noBOLOGNA

WordPress Plugins: Beginner

I have been on WordPress for a little less than a year now, and I’m constantly learning something new.  At first, I missed the user friendly blogger, but I’m so glad that I decided to make the switch.  There are so many unique opportunities with WordPress and they offer such a variety of plugins to fully customize your site.  This post is intended to provide help to beginner wordpress users or blogger users that are considering the transition.  Here are my top 7 WordPress Plugins for Beginners.

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  • Anti-Spam

You know when you visit a blog and have to put in some kind of ridiculous security code or captcha to submit your comment?  We can all agree that it’s extremely annoying, but I understand why people do it.  The amount of spammers out there are too many to count.  We want to know that the person responding to our blog post is an actual person who has an actual comment.  Anti-Spam protects you from spammers, but does NOT require a captcha.  Since installing this plugin, I’ve received zero spam comments and my readers have been able to comment with ease.

  • Blogger 301 Redirect

This may be silly to include in this list, but if you’re a former (or current) blogger like myself, you’ll appreciate it.  This simple plugin allows you to redirect your old blogger site to the new site.  I know this is blogging 101, but I mention this to encourage blogger users to make the switch because your old site can easily redirect to the new.

  • Blogger Importer

Another one of those current blogger plugins to entice you to the world of WordPress.  You can easily import all of your blogger posts & comments & everything in between.  So don’t be scared!

  • Easy Recipe

This is a very new-to-me plugin.  I am hoping to increase the amount of recipes I put on the blog and I never felt like I was good at writing a recipe.  I couldn’t quite get the “Directions” out in a reader friendly format and I never felt like my recipes flowed – enter Easy Recipe.  I’ll admit, I’m still learning the best way to use it, but I’m pleased so far.  I can introduce a recipe, then simply input the ingredients and directions within the plugin and it auto-formats it for me.

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  • Sharaholic

This is my favorite sharing plugin so far.  I like the way it looks at the bottom of my post and it shows how many shares it has with facebook, pinterest, instagram, and more.

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It goes right below your post and right above your tags.

  • WordPress SEO by Yoast

I have really enjoyed WordPress SEO.  It gives me a rating for each post regarding my SEO and it helps me mention my key word in various places that I may forget about.  You create your key word, then include it within the post, your title, your URL, and more.

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  • Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

I think having related links below a post is important, especially for your new readers.  They may really enjoy a post they read and want more.  With the Related Posts plugin, they have immediate suggestions of where to go next.  This also helps when people are searching for something specific on your site.

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I like that it does pictures instead of just words. The only downside is that it won’t show up on your home page, you have to be on a specific post page.

WordPress has not been perfect for me, we have had our disagreements, but I can certainly say that I’m able to do a lot more with my blog than I would have ever imagined.  There are so many things that you would have to “code” in blogger, that you can easily download a plugin for in WordPress.  The biggest complaint I had with WordPress was when my comments didn’t seem to be working and then come to find out… they had been going to my spam inbox for MONTHS!  Once that was resolved, it was smooth sailing.  Finding the perfect wordpress design is probably the hardest part.  Blogger made design so stinkin’ easy!  Having a professional design your WordPress site is a lot more expensive.  I found that buying a design on etsy and tweaking it was the cheapest and easiest option.  They provide you with detailed instructions (usually) that help you make changes you want to make.  If I get bigger and better, then I’ll consider the investment of a professional design.

I hope these WordPress plugins were helpful for all of you beginners out there!  I’m still learning so much with WordPress and I feel like the possibilities are endless.  If you’re a Blogger user, but have considered the switch to WordPress, please feel free to ask me questions because I used Blogger for a very long time and was pretty adamant about not switching at first, but it was definitely the best decision for my blog.

  • Which Plugin would you find the most useful?
  • Do you have a plugin you can’t live without that is not on this list?

Relaxing Easter

Good morning friends and Happy Monday to you!  How was your Easter?  Was it peaceful?  We talked about peace at church this weekend and it was a beautiful thing to think about.  Knowing God and knowing that he can provide the peace we need in the midst of constant storms and battles in our life!  So thankful for that reminder.  I hope everyone had a great weekend with family & friends!

Nick came to town this weekend, but didn’t get in until late Friday night.  I got off a little early for Good Friday and headed out to the new Starbucks in our area.  I wanted to get some blog work done for this week since I’m heading out to Orlando late tonight.  After Starbucks and 2 pretty solid posts scheduled, I went home to go for a run.  After my Friday run, I was excited to realize that I knocked out four runs this week!  I haven’t run four times in one week since December because of my knee.  Each run felt good, and each run felt stronger as the week progressed.  This was also the first week that I actually felt sore from a run since December.  Sore in the good sense – where I actually worked muscles and didn’t kill joints and tendons.  I had a great week in running.

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On Saturday morning, I slept in and then took it easy.  I took sweet Cappie on a walk that he thoroughly enjoyed and I read a portion of the book we’re reading for office book club.

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I had a cup of coffee at home for the first time in a long time!  Lately I’ve been drinking hot tea, but it was nice to go back to an old favorite.  I begrudgingly went to the gym for a workout.  I don’t know what it is about the gym, but I am not very motivated to go.  I enjoy the outdoors.  I went anyways because I knew I needed some strength training.  I plan on cancelling my membership to the gym soon because I am certainly not getting my money’s worth.  The amount that they charge for a single person seems absolutely outrageous to me, but I will admit, the Y has a lot of great things to offer, but for one person, who works 40 hours a week and goes out of town frequently – it’s not worth it!  The family membership is a steal though, in my opinion!

After the gym, I had to get ready for a wedding that night.  An old high school friend of Nick’s was getting married and we were looking forward to seeing some friends that we hadn’t seen in a very long time.  Of course, some of our favorites – Joel & Charlotte – were there!  We decided to detour to Atlanta on Tuesday so we can have breakfast with them on our way to Gainesville.  It doesn’t add much time to the trip and it’ll be nice to try one of their favorite local places.

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The venue was really beautiful.  It was an outside wedding and although there were thunderstorms the night before, the day of the wedding turned out lovely in terms of weather!  The grass was a little moist, so my heels kept digging in, but other than that – perfect!  Once the sun set, they had strings of lights around the back yard.

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Of course, I didn’t snag a picture until later in the night.  I’m so terrible at getting pictures of us right away when we’re fresh and the sun is still out so we get that natural light.  Oh well, I’ll keep trying!  Every time Nick where’s this maroon blazer, he gets a lot of comments.  Our college colors are maroon and white, so people love it!

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You may remember our friends Joel & Charlotte from the trip we took to Atlanta last year and then also the night we stopped by on our way to Charleston to make sushi.  We look forward to another great adventure with them in the morning.  Of course, adventure means devouring a plate full of breakfast and sipping some warm coffee – it’s about to crazy!

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I love this long lasting friendship!

We had a very late night and I was dead beat tired when I finally  made it home.  An early wake up call wasn’t exactly what I envisioned the next morning, but when I finally made it to church, I was glad to be there.  My sisters were in town, so it was nice to spend quality time with them.  Nick headed over right after church and we spent the morning preparing some black bean burgers that I’m excited to share the recipe for later this week!

I’m off to work, but I’ll be back tomorrow!

  • What did you do for Easter?
  • Did you have a relaxing weekend or a more fast-paced weekend with it being a holiday?

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I am so excited to share this recipe with y’all today.  I decided to buy a bag of brussel sprouts on my last shopping trip.  I had no clue what I was going to do with them, but they looked pretty and I had never had brussel sprouts before.  As a vegetarian, I felt that it was finally time to give into the stereotypical “gross” vegetable and see what I could make of it.  I knew I was going to roast them and I seeked out some recipes on pinterest (of course!) but I didn’t find a recipe that either sounded good or that I had the ingredients for.  What does a blogger do?  Create a random recipe and hope for the best!

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Tuesday night, I made yet another trip to Whole Foods.  The amount of charges on my card from Whole Foods is embarrassing, but I can’t help how I feel about this grocery store.  Plus, I find contentment by just walking around a grocery store, even more so a Whole Foods grocery store because of all the beautiful produce and natural options they provide.  Sorry, back to my story – I was in Whole Foods Tuesday night and they had the owners of Delta Blues Rice sampling their long grain rice and rice grits.  I had never had rice grits, but I gave them a try and instantly fell in love!  I picked up a bag right away.  When I was scrambling to decide on dinner last night, I came up with a combination of Rice Grits and Roasted Brussel Sprouts.

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Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Recipe Type: Side Dish
Cuisine: Vegetable
Author: No Bologna Blog
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
I served these Roasted Brussel Sprouts over Delta Blues Rice Grits.
Ingredients
  • 1/2 bag of brussel sprouts
  • 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400*
  2. Wash and cut brussel sprouts
  3. Mix soy sauce, garlic powder, and sesame seeds in a bag
  4. Add brussel sprouts to the bag and shake to coat evenly
  5. On a baking sheet, make an aluminum foil bowl and pour the coated brussel sprouts in the bowl
  6. Roast for 20 minutes, tossing halfway through, adding a small amount of soy sauce if needed
  7. Serve over rice

The timing turned out perfect with this recipe.  I put the rice on the stove to start boiling and preheated my oven.  While waiting on that, I was able to prepare the brussel sprouts, get them wrapped in aluminum foil, and by that time I was ready to start simmering the rice for 20 minutes and putting the brussel sprouts in the oven for 20 minutes.

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I’m excited to see what else I can try on these Rice Grits.  They have some good looking recipes on their website that I think can easily be adapted for a vegetarian.  I’m definitely going to try out the risotto.  I love supporting local Mississippi businesses and farmers, I’m so glad that I ran into Whole Foods Tuesday night so I can get introduced to Delta Blues Rice.

If you’re interested in trying out Mississippi farmed rice, you can purchase online at Eat, Y’all! or if you’re a Mississippian, you can view a list of their retailers.

*I was not compensated for writing this blog post and I did not receive free product, I simply found a product I love and a Mississippi company I can support.  I wanted to share that with my readers, especially my local readers.*

  • How do you make brussel sprouts?
  • What store do you have an embarrassing amount of purchases at each month?

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The views and statements expressed on No Bologna are my own. You are reading No Bologna at your own risk and I am not providing any type of professional advice. Unless otherwise noted, all material on No Bologna may not be used, reprinted, or published without my consent. I do occasionally have affiliated links on my blog - this does not raise the price of the product, I simply get a very small commission from the regular retail price if something is purchased using an affiliated link on my site. I appreciate any support by you in regards to affiliated links.