Year In Review: The 10 Most Popular Recipes of 2016

At the end of the year, it’s time to reflect. It’s crazy to think that we’ve been writing for this blog for almost 5 years, and had over 1 MILLION views during that time! We’re blown away on how this accountability project, originally set up to blog about our first Whole30® (my first post here), has grown and changed our lives. We’ve made lifelong friends, hundreds of recipes, and had a great time cooking and learning to photograph.

To send off 2016 in style, here are the top 10 recipes as rated by views for the year. We’ve also added a few of the posts we felt were the best of the year in the honorable mention, the least popular post of the year, and news and well wishes for 2017.

Oven-Baked Beer-Brined Pork Ribs

Ribs are a summertime staple at our house, and I’d reckon yours. Standing outside in the warmth of the summer sun (perhaps drink in hand), the smell of charcoal and simmering ribs on the grill is as strong in my mind on a December morning as it is in the peak of July. If grilling isn’t a strong suit of yours, or you’re hoping to enjoy ribs even in the cold, this week’s recipe is right up your alley.

Making ribs in the oven is a great adventure—you get the benefit of setting a consistent temperature and your whole house smells like heaven! These ribs are no exception. One way to combat ribs drying out (on the grill or in the oven) is to brine them. Brine can be as simple and straightforward as salted water, or you can add some great flavors to the meat. Tenting or wrapping your ribs in foil is also an effective tool. For these, we did both, because who doesn’t love juicy ribs?

Green Bean Casserole

Green bean casserole is a holiday tradition. When we went paleo, it fell off the list for a couple of reasons. It wasn’t the main attraction on our table growing up, nor was Heather jumping to figure out how to recreate it without all of the pre-made, preservative-laden ingredients (I’m looking at you condensed soup). This year, however, I wanted to make it happen. Using a homemade cream soup as a base, we crafted a paleo green bean casserole.

One thing to note is that we made our cream of celery soup with homemade pork stock—it was what we had in the refrigerator. Its savory, gelatinous consistency took everything to a new level. If you are looking for a go-to resource for making stock at home, this guide from Real Everything is the answer.

The one thing we didn’t add to the mix was the French’s Crispy Fried Onions. These aren’t a must-have for us, but if you’d really like to give them a try, we made fried onions for our Western Meatloaf. An extra step, but if you’ve got to have them, go for it! Just add them to the top of the casserole for the final 10 minutes of baking.

Dairy-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake

One of our dirty, little secrets is that we have always had a weakness for cheesecake. There’s something about it that helps us celebrate or cope with stressful situations. Despite our love, it does not love us back; congestion and an overall feeling of lethargy are common side-effects. This Thanksgiving, we decided to give this staple a shot with Kite Hill Cream Cheese. This stuff is awesome and it allowed us to celebrate with a great dessert to finish up a great meal.

This is definitely a special occasion treat, but it was too good not to share. With more holiday celebrations to come this month, we hope you’ll give this a try.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Heather didn’t add a lot of sweetener to the batter of this cheesecake. The cheesecake was perfectly savory with a hint of sweetness. If you prefer a slightly sweeter dessert, you could easily serve it with a sweet whipped cream of coconut milk (or real heavy cream, if you can tolerate it) or a light drizzle of maple syrup.

Thanksgiving Leftovers Turkey Pho

It’s the week after Thanksgiving, and we find ourselves with a refrigerator bursting at the seams, as we often do. This year was unique because we spent the whole weekend fighting and slowly recovering from a fairly nasty head cold. We were in and out of fever, but more importantly congested and exhausted for almost a full week.

To try and combat feeling run down, Heather was really hankering for pho. This Vietnamese soup has a reputation for having healing powers (for illness as well as hangover), and is something I’ve never actually experienced at a restaurant. We decided to create our own version of the show Chopped, and make pho with the leftovers in the house and our pantry. We didn’t even go out to find noodles or a noodle replacement, and instead added extra bean sprouts. Feel free to add your favorite noodle of choice.

We made our turkey broth with the carcass of the turkey, 2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar, a bay leaf, and 1/2 tsp of sea salt. We put the carcass in a stock pot and covered with water and boiled for 16 hours. If this is too much time, or you no longer have your bird, feel free to buy stock from the store—just be sure to read the label!