Well hiii! I so appreciate those of you who make the time to read my “year in review” posts. It’s a time for us to reflect and catch up on behind the scenes stuff and for me to gush about how much I appreciate you. Let’s go!

In summary, it has been a great year. Where 2022 and 2023 were kind of a roller-coaster for traffic, 2024 has been a solid year of growth and big wins 🙌. I couldn’t be happier. And alongside that, I feel like things are just clicking into place more. I have a better sense of what I do well and what you all want from me, I have an endless list of ideas for how I can keep delivering on that, and I can see a more distinct personality emerging for HVK which I really like.

So bring on 2025!

Most Popular Recipes of 2024

There were some fast favorites this year!

Creamy “Marry Me” Butter Bean Pasta. Oh, this was just TOO good. My favorite beans. My favorite sauce. You were all loving it too, because it’s now in my Top 5 recipes every day.

Hot Honey Halloumi Flatbreads. Always late to the party when it comes to trends, but I did enjoy making some hot honey recipes this year and lots of you enjoyed making these flatbreads!

Slow Cooker Mushroom Risotto. I’m really proud of this one! And it took a LOT of work to get it right so I am delighted to see how well received it has been.

My Own Favorites

The ones where I stare at my analytics wondering why, WHY these haven’t been discovered yet? Be pioneers – go forth and try them, then shout about your amazing discovery!

Roasted Sweet Potato Coconut Dal. I know there are other sweet potato dals in the world, but none like this. The roasted onions just seal the deal here.

Vegetarian Tostadas with Crispy Smashed Chickpeas. How is my smashed chickpea taco meat not viral yet??!!? You should definitely give it a try. (The chickpeas can also be found in this Vegetarian Taco Salad.)

This Roasted Asparagus and Cherry Tomato Pasta was just pure fun for me. Roasting the asparagus in my fave spices, making a creamy sauce with wine, this is one of those recipes I consider extra uniquely mine.

Thank you!

My business model only works if people like you show up and allow me to earn enough of an income through ad revenue to keep this as my full time job. So thank you for being here. It is honestly a privilege.

No one knows what the future holds for sites like mine. There are huge changes going on with Google which might impact how much traffic they continue sending out to the open web. There are new laws restricting how online ads can be targeted which may be making the web less attractive to advertisers. I am well aware that lots of people prefer social and video content to static web content when they’re looking for food inspo these days. And of course the internet is being flooded with AI content. (I have seen my own work stolen and re-worded by AI tools, with fake photos of my own recipes going viral on Facebook. WTF.)

So we keep on keeping on, and your support means more to me than ever. Some things you can do to help:

  • Subscribe to my email list. You’ll never miss a recipe that way, the social media algorithms won’t fade you out, and you’ll get my introductory email series all about making one pot dinners.
  • Rate and review any recipes you make! This is huge for me. First of all, people are more likely to click on recipes with real reviews so it genuinely helps my traffic levels. But second of all, it’s a lonely job and I love to hear from real people. Positive reviews make my day and constructive feedback helps me improve!
  • Pinterest users, pleeease pin any recipes you’re interested in and review any recipes you make! This helps so much with my visibility in their algorithms.

Special thanks also to my mom! The Happy Veggie Editor who takes care of the rogue commas and apostrophes, tells me when my ramblings make no sense and when it turns out I’ve been misspelling turmeric my entire life 😱. I’ve given her the day off with this post though, so if you’re seeing lots of typos and sentences that make no sense – now you know why.

Our 2024 Christmas Menu

This is the plan:

See you in 2025!

I sometimes finish these year end reviews with a list of resolutions. Things I want to do more of or improve on. But lately, I’ve seen that stressing out because I don’t have enough recipes in certain categories / all the latest recipes on my homepage are too “samey” / whatever I can come up with to criticize next … is just a waste of energy. I didn’t overthink things so much this year and I had my best year yet.

So if I have a goal for next year it’s just to follow my instincts, lean in to what is working and be more me!

I hope you all have a lovely holiday break full of rest and tasty food. I’ll be back in January and I look forward to seeing you here,

Christine