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December 28, 2016

Most Popular Posts of 2016

Check out the Most Popular Posts of 2016 on Shutterbean.com

This week is all about reflection and…… trying still fit into my pants. 2016 was pretty full. Elastic waistbands and all. There were ups and downs. Highs and lows. Ebbs and flows.

I’m ready for 2017, what about you?

I poked around my google analytics and figured out what the top 25 posts on Shutterbean were this year. Also, YOU GUYS!! In March I will be working on this blog for 10 years! We have to do something special, right?  So, here we have it.

Here are the Most Popular Posts of 2016 on Shutterbean:

Feeling bored with your Whole30 routine? Check out these Whole 30 Meal Ideas from Shutterbean.com!

Whole 30 Meal Ideas

I did the Whole 30 from the end of September to October. It was challenging but I made it through. This post has been circulating around the internet a lot since!  I’m already figuring out what month in 2017 I’ll do my next one. Yes…I totally could use another round. I need another reset.

Someone asked if I could write about the AFTER period.

All I have to say is that I have been eating too much bread.

My body doesn’t like bread even though my mind wants it.

I am trying to work that out. It’s taking me longer to break that habit than I thought.

Thinking of doing the Whole 30? Let these snacks keep you motivated. Check out Whole 30 Snack Ideas on Shutterbean.com!

Whole 30 Snack Ideas

Another popular post. Although, “snacking” isn’t really allowed on Whole 30. My purpose of this post was to show some ideas of stuff I snacked on as a meal instead of making myself a whole labor intensive meal. We have snack dinners all the time at my house. Life is busy, yo.

Winter Capsule Wardrobe 2016 on Shutterbean.com!

Winter Capsule Wardrobe

Out of all of the capsules I did this year during capsule wardrobe project (by Fall I ended up blending winter & spring) this one was one of my favorites. I found a lot of my basic outfits in this capsule. It really helped me fine tune what my style is.

This week, I am going through my closet to pair down my wardrobe even more. There are too many things taking up room in my closet that I will probably never wear again. This time of year makes me want to purge everything! I love it.

If you've got an afternoon sugar craving, try this Turmeric Latte recipe to satisfy your sugar cravings. It's made with almond milk, coconut oil, turmeric & cinnamon. Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com!

Turmeric Latte

One of my most popular beverage posts this year. This turmeric latte is a great afternoon pick-me-up. Turmeric is good for inflammation— which is something I realized that happens to me (as well as bloating) when I eat too many carbs. Getting older is really fun.

You won't believe how simple this Baked Spaghetti with Meat Sauce recipe is. Check it out on Shutterbean.com!

Baked Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Who doesn’t love a quick easy baked spaghetti recipe?  It’s all about that crispy/gooey mozzarella cheese. You know what’s up.

Spring Capsule Wardrobe 2016 on Shutterbean.com

2016 Spring Capsule

This capsule made me realize that I have to have purple/blues in my wardrobe. I love a pop of green too. It’s a color scheme that makes me happy and people compliment me when I wear those particular colors. So, that’s cool!

I learned that I can’t trust that I will like trending season color story, so it’s best for me to collect the things I like- in the colors I want and make up my own wardrobe. Trendsetter, I’m not. I just want to be comfortable. I don’t want to waste time figuring out what I’m wearing because I know whatever I have in my closet works well together for me.  That’s my style now.

If you're trying to eliminate grains from your diet, try this Grain Free Cinnamon Apple "Oatmeal" made with cashews, apples, vanilla bean & raisins! Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Grain Free Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal

Something I loved to eat for breakfast/snack while on the Whole30.

Spinach Egg Breakfast Sandwich is a healthy way to fill you up in the morning. Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Spinach Egg Breakfast Sandwich

For healthy breakfast on the go…or not on the go! Behold! The spinach egg breakfast sandwich.

Pecan Topped Sweet Potatoes for a traditional Thanksgiving Feast! Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Pecan Topped Sweet Potatoes

After 10 years of holding out on you, I finally shared what I make on every one of our Thanksgivings– this pecan topped sweet potato situation. My Aunt & Uncle used to make it when I was young and I’ve carried on the tradition. I’m working on my Thanksgiving menu here on Shutterbean slooooowly. It took me 7 years to give you my Creamed Spinach. Maybe next year I’ll show you how I make my turkey?

The Best Writing Pens- Tracy from Shutterbean.com shares what's in her pen case!

The Best Writing Pens – and part 2! 

2016 was the year that I showed the internet what a huge pen nerd I am. In the process, I found so many other people like me so THANK YOU. Thank you for being proud of loving pens. You are awesome. In 2017, I am going to try to put something magical together…hopefully with pens. I’ll keep you posted.

Around the Home- Closet Organization- Before & After Photos on Shutterbean.com

Closet Organization

 In 2016, I brought back some of my High Straightenance posts (thanks to my partnership with Seventh Generation!).  I also did my laundry room and linen closet.  I’m happy to say that I’ve kept up with all of these spaces. I have some closet cleaning to do this January, but other than that we’re good to go. Anything you wanna see in 2017? Let me know!

Tex Mex Breakfast Casserole is totally gluten free thanks to the hash brown base. Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Tex-Mex Breakfast Casserole

Anything breakfast-y with HASH BROWNS and the internet loves it.

I love you, the internet.

Meal Prep- Week 1 on Shutterbean.com

Meal Prep in action!

This year was a little weird as far as meal prep goes. I spent most of the year shooting & styling the recipes for One Potato, so my weekly grocery routine was thrown way off. Most of our meals involved leftovers of some of the meals I made or something pieced together with leftover ingredients. On a shoot day, I would be making 3-4 recipes, so I always had ingredients overflowing in my fridge.  My fridge was in flux most of the year, but the process made me think A LOT about what makes a really good simple weeknight dinner. It was such a good learning experience.

What makes this The Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich? The hash browns that sandwich homemade breakfast sausage, egg & cheese. Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com!

The Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich

Hash browns instead of bread. Internet = broken

The easiest/most inexpensive way to tie-dye is with bleach! Check out this Tie Dying with Bleach Tutorial on Shutterbean.com!

Tie Dye with Bleach

This post ignited my love for making art. I felt like a scientist in my bathroom and it was soooooo nice to step away from the kitchen a bit. Some of you tried tie-dying with bleach and sent me pictures of your results. Let’s do more art in 2017, K??

Kitchen Spring Cleaning with Seventh Generation on Shutterbean.com!

Kitchen Spring Cleaning

One of my goals is to teach Home Ec. Did you know that?  This post was a good reminder of all I already know and some of what I’d like to teach. Taking care of your kitchen/appliances is super important!

Turkey White Bean Chili for those long winter nights! Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Turkey White Bean Chili

Oh yes. I am totally putting this one into our rotation this Winter.

Chopped Salad with Spiced Chickpeas made with a lemon tahini dressing. Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com!

Chopped Salad with Spiced Chickpeas

Such a pretty salad. So good for all the vegetarians out there too! The spiced chickpeas are hearty. They make the salad.

See how easy it is to make Chilaquiles at home! Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Easy Chilaquiles

This recipe should be in your back pocket if it isn’t already.

You'll have no leftovers if you make Pigs in Blankets! Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Pigs in Blankets

Because we’re grown-ups who love to eat kid food.

No Knead Cloverleaf Rolls should be in your baking repertoire! Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

No-Knead Cloverleaf Rolls

Game changer recipe. I loved how many of you tagged me in photos on Instagram (@shutterbean #shutterbeanrecipes) of these rolls. These rolls were on the tables of a lot of your holiday dinners and that made me so dang happy.

Habit Forming for 2016 on Shutterbean.com

Habit Forming

Habits! I talked about habits. I created a lot of good habits this year and got rid of quite a few. In 2017, I want to work on mapping out my daily routine in a healthier/more productive way. Let’s figure that out together!

This Grapefruit Yogurt Cake tastes like a citrus crumb doughnut. Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake

2016 was the year that I embraced grapefruit. You like it too. Yay grapefruit.

Toast 12 Ways on Shutterbean.com in partnership with Dave's Killer Bread. Check out more on Shutterbean.com!

Toast 12 Ways

I worked on this post with my favorite bread company- Dave’s Killer Bread. I first had their bread when I was up in Oregon for college and when I was approached to work with them I was like SHUT UP! NO WAY.

Now I am just hoping that I can find a Sin Dawg somewhere in CA soon…..

Try this Egg-In-A-Nest Pesto Pizza made with pita bread for a healthy breakfast. Recipe on Shutterbean.com!

Egg Pesto Pizza

Such a fun/quick recipe for a weeknight meal or a quick breakfast.

Celebrate citrus season with a Citrus Smoothie Bowl! It's packed with Vitamin C. Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Citrus Smoothie Bowls

One of the prettiest smoothie bowls I’ve made! Perfect for winter when it’s citrus season.

Cold Sesame Noodles are incredible versatile. Pair them with your favorite protein. Find the recipe on Shutterbean.com

Cold Sesame Noodles

This is a weeknight staple for a lot of you. YAAAAAAAAAAY!

See how Tracy of Shutterbean transforms her taupe kitchen cabinets to BLACK. Around the House: The Kitchen After photos are on Shutterbean.com!

Kitchen Makeover

Transforming my kitchen was one my favorite highlights this year. It made SUCH a difference. Mostly, I just feel more comfortable working in a space that makes me sooooo happy. We’re currently working on our bedroom now. I’ll share some photos soon.

Hash Brown Omelet! A new take on breakfast. Inside you'll find fried eggs, tomatoes with oregano and bacon. Recipe on Shutterbean.com

Hash Brown Omelet

This one came from the Whole 30 time period. I told you, HASH BROWNS.

I’m starting to think that 2016 was the year of the hash brown, house stuff & Whole 30.

2015 was all about simple weeknight dinners, traveling & kombucha.

2014 was the year of Meal Preplemon chicken.

In 2013, all of my recipes had horizontal images because Pinterest didn’t dominate the internet yet!

What will 2017 bring??

  • Francesca

    Yep, that Baked Spaghetti is a staple in our house. I’m sure a ton of those clicks were me hahaha 🙂

  • Ashley

    Made the sweet potato dish for Thanksgiving this year, and it was the highlight! Thank you, as I was in a rut with my Thanksgiving meal, and needed a change. Your cranberry rosemary spritzer was a hit a few Thankagivings ago, too! I gave up gluten this year for health reasons, so also appreciated the whole 30 ideas. You do amazing work and thank you for all the time, energy, and creativity you pour in to your website.

    • Tracy

      Oh! That definitely warms my heart. I am so glad to see those recipes live on in other people’s rotations. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, Ashley!

  • Joy

    Tracy, THANK YOU for the great thought you put into your website. Your site is one of my absolute favorites to visit. I love the variety that you share–from food to habits to pens and decluttering–you’re a woman after my own heart.

    How interesting to hear that you’d like to be a home ec teacher. Now that you say it, you would be AMAZING at that job.

    You are a very talented lady, in so many ways. Thank you for sharing with us for almost 10 years. Wow! What an achievement!

    • Tracy

      Thanks so much, Joy! I am glad you’ve been around to see what I’ve done. Thank you!

  • Ellen

    Congrats on the 10 year mark! Keep ’em coming!

  • Malia

    Thank you for another year of recipes and commentary! Each week I look forward the yummy food and to “I Love Lists Fridays.” Keep up the great work! Happy New Year!

  • Sarah

    Love this website!! Been following Shutterbean for years, and I get great meal inspiration, recipes and just good life content 🙂

    An idea for the 10th birthday of Shutterbean — fails in the life of a food blogger!! Tell us all the weird and gross food that happened in the process of recipe development or accidents in photography – we’d love it!

    For 2017 – I recently got an Instant Pot and would LOVE Shutterbean recipes for it! There are a ton floating around the internet, but I really love Shutterbean’s food sensabilities (is this a thing?) and would love recipes for my Instant Pot!

    Thank you for sharing with us!

  • Marilyn

    Congrats on 10 years!!!!!

  • Maria

    Tracy, I never comment on any blogs but that white bean chilli recipe is da bomb and a staple in my house (in fact, we just had it for dinner tonight!)
    Love your website and your beautiful pictures! And handwriting (ah, your handwriting rocks 🙂

  • Lisa

    Hi Tracy!

    Love your blog:)

    I think this article is really interesting, and for your followers too!

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/laura-thomas-phd/going-on-a-health-kick-th_b_13938004.html

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