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AuntJamelle
True Blue Farmgirl
569 Posts
Jaime
South Bend
Indiana
USA
569 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 03 2017 : 06:42:42 AM
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Wondered what others do to keep recipes organized?
My methods have evolved over the years. I have always been a collector of cookbooks and have quite a few! Some I have yet to really go through! Then I have all those recipes I've found online -most of them Pinned - and then hard copies of recipes I make frequently and ones I've been given after demanding, ahem, REQUESTING them from a friend or coworker after tasting something delicious! And magazines - let's not forget all the recipes from those!
All in all, there is a LOT to keep track of!
Here is what I do:
- Favorites Binder: This is the front line of recipe organization for me! It's a 3 ring binder with a 4 inch spine so nice and big! ($0.50 at a garage sale, hooray!)
It is filled with printed or handwritten copies of recipes in clear plastic page protectors. I used basic tab dividers to break the binder into sections, Appetizers, Main Dish, Side Dish, etc.
The rule is, I only put something in the binder if I've made it and we liked it enough to make again! So it's crazy how fat that thing is!
- Thumb Drive: I have a TON of recipes I saved over the years before Pinterest came along. I have a series of folders broken into the same categories as in my Fav Binder filled with Word documents of recipes.
I have also taken the time to type out recipes from my physical cookbooks that we make all the time, those are saved to the thumb drive and then printed and put in Fav Binder.
In many cases, I can google the recipe, find it online and just copy/paste but where necessary I've just typed it!
- Pinterest: Let's just say I have a LOT of food boards on Pinterest! Anything I make and we like I will save as a Word doc on my thumb drive and put a printed copy in the Fav Binder.
If anyone wants to take a look here is a link to my boards. Scroll down a ways and the food boards will start with "Appetizers and Such" - I've broken things out into much more detail than my Fav Binder with many boards focused on freezer recipes.
https://www.pinterest.com/klinkj0806/
- MASTER Spreadsheet: In an attempt to identify recipes with common ingredients I took the time to enter all my tried and true recipes (a.k.a. from the Fav Binder) into a spreadsheet that has ingredients broken out by column.
The idea is that I can better plan menus and freezer cooking sessions by seeing what things recipes have in common. The goal is to avoid waste, basically.
If I'm buying Heavy Cream and only need a small amount from the container I could freeze the rest OR I could plan another dish that week that calls for the cream. Using the filter feature in Excel I can easily call up all my recipes that use that ingredient.
Okay, so I've typed a book here - sorry!
What do others do to keep track of this sort of thing? Always looking for good tips and tricks!!!
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Organizing Recipes...
