Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Organizing Your Recipes

If you're anything like me, when you find a recipe on the internet you either print it off or add it to your growing number of bookmarks. Then there's all those torn out pages of magazines and newspapers, as well as the recipes that have been saved from pasta packages, and other food labels. Then there's your mom's, aunt's and grandma's hand written recipe cards! That's quite a growing collection of paper, but will you ever get to make any of these recipes? Not sitting in a giant pile or shoved in a drawer.

Some ideas for sorting out your recipe collection:

Three-Ring Binder

Many of the plastic sleeves come ready punched for 8 1/2 x 11-inch 3-ring binders. Organize the recipes in categories that are handy for you to use in this binder. I personally don't use the plastic sleeves, I use white lined school paper. I tape or glue clipped recipes onto the sheets and insert them in the binder. I use the plastic sleeve on the front of the binder to hold my menu plan for the week. I keep all previous menu plans behind it in order to refer back and remind myself of something we haven't had in a while!

Filing System

Purchase a carrier with handle designed to hold 8 1/2 X 11-size sheets. Place your recipes in plastic sleeves in this and separate into easy to locate sections with dividers. This would work somewhat like an oversized recipe card box.

Scrapbook Journal

You might want to do this only with your favorite recipes or ones that have a family significance. By including recipes, stories about family occasions when they were served, even photos of family get-togethers or the food itself you will develop fun family projects and books you can give as gifts.

Recipe Cards

Write the recipes on index cards of desired size. Place in a recipe box separated into sections. This entails more work, but gives you a very concise filing system.

Personal or Family Cookbook

Eventually you may want to organize your recipes into a book format. This often includes your recipes and other family favorites. While it will take some time, it's a great reference you can keep on your computer as well. Type your recipes out and print them off. You can also create a cover and laminate it.

Organizing Your Bookmarks

Your favorites on your computer are only limited by you. You can create folders within folders within folders if you want to! I have a main bookmark folder called "RECIPES", then I have subfolders underneath to categorize them better. I have desserts, sides, beef, chicken, bread, etc. Create folder based on your preferences and then when you find a recipe online, add the bookmark right into the appropriate folder.

Here's some ideas for building your meal plan to keep you more organized as well!

Old Fashioned Living has some great ideas for organizing your recipes into a family collection.