Why I Failed as a Food Blogger

This is not intended to be an elaborate defense or list of excuses.

I don't doubt that, by the end of this, you'll be inclined to think that I make sense and that it's 'justified' that the 'spices' section of SSS is wanting, but that isn't my aim today. That's actually far simpler - along my brief walk down this road, I came across a number of unexpected 'requirements' to be a food blogger, and I just want to share that.

Which is not to say that the title was just clickbait. That I’ve not really achieved much with spice is also true - and it's due to the same things that I'm about to highlight, that I simply refused to commit to doing.

So, let's get to it!

1. Repeatedly testing out recipes with variations to get to one ultimate guaranteed-to-work recipe.

I've never tried to invent new dishes. What I would do is see something interesting, then try to replicate it using healthier and more accessible ingredients (because coconut flour is not a thing here, nor is it ever going to be), and, as you and as you can imagine, I've not always succeeded.

I'm not that fussy an eater so it's not that there's been absolute disasters that could not be eaten at any cost (except avocado mug cakes, ugh. Do not ever use avocado in cooking, regardless of what you see on the internet!) - but the point is, I have only 'ultimate' recipes because I barely ever go to round two and three to try to find the 'perfect' tweaks that I would then share. Instead, I gather an understanding of what type of adjustment may work (or not) during my next adventure.

Along that note, I also just like to try different things, so when I do get to cooking, I'd rather do various experiments with various dishes than repeatedly try to perfect one thing.

2. Being precise

This ties in a bit with what I said earlier about salvage therapy - many times I end up adding my own ingredients and applying my own fixes, which I fail to note down, and so it's hard to come up with exact recipes showing precisely what I did.

And those memes you see about cooking by estimating quantities? I'm one of the drivers of their genesis - and while it's not that hard to put things into standard cups and spoons to quantify amounts, it's tedious enough to me to be a deterrent.

3. Cooking new things regularly

This sounds like a complete contradiction to my first point, but I mean this in a more long-term sense. In order to 'succeed', I'd need to put out new recipes frequently, and once again, that demands more time than I'm willing to dedicate. Many times, I'll settle for doing something I've done plenty of times before (like banana muffins - the recipe is here by the way) and leave it at that because my RDA has been achieved.

4. Making the time to plate and photograph food

Doing this is a lot harder than I'd thought! This is me being concise - I could go on about all the little catches for days - but honestly, that's all on me, rather than the task itself.

We're operating on the principle that I'd want to do this well - we do eat with our eyes first, and so I'd need to have decent photographs and plating - which require a time commitment, patience, and willingness to eat cold food…all of which I lack.

For now, anyway.

5. My relationship with food and my ideas about what's healthy and not have changed significantly.

This is a whole different article by itself - which I will write, too, if I so feel inclined (this will in part be influenced by whether or not I perceive a 'market' for it, by the way…) – but basically, one of my main objectives had been to keep finding new, healthy recipes, because I believed that what I was doing wasn't 'good enough.'

Then I realized that it's really not that complicated, that there's already plenty to consume and that I'm doing just fine - and with that, the psyche to change things up constantly has diminished.

And that is it.

I mean, as far as 'main' reasons go, that's about it though I'm sure that if I thought harder, I'd generate an even longer list, but ultimately it does boil down to one thing: I'm not committed enough to doing this, and I don't really feel inclined to, either.

I've been putting in all those 'for now' and 'yet' qualifiers though, because ultimately I do enjoy spending time in the kitchen, so I can't say that I'll never come back to this…anyway.

I'd love to hear from anyone reading though! What did you think? Do you have any similar experiences or insights to share? Did anything on this list surprise you, or are they all things that I really should have already thought about and known?

Do let me know!

And, as always, thank you for reading!