WIAW: Road Trippin’

January 1, 2014 by Christine Skari

Hey guys! I know it’s odd for me to be posting twice in one day, but I couldn’t help wanting to get in on the WIAW fun even after spending a good amount of time on my post on How to Increase Your Pinterest Traffic.

Here are some of my eats from my road trip back from Tahoe! Not what I usually have, but when you’re on the road for 8+ hours, stopping at Taco Bell and gas stations to eat are your only options and sound pretty damn food.

Lunch was a bowl thing from Taco Bell. Complete with guac, corn, black beans, and chicken. Not too bad for fast food!

Also, can we take a minute to appreciate the awesome lighting the window in the restaurant (can we call fast food places that?) was? Look at that light scraping across the meal. Food blogger problems, I tell ya.

Snacks: half a coke slurpee (too sweet and gave me a headache to drink the whole thing). I couldn’t resist getting one of these when we stopped for a bathroom break. I remember getting one for a treat after most of my soccer tournaments and games when I was younger with my dad. I used to be able to down a huge one without any problem at all! Guess I’m getting more and more like my mom everyday and am starting to lose my sweet tooth ( )

A quick bar before lunch to help tide me over:

After arriving home after a looong drive, we put away our suitcases and bags before heading to my Obachan’s (Japanese Grandma) house for a small New Year’s dinner. We’ll be going over again tomorrow for lunch (New Years is a big deal for Japanese people), but it was so nice to have a delicious and healthy dinner waiting for us when we got back.

And there you have it! I’m exhausted, but had a great trip.

Hope your New Year Eve celebrating is going swimmingly. Mine is being spent in my pjs catching up on some Netflix. Paartyy!

How to Increase Your Pinterest Traffic

December 31, 2013 by Christine Skari

A while back, I mentioned a few ideas for future blog posts that I thought you guys might be interested in. One of the ideas that got the most requests is one on how to increase your Pinterest traffic. I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that Pinterest brings in the vast majority of my site’s traffic and I love seeing my recipes, workouts, and general posts being shared and read!

Here are some of the major ways I’ve been able to increase my traffic from Pinterest and gain page views, readers, and self-confidence as a blogger. After all, I don’t think many of us can deny that seeing that our content is being read and enjoyed is a huge self-confidence booster.!

1. Improve Your Photography and Graphic Images

This is by far my number one tip on how to increase your Pinterest traffic. Almost 90% of the people who get sent my way from the site come from pictures of my recipes and this correlated DIRECTLY to me improving my food photography. After I gained some experience with my camera and learned how just the most simple and subtle differences in lighting/composition can make all the difference, I started getting accepted on to food spotlight sites like Foodgawker, Tastespotting, Tasteologie, Healthy Aperture, etc and visitors started to pour in.

Not only was it an added bonus to get thousands of unique visitors directly from those sites, but many of the people who found their way over to Apple of My Eye pinned the recipes and also explored around, leading them to pinning workouts or quick tips like my post on How to Lighten Up Your Starbucks Beverage (which consistently brings in a solid stream of visitors everyday, even though I published it over 3 months ago).

Looking back to my early days blogging about the food I ate, I feel a little embarrassed about the photo quality. Honestly, when I read my posts from just a half year ago I can’t help but wonder, “what was I thinking taking a picture of all those mushy granola fruit salads”? Yes, it tasted delicious, but for the people reading my blog, it probably looked revolting! After all, you eat with your eyes first. Luckily, I think my skill with a camera has increased a bit since then!

In the future, I’m thinking about writing a post on how I step-by-step take my pictures/edit them, but for now, I cannot recommend Lindsay’s Tasty Food Photography eBook enough(<— affiliate link!).

I bought it a while back and after reading it and practicing some of her easily explained concepts, I almost instantly started getting accepted into the Food Submission sites I mentioned above.

I literally did a happy dance when my Healthier Cinnamon Roll Scones appeared on the site and later, when my Healthy Skillet Lasagna was accepted, it ended up being one of the most popular recipes on Foodgawker for a month and was pinned almost 13,400 times! That certain recipe brings in hundreds of visitors a day and, without improving my photography, it would probably have just been lost in my archives- even if it tasted just as delicious!

I really, really can’t stress how much your photography matters when it comes to increasing your audience and traffic!

You can read a more throughout review of Lindsay’s eBook on my giveaway post for it. (Her posts on the income of her food blog is also such an interesting read, they’ve been posting income reports for the past few years and have built their blog up from making only a few dollars a month to over $15k. Fascinating!)

2. Design your images so they’re easily noticed by the people scrolling down Pinterest. If you’ve been reading Apple of My Eye for a while, you might have noticed that I usually post a picture that has a few images in a vertical collage with a few eye-catching keywords. This gives me an advantage on the site because they take up more room on Pinterest and are therefore more likely to be noticed by those scrolling by.

To make my images, I go to picmonkey (it’s free!), click on the “Make Collage” button, choose “Ducks in a Row”, rotate it so it’s vertical, and get to work putting a few of my images and text on it. Super simple, but it makes a big difference!

3. Don’t be afraid to ask your readers and fellow bloggers to pin your images if they find them tasty or helpful! Social networking is such a powerful tool and great way to connect and help each other grow our sites and get to know each other.

In fact, if you find this post helpful and don’t mind, I would really appreciate it if you could pin a recipe or workout (or two 😉 ).

If you’d like to be friends on the site, here’s my Pinterest account! (shameless self-promotion). Follow me and I’ll follow you back!

4. Another great way to increase your Pinterest traffic is to pin pictures to your site at optimal times. Here’s a chart I found that shows when most people are pinning away!

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5. Joining group boards (where multiple members of Pinterest can pin) is a great way to expose your site and reach a wider audience of people.

I was thinking of creating a group board where us bloggers could all pin together. Let me know if you’d be interested in joining the group!

So there you have it! I really hope this quick guide helped give you guys a starting idea on how to increase your traffic from Pinterest. It’s SUCH a great tool and viral pins can bring in tens of thousands of page views a day. In my opinion, Pinterest is the #1 best, fastest, and easiest way to grow your blog and I have to give most of my quantitative success as a healthy food/lifestyle blogger to it.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Tahoe Ski Trip Recap!

December 29, 2013 by Christine Skari

Most years, I get an awful case of the post-holiday blues. I’m not sure what it is I expect from Christmas (since they’re wonderful every year), but I feel like it has to do with all of the buildup that comes from me preparing for the big day a full month in advance. Seriously, Christmas music and my Pinterest boards start getting played and filled up even before Thanksgiving. Yup, I’m that annoyingly jolly person.

Anyways, as some of you might know, I’m currently in Tahoe on a ski vacation with a bunch of my family, Kyle, and my friend Ryan. We’re having a wonderful time and it’s doing a marvelous job of keeping away the holiday blues!

Here’s what’s Marvelous in My Monday!

Marvelous is taking Kyle skiing for the first time!

I’ve had skis on my feet since I was three years old. My dad decided that it would be a grand idea to take a toddler cross country skiing and I ended up throwing a huge fit (I probably would still throw a fit now if I had to cross country ski all day) and he had to carry me on his shoulders for the rest of the day.

Ever since then, my family and I have gone skiing most winters and it’s one of my favorite traditions. I was ecstatic when Kyle was able to come up to the mountains with us for his first-ever ski experience! After all, he is basically a part of my family already. I kid you not when I say that my mom likes him more than me.

He was a bit rocky with it at first and there was a lot of falling involved, but he’s a chipper guy and was (mostly) all smiles!

The trip was made even more fun by having our giant-of-a-friend Ryan there with us! Ryan also goes to our college and is one of our closest friends there.

Marvelous is delicious lunches after a hard day of exercise.

All that skiing really takes it out of you, and there’s nothing like sitting down to a hearty and delicious lunch. On the menu for the last few days? Beef chili with a side of cornbread (finally getting my mountain cornbread fix!) and one of the best burgers I’ve ever had, justly called the “Epic Burger”.

Marvelous is a rest day.

We went skiing two days in a row and after, everyone was a bundle of sore. Since we only go once a year, the unfamiliar motions make every.single.muscle in your body ache and taking a day to lounge around till 12 in our pajamas was just so nice.

At around 12:30, we headed into the small nearby town to grab some lunch and browse the shops. I ended up getting an Irish stew and stealing some bites of Kyle’s chicken burger as well. Delicious!

Since I’m lazy and the joints in my fingers are sore from gripping my ski poles, I’m going to stop typing and just throw out a bunch of pics. Cheers!

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Deep Dish Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

December 27, 2013 by Christine Skari

The other day, I went to a cookie exchange at my friend Erin’s house. It’s been a tradition for a couple of years now, and I always look forward to seeing the friends I went to school with for 12 years before heading off to college. Not to mention it’s a mother-daughter event, so we all have a great time laughing at all their antics (too much wine) and grimacing when they unblushingly tell all of our embarrassing stories (again, I blame the wine).

Even though I’ve grown up with these girls, I can’t help but want to show off when it comes to bringing the most extravagant cookies and usually like to experiment with a few showcase cookies that can’t help but look and taste delicious!

Please pin the picture below if you’d like to pin this recipe! Thank you!

For me, life is all about balance and I truly believe that a completely healthy life depends on both your mental sanity and feeling good in your own skin. Yes, I exercise and eat healthy, but I have absolutely no desire to live a life that consists of restricting and overexercising in the name of your health. If I want to eat a cookie, I’m going to eat it. If I want to take a week off from the gym because I’m not feeling too well, I’m going to do so without any regret whatsoever. I know this sounds a little off tangent for a cookie post, but I sometime feel that “healthy living bloggers” get themselves stuck in a negative place when it comes to food and exercise and try to put forth a perfect picture of their life and body image. While Apple of My Eye usually concentrates on healthier recipes, I don’t want to restrict my site to any one genre. How boring would that be?

Anyways, I bring this up because this recipe has sugar. Lots of sugar. And butter. And caramel. And chocolate chips. Get the picture? It’s deliciously indulgent and the perfect recipe for any party where you really want to bring a dessert that has the “WOW” factor to it!

The cookie recipe I use is from Parents Need to Eat Too, and let me tell ya, it’s the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever made. I think I’ve baked at least 30 batches of them over the last couple of years and others really just don’t match up to it. This is definitely one of Kyle’s favorite desserts as well! When they’re baked on a plain cookie sheet, they have a slightly crunchy exterior, but still maintain a softer inside. I can’t even explain them. Think joy and kittens and rainbows and Zac Efron all mixed into one cookie. Yup.

And these Deep Dish Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies? Think of everything I described above, but with a oozy-gooey caramel center surrounded by half-baked cookie dough and a more firm cookie crust. Unreal!

There’s one key rule when it comes to the these cookies, though. DON’T OVER BAKE.

I know it’s super tempting to look into the oven, see an underdone cookie, and set the timer for a few more minutes, but you need to resist. Seriously, apply that willpower of yours because these cookies are a million times better when they are soft in the middle and will finish baking outside of the oven as they cool.

And, without further ado, I present to you: Deep Dish Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Dig in!

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Guest Post: Gifts for the Guys

December 26, 2013 by Christine Skari

Hi everyone! I’m on my way to Tahoe, but I was lucky enough to get an email from a reader asking to guest post on Apple of My Eye! While the holidays may be over, the post-Christmas sales are here and ready to be taken advantage of. I know from experience how hard it is to think of the perfect gift for the men in your life, especially since I love to give personalized gifts, so Quinn’s post about finding great active gifts for guys really hits the nail on the head for me! Quinn is a self-proclaimed health enthusiast who loves to stay active. She enjoys running, playing soccer and going hiking with her family.
You can visit her blog here: healthylivingbyquinn.blogspot.com Great Gift Ideas for the Active Man in Your Life The holidays are here, and it is time to go shopping for that special someone in your life. That being said, it is sometimes hard to find the perfect gift for guys who like to stay active and healthy. The great news is that there are tons of gifts out there that are the prefect way to please any health junkie. Here are five gift ideas you may want to consider for that fitness nut in your life! Personalized Golf Balls

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If there is one thing that men love to do, it is play golf with their friends. If that special someone you love is a big golfer, chances are that they have most of the essential golf items that they need. That is when personalized golf balls are a great gift. You can customize them any way that you want! It also helps the person that is receiving the gift to stand out on the golf course when they play with their friends. I bought my husband some from RedEnvelope’s Gifts for Dad site last spring – safe to say, more of them landed in the woods than on the green. Gym Membership When buying a gift for a health nut, what is better than buying them a gym membership! Buying them a gym membership not only gives them something that they can actually use, but it also shows them that you support their active lifestyle. A gym membership is a gift that just keeps on giving and is a great way for someone to kick off the New Year. Weighted Vest

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If the person you are buying a gift for is into cardio, you may want to consider getting them a weighted vest. This is a great gift for people who are looking to make their cardio workout just a little bit harder. The weighted vest is the best way to not only build extra muscle, but to really increase endurance as well. It is simply perfect for anyone who likes working out at home or at the gym! Workout Gloves Workout gloves are always another great option when buying gifts for active people. When a person lifts weights, cracks and calluses can form on their hands. This can make it painful and uncomfortable to work out. If it gets too bad, it can keep that person from doing what they love to do, which is staying physically active. Workout gloves not only help give them a better grip, but they can also help protect their hands from damage. Healthy Cookbook Working out is just half the battle when it comes to staying in shape, but sometimes eating healthy does not always taste good. Ensure that your guy does not become bored with his diet by buying him a healthy cookbook. These books are full of different meals that can help him build up the energy that he needs for the perfect workout. Finding the perfect gifts for people is hard. This goes double when they are into working out and staying physically active. However, by using some of these tips, you can rest assured that you will find the perfect holiday gift for your special someone!