EasyPaleoMeals Is Back on Pinterest

Summer is finally winding down and it seems like I will finally getting back to writing up some new posts on EPM.  It's been an awesome, but hellishly busy summer for our family and frankly, blogging is just low on the priority list when the weather is nice.  Blame it on living in upstate New York.  Our summers our brief and we milk every warm moment we can out of them.

Pinterest

As the title suggests I have created a new Pinterest account.  You may link to in from the sidebar on www.EasyPaleoMeals.org.

Pinterest killed my original account last winter for reasons unknown to myself.  Apparently they do that to people.  No explanation was given, though I tried for months to find out why and get it reinstated.  But whatever, it's their platform and they can run it as they see fit.  From what I have read, I believe that it had something to do with verifying my website and listing it on Pinterest as a business (which I had done just a couple of weeks prior to getting evaporated). So this time I will keep it more low profile, although it appears that they have made a lot of changes to the interface... and hopefully to the algorithm they use to weed out spammers.

So, I had around 2500 individuals following my boards on Pinterest last time around, and EasyPaleoMeals.org still gets a ton of traffic from Pinterest Pins.  Hopefully we get get some of that former glory back.

I appreciate the help of everyone who reads EPM! Thanks!

It's A Boy.... Oh Boy Oh Boy

What's Been Going On At Home

Our new son was born on March 5th.  He is healthy and pretty much happy, but he is damn demanding.  We knew that we were incredibly lucky with our daughter two years ago.  She was and is exceptionally independent and content.  Our son is another story.  I am pretty amazed at how much complaining he does, but that's the way it goes.  Maybe nature lures you into having another kid by making the first one easy.

So we have a demanding newborn and now a 2-year-old who is competing for attention. Fortunately my wife and I are both at home together for another month.  After that, I am on my own.  I am certain that we will find more of a rhythm before she goes back to work.  Right now the pace is insane, and only being able to sleep in 3-5 hour increments for more than a month is definitely pretty brutal right now.  I smell a post about getting adequate sleep and Paleo in the near future...

But man, I really feel tremendously lucky to have two healthy, happy, and perfect kids.  We are really blessed and I truly appreciate both of them and all of the effort my wife has put into ensuring her pregnancy was as healthy as possible and continuing with breast-feeding and all the challenges that go along with that.

EasyPaleoMeals

Right now I am way behind on catching up with emails, writing posts, and several other things I want and need to be doing.  I am back on track to get 4-5 hours of work done a week, starting today.  So this post will address a couple of things, then I am back to work on the site.

Kutsko Kitchen

I got a really nice email from Nate Kutsko of Kutsko Kitchen just before the baby insanity started. I will respond to him today but I wanted to mention his beautiful wooden cutting and serving boards with integrated channels.  I have tweeted about them and pinned them before, but I really feel that they are great kitchen prep and dining tools which fit in perfectly with the Paleo lifestyle.  I plan to review a Kutsko Kitchen product in the near future, so keep an eye out for that.

Theme And Logo

I am still looking for an appropriate theme that is going to give me the look, feel and function that I want for EasyPaleoMeals.  I think I have a couple narrowed down.  If I can't get it to look the way I want it to look I may just leave it as it is now, but I really want something different.  I also have a couple of ideas for a new logo design.  It incorporates the simple green and black block letter design I currently use, but I think it will generally look a little more appealing and give a better initial impression of what I want the site and brand to be all about.

I originally designed the current logo to be very simple and easily recognizable on all facets of social media. I think it works well for that, but it needs a little something extra.  Right now it is low on my priority list, but it is on my radar.  Right now I want to focus on content, which I have a million ideas for but little time to execute.

So that is is for now.  More when I have more to tell.  Thanks for reading!

Some Easy Paleo Meals Updates

Some Quick Updates (For The 3 People Who Actually Read This Blog)

In 5 days we will be having Child #2.  So that is my major preoccupation at the moment.  We have been busy physically preparing the house for our new baby boy to arrive next week and mentally preparing our daughter for her coming world upheaval.  Oh, and we have been mentally preparing for for the next several months of living on a few hours of sleep at a time... if we are lucky anyway.  So wish us luck.

EasyPaleoMeals

I have been working on some new posts.  I am a terribly inconsistent blogger.  It's not that I am not working to continuously improve the site, but I just find little time to create worthwhile content that I think people will be interested in reading.  When I publish something, I want it to be great and not half-assed.

In another effort to make EPM into a more better and more relevant blog, I think that I am going to start taking down PaleoPancakes.co and publishing that content to to EPM.  This will allow me to shut down PaleoPancakes.co and focus more effort on EPM.  While I am at it, I'll be updating the images from that site and making them more Pinterest friendly.

I am probably going to do the same thing with PaleoSoda.blogspot.com.  I will start migrating that content over to EPM.  My hope is that all of this content will help bolster the site, add a little more gravity to the EPM brand, and and make it a generally more engaging experience.  Also, I am kind of lazy about updating so many niche specific blogs. So it is time to get these posts under one roof.

I am also experimenting with new blog templates for EPM.  So if you hit it up and see something crazy going on or an error message, just check back later and it should be fixed.  The standard WordPress template is responsive and clean looking, but I want something a little more refined and professional for the future. That is one of the behind the scenes things that takes up a lot of my time.

Social Media

I have signed up for a Vine.co account and a Pheed.com account.  I have published a few Vine videos which are set to automatically publish on my Facebook page and Twitter account.  Nothing too interesting, but I really like the concept of short and fast videos.  I think there is some cool stuff I can do with that medium.

Pheed is totally new to me, but I really like the concept there too.  Especially the audio side.  I have yet to post anything up to Pheed but I think there are some cool things I can do there too.

I have said it before, Pinterest is the one social medium that I really love.  I spend most of my time there and I automate my Tweets and Facebook updates from Pinterest.  Google+ is fine but doesn't engage me like I thought it might originally.  In my mind, it is just a slightly more cumbersome version of Facebook.  Meh. Maybe something cool will happen in the future to change my mind, but for now I only use it in conjunction with Twitter and Facebook.  If Pinterest makes it so that you can post to G+ then I will probably use it more.

Again, if you want to know what EPM is all about, follow me on Pinterest. 

New Year and Another New Approach

As we roll deeper into 2013, I have taken some time to once again re-evaluate the direction and mission of EasyPaleoMeals. My original vision for creating a Paleo diet recipe site and later, a Paleo recipe sharing site never manifested itself in the way I thought it would.

I am not sad about that at all.

Change

What I have is a new opportunity to find a different path which is better suited to my strengths as a Paleo lifestyle blogger.  Truthfully, it has taken me a while to really figure out what I enjoy most about the Paleo lifestyle.

I know that there is no way that I will ever have the time or desire to constantly cook and create new Paleo recipes to share. And with other incredible websites out there already doing this to such a high standard, it just doesn't make sense for me to keep trying.

I love Paleo food. I love writing about Paleo food. I like cooking and making Paleo food, but I don't love cooking and making Paleo food.

The food I make for myself and my family... I just want to eat it. I want it to taste awesome, but I don't want to think about it in intricate detail, then take photos of it and describe every detail of its construction.

What do I love doing?

I really enjoy reading books and blogs on Paleo cooking, education, and fitness. I love making great recipes that others have agonized over the details on, and have crafted fantastic flavor from. I love sharing delicious recipes and Crossfit hacks I have found in Pinterest.  I am also a minimalist and kitchenware geek and I love to discuss really cool and simple kitchen tools that I use.

So, EasyPaleoMeals goes in yet another new direction. The face of my daily activity will be dedicated to Pinterest. I love Pinterest. Yes, EPM has a Facebook page, Google+ presence, and a Twitter account, but being the highly visual person that I am, Pinterest suits me best.

What does this mean for EasyPaleoMeals.org?

The website itself will continue to represent a base for my other Paleo blogs about my two favorite Paleo food subjects (PaleoCookies.net and PaleoPancakes.co). It will also be the place where I write about some other subjects I want to explore. But primarily, EPM will be where I post reviews of Paleo and Primal related cookbooks, lifestyle guides, CrossFit related fitness and motivational books, 30-day Paleo challenges, and probably some reviews of cookware that I find essential, healthy and useful while cooking Paleo food.  I won't rule out the odd recipe once in a while.

I believe that this is a better general direction for EPM right now.  It's back to just me operating the site and controlling the content.  We'll see how it works out.  If you are reading this post (and still interested!) I want to thank you for sticking with me and I hope that you will enjoy the new direction.  Please feel free to email me with your feedback and suggestions.  It is appreciated!  EasyPaleoMeals(at)gmail(dot)com