Well hi there lovely readers! Today I wanted to write a little post to say Happy Holidays to you all, to discuss how 2018 has gone here at Happy Veggie Kitchen, share some exciting news, and a little about what is in store next year!

Thank you so much for being here!

First of all, I need to thank each and every one of you who have found your way to this blog and decided to stick around. You have no idea what this means to me. It is not just a hobby anymore, it is a business that I am growing for my family, and an opportunity I would never have without your support.

Top Recipes of 2018

I thought it would be fun to recap on what went over well this year, and remind you of some recipes that readers are particularly enjoying.

The top 3 new additions to Happy Veggie Kitchen (judging this by the traffic they receive) are…

All easy dinners! It’s what we are about.

… And for Happy Veggie Tots

This year I launched my baby & toddler recipe section, Happy Veggie Tots. A lot of 2018’s traffic growth has come from this section. Turns out, there are a lot of parents out there wanting new and interesting baby food and toddler meal ideas! Yay!

The top recipes here (also judging by traffic levels) are

And my personal favorites…

Sometimes the recipes I love most are not the ones that resonate most with the world, and that is totally OK! But if you’re interested, these were my own favorites this year, and I wanted to give them another moment to shine.

2018 Goals : How did we do?

At the start of the year, I shared with you that since I was not going back to work after my maternity leave, I would be getting back into a regular posting groove and looking at ways to turn this website into a secondary income source for our family.

Well… I am so happy with how things are going!

Traffic to Happy Veggie Kitchen has more than tripled and I got a contract with a premium advertising partner. I am now able to afford to send Odette to a nursery school a couple days a week while I work, which has been incredibly beneficial to both of us.

I know that you don’t love to see ads online (no one does), but I am grateful that I have never received a complaint. Running advertising is how I can justify spending my time on this instead of finding a “real” job! And I am happy to have such understanding readers.

Also, in the last couple months I came really close to the monthly income goal I wanted to reach this year. It is nothing more ambitious than a reasonable part time income, for the part time hours I put in. But that is not easy to create out of nothing, so I am feeling rather proud. And grateful too, because not everyone can do what I did (leaving my job) to try to make things happen.

A little bit of BIG news…

Well 2019 is going to be another big year here at Veggie HQ… in the spring, we will be welcoming a new baby!

So that’s why, despite all the happy news I just shared, things have been a little slack here the last few months. Morning sickness + my laptop dying = ever so slightly disruptive to one’s food blog!

Things that made me feel sick include: all foods (with the sole exception of peaches, which were of course out of season), scrolling on my computer (so it’s just as well it crashed and died), the smell of my own house and, well, consciousness in general… So that’s been fun.

Luckily, I had a bunch of posts pre written and photographed so that what you’ve been seeing lately. Behind the scenes, I have actually been using my “work time” (when Odette is at her nursery) to binge watch Scandal, eat peaches and feel sorry for myself. I know how incredibly lucky I am really, but wow, that was a hard few months.

So what’s in store for 2019…

The funny thing about pregnancy is that even when I can start eating and cooking again, my tastes change quite a lot. My 2019 recipes may be refreshing to those of you who are bored of all the halloumi and smoked paprika around here! I am currently obsessed with broccoli and peas. You will soon notice.

More Veggie Tots recipes! I have so many more ideas here, but I churn them out more slowly because they tend to require more testing than my dinner recipes.

Maternity leave… I am researching my options as a self employed mama but I will definitely be taking some kind of maternity leave. You may not really notice though, because I can pre-write and schedule posts in advance. Magic!

Now on with the holidays…

This year, the three (and a half) of us are spending our Christmas away in the countryside. I may not have my computer back from the shop until after Christmas (argh) but I will get back to work in January and normal service (weekly recipe posts) should resume pretty soon in the new year.

I hope you all have a wonderful, restful holiday season!

Thanks again for being here.

Christine