Frequently Asked Questions

We regularly come across a number of questions from our readers, although we try to answer each personally, we’d be happy if you could please read the questions and answers below first and then ask a question.

Is your site free?
Yes. It is absolutely free to use, though we may introduce a premium (paid) section that will include exclusive videos to learn from Maria herself and step-by-step tutorials on favourite recipes.

What is your publishing schedule?
Many readers have asked us to publish recipes more frequently. We hear you. But for now we are publishing a minimum of one recipe every fortnight (two weeks). There are a couple of reasons for this, first because we only post tried, tested, tasted and trusted recipes. So we’re only going for the quality ones. Second is time and effort of finding good recipes, from the many we try – we only post the good ones and third because we’re human – we need to respect our stomachs :) To get the recipes free by email, sign up today (see the yellow box on the right) – this way you’ll stay up-to-date.

How do I find the recipe I’m looking for?
The most requested feature was to have a more organized recipe index. We heard you. We’ve just updated the site and you can see all the recipes by categories or alphabetically. The best and fastest way is to use the orange search box at the top of the page. Just type in what you’re looking for and hit enter.

Can you provide nutritional details?
We are occasionally requested to provide the nutritional information (calories, points, etc.) for the recipes on this site. Unfortunately, we have neither the time nor the expertise to provide this analysis. MariasMenu is about sharing healthy recipes, tips, tricks and techniques that work for every day cooking. But sometimes, when you’re entertaining, we rarely come across people who ask if that dish has 800 or 888 calories…? Did your mother tell you to eat 1,200 calories a day or did she say you have to eat your greens? All said and done, get away from the computer and get exercise… plenty of it.

Can you provide step-by-step pictures (tutorial)?
The photos (pictures) you see on this site are after a labourious effort, we select from 50 – 60 shots to find the perfect one or two. So you can imagine how much effort is required for step-by-step pictures. Nevertheless, we understand how much you enjoy seeing this, so we are considering this feature for our premium paid subscribers. Contact us for more details about the upcoming premium section.

What are these foreign ingredients?
They’re not foreign, they’re exotic :) Actually, we liberally use the local Kerala terminology to describe certain ingredients. You can see the ingredients page (coming soon) for the English or other regional language usage. Nearly all ingredients can be procured from your local supermarket or at best the Indian store nearby.

Do you allow guest bloggers?
Our default answer is “No”. We are very picky about the recipes we post on MariasMenu. Generally, guest bloggers are not particular about the recipes per se, they merely want to have a link to their site to gain traffic, they’re more about marketing their site. Because we’re about quality and not quantity, we politely reject requests. Remember our mission is tried, tested, tasted and trusted. If it hasn’t passed our tests, we won’t post it.

Can I submit my recipe?
Sure. You can submit your recipe. We will try it out and if we like it, we’ll post it on MariasMenu. No guarantees, but we will certainly try it out, so please don’t be disappointed. If it does appear, you’ll become an overnight success. (Hey, we’re not Oprah).

Can I request a recipe?
By all means, please do. You can request a recipe and if we haven’t posted it, we will try to discover the best one through experimentation.

Why don’t you reply to my comment and questions?
Since we started, MariasMenu has registered over 6,000 comments. Maria takes pride in responding to all of them when she can, but some just slip through. Comments are welcome on most of the recipes and posts. While we’re on the topic of comments, we only ask that if you would like to leave a comment, please think of this website as a family home where you wouldn’t say anything that you wouldn’t, as an invited guest, say in someone’s home. Constructive criticism is always welcome, as we all benefit from it. Rude, mean, or obnoxious comments are however not welcome and will be rejected, just as we would escort rude behaving people out of our home.

What happened to your blog roll? Why did you delete it?
As much as we like to help people, they never reciprocate, so we made it a policy not to include the blogroll. In addition to this, if their site was not highly placed in Google, we’d loose our pageranking as well. However, on certain recipes, we have given credit where credit is due.

How do you run this blog/site?
With a lot of dedication and passion. We use the following:

• GoDaddy – for domain hosting ($12/year)
• Fatcow – for web hosting ($88/year)
• WordPress – for backend content management (Free)
• Thesis Theme – for site design ($87 one-time)
• Wishlist Membership Plugin – for membership management ($97 one-time)
• Aweber – for email list management ($228/year)
• Google Feedburner – for newsletter publishing (Free)
• Google Analytics – for detailed traffic analysis (Free)
• Mint Analytics – for quick traffic analysis ($30 one-time)
• Google Ads – for CPM advertising (Free)
• Beacon Ads – for monthly advertising (Free)
• Paypal – for payments (3%+/transaction)
• Other WordPress Plugins – to make things work!
• Nikon D40x Camera – for those tempting food photos! ($800 one-time)
• Plus plenty of cutlery, tableware and food (priceless)

Are the recipes copyrighted?
Honestly… NO. By definition, anything YOU create is copyrighted. So we give credit where credit is due. But we don’t believe recipes should be copyrighted (pictures you’ve taken effort to create – yes, recipes you borrowed from your grandma – no). Copyright stifles knowledge sharing and community. If you’re so protective about your grandma’s secret recipe – don’t publish it! Keep it a secret, just as Coca Cola and KFC do. (And since it’s your grandma’s mother’s recipe, for which no one can prove she didn’t steal it from her mother-in-law or neighbour, we really don’t care what you do). This is a real silly topic, as we’ve come across copyright advocates who defend their recipes, but find it okay to watch a pirated Indian film on YouTube! Hypocrites.

How much money do you make from MariasMenu?
Not enough :) We do make money from advertisements, affiliate marketing, book sales and indirectly from baking classes and cup cake delivery. As you can see from the costs above (see question: How do you run this blog/site?), providing a free and quality service like this costs money, not to mention time and effort.