it is on the plate. You might be able to see that the jello was slightly off center on our serving plate, but we put the serving spoon next to it and said we did it that way on purpose!

This Raspberry Cranberry Jello Salad is perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas and only has 3 ingredients!

My sister who made this said that she let it set a little bit before pouring it into the mold that she used. It makes almost 5 cups.

Print
Raspberry Cranberry Jello Salad
Servings: 8
Ingredients
  • 3 packages raspberry jello (3 ounces each package)
  • 1 can whole cranberry sauce
  • 1 can crushed pineapple (9 ounces)
Instructions

  1. Mix jello with 2 cups hot water. Stir to dissolve. 

  2. Mix in cranberry sauce, breaking it up.

  3. Mix in pineapple, including juice.

  4. Refrigerate to set.

What’s your favorite festive recipe for the holidays?

PLEASE LINK UP TO THREE FOOD POSTS TO THE TASTY TUESDAYS’ LINKY PARTY!

Tasty Tuesday's hosts

  • PLEASE follow the hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They will visit your post and pin it.  Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

**Tammy from Creative K Kids (Blog)**
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**Audrey from That Recipe (Blog)**
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**Lisa from Blogghetti (Blog)**
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  • Please link up to three food-related posts that have never been linked up here before.  Posts containing alcohol also will not be pinned.
  • Place this button or a link to this post somewhere on your site–either on the actual post or on your sidebar or on your party page.

Creative K Kids

  • As a thank-you for linking up, we will pin your recipe to the Tasty Tuesdays at Creative K Kids Pinterest board.  Please follow the board to see all the great food recipes!
  • Creative K Kids is not responsible for stolen images or the mis-use by others who have found your image through CreativeKKids.com.
  • By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts  use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post.   Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.
  • If you would like to receive an email reminding you to link up to this party, please click HERE and add your email address to the list! I will only send you an email about linking up to this party.


Tasty Tuesdays: Peanut Butter, Butterscotch, and White Chip Shoestring Haystacks

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Go HERE for more disclaimers.

By 2 Comments

In our family, we have several Christmas desserts that we make. I make about ten different cookies, bars, and candies every Christmas.

I make desserts the whole month of December, freeze them, and then make plates of goodies up to share with others. Here are some of our favorites that I have shared in the past:

Not only do I make these desserts, but my mom and sisters make a few of their favorites as well. I have shared one of my mom’s favorite cookies in the past. She makes these Santa’s Surprises every year.

One candy/cookie that my sister always makes is Haystacks.

My kids love them, so I had to make them one year when I was not able to be with my family for Christmas. They are super easy to make — and very sweet too! You only need 5 ingredients, and no baking is required.

Many recipes call for 12 oz. of semisweet chocolate chips, but my sister uses white baking chips instead, so the taste and color is different than using semisweet chocolate chips. If you don’t care for the white chips, then swap them out for the semisweet chocolate chips.

Here is the recipe for Peanut Butter, Butterscotch, and White Chip Shoestring Haystacks.

5 ingredient recipe for Haystacks -- a no-bake dessert!

Print
Peanut Butter, Butterscotch, and White Chip Shoestring Haystacks
Ingredients
  • 2 cups peanut butter
  • 1 bag white chocolate chips 11 oz.
  • 1 bag butterscotch chips 11 oz.
  • 1 tsp canola oil
  • 3 cups shoestring potatoes
Instructions

  1. In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine peanut butter, white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips; stir until melted. Stir in oil. You could also do this in a microwave. Melt at 50% power, for only 30 - 60 seconds at a time, stirring often.

    Remove from heat and stir in potatoes, mixing well. (These are potato stix -- like potato chips that are thin sticks. Normally you find them in a can.)

    Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

PLEASE LINK UP TO THREE FOOD POSTS TO THE TASTY TUESDAYS’ LINKY PARTY!

Tasty Tuesday's hosts

  • PLEASE follow the hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They will visit your post and pin it.  Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

**Tammy from Creative K Kids (Blog)**
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**Audrey from That Recipe (Blog)**
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**Lisa from Blogghetti (Blog)**
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  • Please link up to three food-related posts that have never been linked up here before.  Posts containing alcohol also will not be pinned.
  • Place this button or a link to this post somewhere on your site–either on the actual post or on your sidebar or on your party page.

Creative K Kids

  • As a thank-you for linking up, we will pin your recipe to the Tasty Tuesdays at Creative K Kids Pinterest board.  Please follow the board to see all the great food recipes!
  • Creative K Kids is not responsible for stolen images or the mis-use by others who have found your image through CreativeKKids.com.
  • By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts  use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post.   Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.
  • If you would like to receive an email reminding you to link up to this party, please click HERE and add your email address to the list! I will only send you an email about linking up to this party.


Tasty Tuesdays: September’s Favorite Recipes

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Go HERE for more disclaimers.

By 2 Comments

On the first week of every month, I share all the favorite recipes that were linked up to the previous month of parties. Thanks for linking up to this party! Be prepared to get hungry looking at all these delicious looking pictures!


Favorite Recipes from September 4th’s party:

Favorite Recipes from September 11th’s party:

Favorite Recipes from September 18th’s party:

Favorite Recipes from September 25th’s party:

Link up to this month’s parties to possibly be featured next month!

PLEASE LINK UP TO THREE FOOD POSTS TO THE TASTY TUESDAYS’ LINKY PARTY!

Tasty Tuesday's hosts

  • PLEASE follow the hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They will visit your post and pin it.  Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

**Tammy from Creative K Kids (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram

**Audrey from That Recipe (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram 

**Lisa from Blogghetti (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

  • Please link up to three food-related posts that have never been linked up here before.  Posts containing alcohol also will not be pinned.
  • Place this button or a link to this post somewhere on your site–either on the actual post or on your sidebar or on your party page.

Creative K Kids

  • As a thank-you for linking up, we will pin your recipe to the Tasty Tuesdays at Creative K Kids Pinterest board.  Please follow the board to see all the great food recipes!
  • Creative K Kids is not responsible for stolen images or the mis-use by others who have found your image through CreativeKKids.com.
  • By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts  use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post.   Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.
  • If you would like to receive an email reminding you to link up to this party, please click HERE and add your email address to the list! I will only send you an email about linking up to this party.


Tasty Tuesdays: Homemade Wedge-Cut Baked French Fries

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Go HERE for more disclaimers.

By 2 Comments

I really debate sharing this recipe with you because it is so easy. 

Homemade wedge-cut baked french fries -- so easy to make!!

I don’t know if you ever feel in a food rut. Sometimes I get bored of making the same recipes over and over. Last night, I needed a quick dinner that I could make between dropping my daughter off at work at 4:00 and my son’s basketball practice at 6:30. We love our quick meals of Green Rice, Rice, Tuna Fish, and Egg Dish, and Mostaccioli Alfredo with pre-cooked chicken that I have to just take out of the freezer. It seemed like I had just made all of those dishes though.

My kids said, “Make some hamburgers and french fries!” We hadn’t done that in a long time, so as soon as I got home from taking my daughter to work, I prepared the french fries as they take a while to bake in the oven.

Homemade wedge-cut baked french fries -- so easy to make!!

Here’s how I make our homemade french fries:

  • I preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  • I line a couple of cookie sheets (that have a lip) with aluminum foil.
  • I spray the aluminum foil with cooking spray.
  • I scrub the potatoes and cut out any bad spots.
  • I then cut the potatoes down the middle and then into long wedges. I usually get about 8 wedges per potato, more if the potato is very large. They aren’t super skinny fries, but they are not very fat either. I try to make them all similar in size so that they will cook equally.
  • I pour about 3 Tablespoons canola oil over the fries. (I use a 17″ x 11″ cookie sheet and have about 5 small to medium sized potatoes cut up on the sheet. Use less oil if you are using less potatoes.)
  • I take a pastry brush and brush the oil over all the potato wedges.
  • I sprinkle the potatoes with sea salt.
  • Finally, I put the potatoes in the oven. I take them out after about 20 minutes and turn them over. After a total cooking time of 30 minutes, I start checking the fries until they look done. They could take up to 45 minutes to cook. I take them out when they are golden brown and have the desired crispiness on the outside yet tender on the inside.

Homemade wedge-cut baked french fries -- so easy to make!!

PLEASE LINK UP TO THREE FOOD POSTS TO THE TASTY TUESDAYS’ LINKY PARTY!

Tasty Tuesday's hosts

  • PLEASE follow the hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They will visit your post and pin it.  Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

**Tammy from Creative K Kids (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram

**Audrey from That Recipe (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram 

**Lisa from Blogghetti (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

  • Please link up to three food-related posts that have never been linked up here before.  Posts containing alcohol also will not be pinned.
  • Place this button or a link to this post somewhere on your site–either on the actual post or on your sidebar or on your party page.

Creative K Kids

  • As a thank-you for linking up, we will pin your recipe to the Tasty Tuesdays at Creative K Kids Pinterest board.  Please follow the board to see all the great food recipes!
  • Creative K Kids is not responsible for stolen images or the mis-use by others who have found your image through CreativeKKids.com.
  • By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts  use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post.   Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.
  • If you would like to receive an email reminding you to link up to this party, please click HERE and add your email address to the list! I will only send you an email about linking up to this party.


Tasty Tuesdays: How to Use the FooGallery Plugin

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Go HERE for more disclaimers.

By 3 Comments

In last week’s Tasty Tuesday’s post, I shared how I was switching my recipe landing pages to using the FooGallery Plugin.

I finished the recipe landing page this week. You can see how it looks HERE. It was really easy to use.

How I set up FooGallery Settings.

Here are the settings I used:

  • After you activate the FooGallery Plugin, click on “FooGallery” in the WordPress Toolbar.
  • At the top of the screen, click on “Add Gallery.”
  • Title your gallery so that you know what group of pictures that gallery will represent.
  • Go to the bottom and set all your gallery settings. You will change these to reflect your preferences. Here is what I changed from their default settings:
    • Under General Settings:
      • I changed the thumbnail size to 200 instead of 150 as I wanted the pictures to be bigger, but for three pictures to still fit in a row.
      • I put it to link to a custom URL as later I put in the URL for each recipe so that people can click on the picture to go to the recipe.
      • I put for the alignment to be left instead of center.
        How I set up FooGallery Settings.
    • Under Hover Effects, I clicked “Always Visible” for Caption Visibility.
    • Under Captions:
      • I set Title for “Attachment Description”.
      • I set Description for “None”.
        How I set up FooGallery Settings.
    • On the right hand side, I set Gallery Sorting for “Title – alphabetically.”
      How I set up FooGallery Settings.
  • After I had the settings, the way I wanted, I went back up to the top and clicked “Add Media.”
  • It takes you to all your media, and I searched for the picture I wanted. I have my pictures titled by recipe titles, so it was relatively easy to find the right picture.
  • Once I clicked on a picture, then I added the recipe title to the Description area. I had never used this area before, so it can now display my recipe title in this plugin the way I want it. If you had titled your recipes in the past the right title, you could have used that for captions instead of description.  I added the URL to the custom URL spot. I also changed the crop position if I did not want it to crop the picture in the middle. Sometimes, the picture of the food was on the bottom part of the picture as I had a text overlay in the top part of the picture.
    How I set up FooGallery Settings.
  • How I set up FooGallery Settings.When all the pictures are added to the gallery, the gallery can be published. The shortcode can be then copied and pasted into any page or post you want that gallery to appear.

The best thing about this plugin is that I can now easily update my recipe landing pages. Every time I add a new recipe, I can go edit the appropriate gallery, update the gallery, and then the recipe will show up on the landing page. Easy-peasy!

Of course, this could be used for other uses besides recipe landing pages. How do you make your recipe landing pages?

PLEASE LINK UP TO THREE FOOD POSTS TO THE TASTY TUESDAYS’ LINKY PARTY!

Tasty Tuesday's hosts

  • PLEASE follow the hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They will visit your post and pin it.  Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

**Tammy from Creative K Kids (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram

**Audrey from That Recipe (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram 

**Lisa from Blogghetti (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

  • Please link up to three food-related posts that have never been linked up here before.  Posts containing alcohol also will not be pinned.
  • Place this button or a link to this post somewhere on your site–either on the actual post or on your sidebar or on your party page.

Creative K Kids

  • As a thank-you for linking up, we will pin your recipe to the Tasty Tuesdays at Creative K Kids Pinterest board.  Please follow the board to see all the great food recipes!
  • Creative K Kids is not responsible for stolen images or the mis-use by others who have found your image through CreativeKKids.com.
  • By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts  use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post.   Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.
  • If you would like to receive an email reminding you to link up to this party, please click HERE and add your email address to the list! I will only send you an email about linking up to this party.


Tasty Tuesdays: FooGallery Plugin

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Go HERE for more disclaimers.

By 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I shared that I was taking some time off from posting new recipes to do maintenance on Creative K Kids.

Two weeks ago, I switched all my recipes to a new plugin called WP Recipe Maker. It was super easy to use, so it was a painless switch.

I used to have more time to blog, and now I cannot keep up with what needs to be done. One of the biggest things that I seem to not be able to keep up with is updating the pages that I put on my menu bar for my recipes. So when I was researching the WP Recipe Maker plugin that MaAnna from BlogAid shared on one of her Tips Tuesday posts, I decided to search her blog about a picture gallery I could use for my menu pages. She mentioned that FooGallery was a good plugin to use; and since I trust her study, I decided to switch to using the plugin for my menu pages instead of making little pictures, optimizing them, and then trying to make them all line up properly. It was a suck of my time.

I spent a few hours doing about half of my recipes, and then decided I needed to take a break and go to bed, so I will update you on my progress next week. I am doing the free version of the plugin, and it is sufficient for what I want done.

My review of the pros and cons of using the FooGallery plugin.

Here are some of the positives to using this plugin that I am loving:

  • The biggest time-saver will be that it will be easy to add new recipes to the appropriate gallery, and so I can keep my menu pages current. I would sometimes go months before I would update my menu pages.
  • I have my main menu (Favorite Recipes), and then I have pages for each category. Once I put the FooGallery html code on the main page as well as the sub pages, both pages will be updated at once when I update the gallery.
  • I don’t have to mess with the pictures lining up anymore. You can go HERE, and see how the FooGallery is being utilized until Main Recipes is reached. Then the format gets wonky.
  • It was easy to organize my photos even more than I had in the past. Since my desserts category had the most recipes (like all good recipe bloggers should have), I divided the desserts into different categories of cookies, bars and brownies, pies, cakes, candy, and ice cream and popsicles recipes.
  • I don’t have to make the little images for my menu pages, which will save me time!
  • I can delete all the images I have already done to save some resource room. They were small pictures that had been compressed, but hopefully deleting them will still help.
  • I can customize how I want to display the pictures even with the free version of the plugin. Next week, I will share what features I used of the free FooGallery plugin!

So what are the negatives of using the FooGallery Plugin?

  • If I wanted an exact photo that had no words or a certain part of a picture for a recipe to be used, I might have to spend time to upload a picture that would work. I did not take the time to do that now, and I will take using this plugin into consideration when I post new recipes and edit pictures for those posts.
  • If I ever update old pictures for old posts and want to delete those old pictures, I will have to remember to add a new picture to the gallery for the menu.
  • I am hoping that they will continue to update the plugin and that it will play nice with Gutenberg — if I ever switch to that in the future — as I don’t want to have to do this again for a long time. Using this plugin could be a major negative if I have to switch in the future. No plugin will be guaranteed to be great forever or to always play nicely with what happens in the future with our themes.

For me, the positives outweighed the negatives, and sometimes a person just has to take a chance and do what seems to be best. What do you use for your recipe pages?

PLEASE LINK UP TO THREE FOOD POSTS TO THE TASTY TUESDAYS’ LINKY PARTY!

Tasty Tuesday's hosts

  • PLEASE follow the hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They will visit your post and pin it.  Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

**Tammy from Creative K Kids (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram

**Audrey from That Recipe (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram 

**Lisa from Blogghetti (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

  • Please link up to three food-related posts that have never been linked up here before.  Posts containing alcohol also will not be pinned.
  • Place this button or a link to this post somewhere on your site–either on the actual post or on your sidebar or on your party page.

Creative K Kids

  • As a thank-you for linking up, we will pin your recipe to the Tasty Tuesdays at Creative K Kids Pinterest board.  Please follow the board to see all the great food recipes!
  • Creative K Kids is not responsible for stolen images or the mis-use by others who have found your image through CreativeKKids.com.
  • By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts  use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post.   Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.
  • If you would like to receive an email reminding you to link up to this party, please click HERE and add your email address to the list! I will only send you an email about linking up to this party.


Tasty Tuesdays: Favorite Recipes in August

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Go HERE for more disclaimers.

By 2 Comments

Once again, it is a new month! I hope you had a great Labor’s Day yesterday.

We went to a local park that has walking trails and saw many baby alligators in the water below the wooden walkways. (This is Florida.) Then we came home before it rained (this is Florida), and made two versions of cinnamon rolls. The kids played in the big puddles after the rain catching tadpoles (and releasing them again — this is Florida!) What a good day! I also read a book for an hour instead of doing anything profitable!

Labor Day activities included homemade cinnamon rolls.

Today, I get to share all the recipes that had the most views from August’s parties. You can click any of the pictures below to go see the actual recipe.


Three recipes had the most views from August 7th’s party:

All three of these recipes had the most views from August 14th’s party:

These two popcorn recipes had the most views from August 21st’s party:

Roast Chicken A Delish Skillet Dinner from Muntany Cooking received the most views from August 28th’s party.

PLEASE LINK UP TO THREE FOOD POSTS TO THE TASTY TUESDAYS’ LINKY PARTY!

Tasty Tuesday's hosts

  • PLEASE follow the hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They will visit your post and pin it.  Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

**Tammy from Creative K Kids (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram

**Audrey from That Recipe (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram 

**Lisa from Blogghetti (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

  • Please link up to three food-related posts that have never been linked up here before.  Posts containing alcohol also will not be pinned.
  • Place this button or a link to this post somewhere on your site–either on the actual post or on your sidebar or on your party page.

Creative K Kids

  • As a thank-you for linking up, we will pin your recipe to the Tasty Tuesdays at Creative K Kids Pinterest board.  Please follow the board to see all the great food recipes!
  • Creative K Kids is not responsible for stolen images or the mis-use by others who have found your image through CreativeKKids.com.
  • By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts  use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post.   Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.
  • If you would like to receive an email reminding you to link up to this party, please click HERE and add your email address to the list! I will only send you an email about linking up to this party.


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Tasty Tuesdays: Maintenance of a Food Blog

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Go HERE for more disclaimers.

By 8 Comments

Most of you that link up here publish recipes frequently on your blogs.

Does this describe you?

  • You are a foodie blogger.
  • You may not be “foodie bloggers” as you publish other content besides recipes, but recipes are one of the types of posts that you publish.

I am not a “foodie blogger,” but I publish a recipe weekly on Creative K Kids. After four years of publishing recipes, maintenance must be done! One frustrating fact about blogging is that things in the blogging world are constantly changing! With all the changes in SEO and Gutenberg, it’s hard to keep up. In fact, I don’t keep up. I have five kids, work part-time, am a pastor’s wife . . .  I wear many hats. I don’t have the time nor the brains to try to keep up with everything that is happening in the blogging world. So, I let others keep up for me.

I have followed MaAnna from BlogAid for a few years now. I have hired her at least twice to do a security inspection/site audit and a https conversion for Creative K Kids. I get her newsletters and follow her on Facebook and YouTube. Some months, I am better at reading her posts than others, but I try to at least scan her Tips Tuesday and see if there’s information I need to take care of on Creative K Kids.

This week, I used two of her posts to work on maintenance of Creative K Kids — and both items had to do with my recipes. I would find it hard to explain it all, so I will link to her posts which you can read.

  • The first thing I did was change my recipe plug-in.

I used to have more time for blogging. It’s hard to believe that I had more time for blogging when I babysat and had babies of my own — but I did. I was home all day and had my kids’ nap time and even some time during the morning to work on my blogging posts and to share to groups and to participate in reciprocating threads for all the social media sites. I used to share my recipes to Yummly groups and we would all go like each other’s recipes on Yummly. So I used a Yummly recipe plug-in to make it easy for everyone to “Yum” my recipes. But that plugin hasn’t been updated for over 2 years and doesn’t have the schema mark-up that Google is looking for. And I want Google to like my posts in its search engine!

MaAnna recommended one free plugin called WP RECIPE MAKER. Marilyn Lesniak of Marilyn’s Treats tested many recipe plug-ins for MaAnna, and this is one of the two that they liked the best and the only one that has a free version that worked fine for me.  I found Marilyn’s post really helpful for how to get the plugin and how to use it. There was also a video on YouTube that was available in my dashboard when I activated the plug-in. MaAnna’s post explained why I needed to switch to a better plug-in.

Why I switched to the WP Recipe Maker Plugin -- and why you should too!

What I LOVED about this plugin is that it was able to import all my recipes from Yummly. I did not have to copy and paste all my recipes!! I thought I was going to have to spend hours moving all my recipes to the new plugin, but it was done in a matter of minutes. Now be smarter than me and make a backup of your site before you install WP Recipe Maker — just in case something goes wrong. I did not make a back-up until afterwards; and fortunately, everything worked fine. I imported all my recipes, and deleted the Yummly plugin. It also noticed that I had used to use two other plugins for recipes (About 5-10 recipes were showing up for these old plugins.) I imported the recipes over to WP Recipe Maker even though I no longer use those plugins. So somewhere in my files some of those plugins didn’t get completely deleted.

The recipe styling is not the most gorgeous I have ever seen; but the plugin was easy to use, people can still print my recipes, and everything is functional. I need to go and tweak each recipe for SEO purposes, but this plugin will be compatible with Gutenberg when Gutenberg rolls out, so I don’t have to worry about this plugin needing to be changed when Gutenberg happens.

Here’s how easy it is to import your recipes from a different plugin to WP Recipe Maker:

  • Make a full backup of your site.
  • After you add and activate the WP Recipe Maker plugin, go find it on your WordPress menu. It has it’s own tab. Hover over it, and you will see “Import Recipes” pop up. Just follow the directions that come up after you click on Import Recipes. It is super easy. See how it found all my recipes on my Yummly plugin?
    WP Recipe Maker will import your recipes from another plugin!
  • Check that the recipes imported correctly. You can also change a few of the styling options under the Settings tab.
  • Then you can check on the issues that WP Recipe Maker may have found. For example, some of my recipes have no parent page. I will have to look into that.
    The results of using WP Recipe Maker plugin
    None of my recipes have a green light for SEO. I don’t know if I am going to do everything that could be done such as adding calories, but I will dig around and see what I need to correct to make the recipes do better in the search engines as well as for those who are looking at my recipes.

There was one more project I started working on in relation to my food posts, but I am out of time to write about it. I am going to continue working on the maintenance of my recipes the next couple of weeks and share with you on September 11 what this project is and what plugin I started using.

Come back next week to see which recipes received the most views for the month of August!

PLEASE LINK UP TO THREE FOOD POSTS TO THE TASTY TUESDAYS’ LINKY PARTY!

Tasty Tuesday's hosts

  • PLEASE follow the hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They will visit your post and pin it.  Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

**Tammy from Creative K Kids (Blog)**
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  • Please link up to three food-related posts that have never been linked up here before.  Posts containing alcohol also will not be pinned.
  • Place this button or a link to this post somewhere on your site–either on the actual post or on your sidebar or on your party page.

Creative K Kids

  • As a thank-you for linking up, we will pin your recipe to the Tasty Tuesdays at Creative K Kids Pinterest board.  Please follow the board to see all the great food recipes!
  • Creative K Kids is not responsible for stolen images or the mis-use by others who have found your image through CreativeKKids.com.
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Tasty Tuesdays: Stuffed Shells Florentine

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By 2 Comments

There is a lady in the church that I grew up in that would have huge dinner parties. One of the recipes that she would make were these stuffed shells — but not with the meat.

My mom got the recipe and added the ground beef to the recipe as we always had to double or triple the recipe. I absolutely love this recipe. I try not to make it too often as I eat way too many of the shells.

I always make the recipe with cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese. Our family loves cottage cheese, so they love it in the shells. Since I don’t buy ricotta cheese that much, they don’t love the taste of the ricotta cheese; however if your family loves ricotta cheese, you’ll probably want to use ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese.

I love how the recipe can be made up the night before and thrown in the oven the next day. For some big parties, I need recipes like that!

Grab the recipe for Stuffed Florentine Shells!

Recipe for Stuffed Florentine Shells. Perfect for a couple of people and adaptable for a large party of people!

Print
Stuffed Shells Florentine
Ingredients
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese or cottage cheese which is what I use
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg slightly beaten
  • 1 - 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach cooked, well drained
  • ¼ teaspoon oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 12 jumbo shells macaroni cooked.
Instructions
  1. Combine all of the above ingredients except the shells.
  2. Fill the cooked shells with the mixture.
  3. Place shells in a 12 x 8 baking dish (greased) that has a layer of spaghetti sauce spread on the bottom. Place shells filled side up. Drizzle more spaghetti over shells. Cover with foil. Bake at 350* for 35 minutes or until hot.
For 24 shells, add 1 pound cooked, drained ground beef to mixture before filling the shells and place in a 13 x 9 baking dish.
For 36 shells, double the spinach, add 1 pound of ground beef, and triple the rest of the ingredients.

Stuffed Shells Florentine

Recipe for Stuffed Florentine Shells. Perfect for a couple of people and adaptable for a large party of people!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese which is what I use)
  • 1 cup shredded m0zzarella cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg, slightly beaten
  • 1 – 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, cooked, well drained
  • ¼ teaspoon oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 12 jumbo shells (macaroni) cooked

Directions:

  • Combine all of the above ingredients except the shells.
  • Fill the cooked shells with the mixture.
  • Place shells in a 12 x 8 baking dish (greased) that has a layer of spaghetti sauce spread on the bottom. Place shells filled side up.
  • Drizzle more spaghetti over shells. Cover with foil. Bake at 350* for 35 minutes or until hot.
  • For 24 shells, add 1 pound cooked, drained ground beef to mixture before filling the shells and place in a 13 x 9 baking dish.
  • For 36 shells, double the spinach, add 1 pound of ground beef, and triple the rest of the ingredients.

PLEASE LINK UP TO THREE FOOD POSTS TO THE TASTY TUESDAYS’ LINKY PARTY!

Tasty Tuesday's hosts

  • PLEASE follow the hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They will visit your post and pin it.  Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

**Tammy from Creative K Kids (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram

**Audrey from That Recipe (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Google+/Twitter/Instagram 

**Lisa from Blogghetti (Blog)**
Pinterest/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

  • Please link up to three food-related posts that have never been linked up here before.  Posts containing alcohol also will not be pinned.
  • Place this button or a link to this post somewhere on your site–either on the actual post or on your sidebar or on your party page.

Creative K Kids

  • As a thank-you for linking up, we will pin your recipe to the Tasty Tuesdays at Creative K Kids Pinterest board.  Please follow the board to see all the great food recipes!
  • Creative K Kids is not responsible for stolen images or the mis-use by others who have found your image through CreativeKKids.com.
  • By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts  use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post.   Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.
  • If you would like to receive an email reminding you to link up to this party, please click HERE and add your email address to the list! I will only send you an email about linking up to this party.


Websites where I share my giveaways:

Blog Giveaway Directory

Giveaway Monkey

DISCLAIMER
Creative K Kids

Amazon Affiliate:

Tammy Doiel (Creative K Kids) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
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