D o you have beloved recipes that you've saved over the years? If you're like me, you stuff them in some box and when it comes time to find it, you fumble around searching just to find that right one. One day it drove me so crazy, I decided I would change my system and organize my recipes.
Step 1: Organize recipes by categories. My categories are Chicken, Pork, Beef, Pasta, Salads, Desserts, Soups, Breads, Dressings and Dips, and Miscellaneous.
Step 2: Purchase a large binder, a box of clear sheet protectors, and white 8 x 11" card stock. And make sure your printer has enough ink!
Step 3: Type each recipe out. I know this sounds daunting! Believe me, I do. It took me more than a month and I would do it on the laptop in the evening while watching TV. Try to have fun with this step. Use some cute fonts. Amanda has some adorable free fonts here. I also took cute clip art and gave each category an image. I know there is much cuter art out there, I just Googled "clip art."
Step 4: Print out the recipes on cardstock so they aren't flimsy. When I know I'm going to make a certain recipe and I'm in a hurry, I just take that recipe out of the binder and take it into the store with me. That is why cardstock is a good option so the recipe stays in good shape. Paper will do too though!
Step 5: Place them in the binder and now you no longer have to search and search and search for your favorite go to recipes! I cut some of the photos out from magazine recipes and just taped them on before I placed them in the sheet protector. Pictures help me remember why I like the recipe in the first place so they're important to me if the recipe comes with one.
Step 6: Buy yourself a magazine box or something cute to keep the recipes you haven't typed in yet but will type later. I used to just keep them in the front of my binder but it got to looking messy and defeated the whole reason I started the project.
Now, when I have some downtime (yeah right!), I will type in a recipe or two. The other nice thing about having your recipes saved in a document is you can just email them to friends when they ask for your recipe for something. I also like that with the sheet protectors, you can drip water on them and just wipe them clean!
9 comments:
This is a GREAT idea! I love it & am going to start working on one of my own very soon!
I don't cook, but this makes me want to start just so I can have a cute recipe book.
Definitely on my to-do list. I once tried to be a super mom and cut out all the recipes from Parent maganize...I think it's still on my desk. Good suggestion about actually making each recipe. It doesn't always turn out like the picture =)
I love this! I have been meaning to organize my recipes.
Creamy
What a great idea! We have a recipe cabinet that is full of books and print outs. But now thanks to pinterest, I rarely ever print out recipes anymore. I just pin them. =)
Super cute!!!
You did some great work here! I am afraid I have an entire large bin full of recipes clipped from magazines and printed off the Internet, loosely organized by type. I really should get to work on this! I love your system.
This is great. My mom is always organizing and reorganizing her recipes. I'll have to share this with her :)
I have a notebook for the recipes I want to keep but I hand write them for the sake of hand exercise. lol! I always use the keyboard anyway so I thought hand written recipe book would look a bit artistic or personalized. I do need a good binder though...a good one like yours! Since the stores are already stacking their shelves with back-to-school stuff, I might go and get me one. :)
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