One area of my kitchen that has been driving me crazy for a long time is my recipe box area. I print off recipes that I see online all the time, fold them up, and place them on top of my recipe box. Sometimes I make them, sometimes I don't. When I did meal prep on the weekends, I'd look at the pile and think - I should really go through that stack of recipes sometime.... but sometime never seemed to happen...
Until January when I set a goal of accomplishing a list of organizational projects. The first one I tackled was the recipe box project. I started by organizing the recipes by course (appetizer, soup, salad, side, entree, dessert).
And then I put the recipes in plastic protector sheets in a 3-ring binder, organized by course.
And voila! My recipes are now organized and that area of the kitchen no longer makes me twitch when I look at it.
It's been much easier to find recipes to make now that they are organized in this binder. I've discovered recipes I forgot about, like this lentil and black bean soup that I tore out of a Runners World magazine YEARS ago, which I'll be making this week for my lentil-lover Phil and I.
Do you print out recipes? If so, how do you organize your recipes? I'm definitely the kind of person who needs to work off of a printed off recipe as I don't care for reading recipes on my phone or laptop. I might feel differently if I had an iPad, but I don't have one (and can't see myself buying one anytime soon.... or ever actually).
I've read recipes off my iPad in the past, but I honestly don't like it at all - the screen keeps going to sleep in between steps, and then I have to unlock it (usually with dirty hands). This seems like a great way to store recipes! I ought to start printing out my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI spent the summer adding recipes to Evernote. Before that, I had clippings, handwritten recipes, word docs, online bookmarks...it was just too messy. I do ok with Evernote, but it is quite small on my phone, and I don;t like having to wake the screen back up when I have food on my hands. But it's a relief to have 100's of recipes in one place!
ReplyDelete"...that area of the kitchen no longer makes me twitch when I look at it." Ha! Love it! I feel like I'm doing this now too - last night I organized the crap out of our linen closet and walking past it (it's in the bathroom) now makes me smile!
ReplyDeleteMy recipes are kind of hodge podge. I have some from cookbooks and I too have a binder although I pretty much only use what's stuffed in the front pocket and not what's actually IN the binder. You might have inspired me to fix that! :)
I agree with all of the other commenters; I have tried using my phone, but it keeps going to sleep and then I have to wake it up, often with batter covered hands. It's not good. So I generally print mine out and I have a little recipe file where I put them all. When I was younger, I was a bit more of a hoarder and I used to print them and/or get them from magazines all the time. So I also have a binder like yours with a TON of recipes that I have never even tried. However, that is in storage, because when I moved to Oakland I did not move all of my things, as I did not plan to be here very long. I guess it's time to start thinking about moving the rest of my stuff down here!
ReplyDeleteI have a ton of recipes from the days when I got Rachel Ray and other cooking magazines, and they are (mostly) organized in a binder, but they need to be redone and reorganized. There is a plethora of cookbooks in my house, too, though I don't use those as much these days. I do need to get some new dishes in the rotation, so thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteI will often look at a recipe if it is on my phone but it does bother me when the screen does dark, I have to swipe, all that jazz.
that is an awesome idea! I might have to steal it. I have some organization projects I need to tackle around the house to. Maybe with this spring like weather this weekend it will inspire me to do some spring cleaning :)
ReplyDeleteOh, this is a good idea. I have no current way to wrangle my recipes.
ReplyDeleteI keep everything digitally (makes it so much easier for me to search things that way) and I use my tablet or ipad to review the recipe while I'm cooking.
ReplyDeleteYour pile of recipes is so small compared to my conglomeration! I do have some in binders but still more just loose and that is something I look forward to organizing when I retire! That and sewing quilts is on the top of my list. There is no end to the work one needs to do! Glad you tackled this one!
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of recipes in a binder, but now I need to get plastic protective sheets to keep them safe and clean!
ReplyDeleteI don’t print recipes. I just a running list of my favorite recipes on a Google Doc, and then I have a Pinterest board for recipes I’d like to try. I’m not super adventurous when it comes to cooking, so I mostly stick to my tried-and-true favorites. But…all that said…I was going to talk about how I use my iPad or iPhone and then I read through some of the comments above and realized, YES, I get annoyed with using my iPad/iPhone, too, because the screen always locks. It’s very annoying! I should just start printing recipes and organize them into a binder, but I have a feeling that’s a project I will never get around to, ha. Using my iPad/iPhone is more convenient for me… if also very annoying. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhen I went off to college my mom made me a notebook like this, and added a few of her recipes to it. But while I've thrown a few magazine pages into it, I've never really used it to its full potential. Instead I really tend to save recipes on pinterest, which works great, at least until the day when the blogs remove their posts or pinterest stops existing.
ReplyDeleteI am impressed -- it looks terrific! I have been thinking about that same system for a long time. Right now I'm printed out and then in a pile (not by category, alas). Then when I get a big enough pile, I put them into a "Paris" box from Michael's. (I now have three big Paris boxes). Do you see the problem?!
ReplyDeleteI am impressed -- it looks terrific! I have been thinking about that same system for a long time. Right now I'm printed out and then in a pile (not by category, alas). Then when I get a big enough pile, I put them into a "Paris" box from Michael's. (I now have three big Paris boxes). Do you see the problem?!
ReplyDeleteI spent a weekend doing this last year. I don't like working off Pete's iPad because I'm klutzy and am worried about knocking butter or flour onto it while I'm cooking or baking. I organized my printouts similarly to the way you did and it is so much easier for me to pick out recipes. I have been bad about making new recipes lately, so this post is a great reminder to look at everything I've printed in my binder!
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I've been meaning to tackle for a long time and just haven't yet! Ours are in a binder, but not all of them are three hole punched, so there is a huge pile at the front. Must get on it!
ReplyDeleteI do print out recipes from time to time. I usually make them once and decide whether to keep them or not. For the recipes I keep, one thing I try to do is put them in contact paper, so the spills don't ruin the recipe. For now, I keep them in a pile inside the flap of one of my recipe books. Some day, maybe I'll get as organized as you. For now, I consider it a win if they're not sitting in a pile in the middle of our counter. =D
ReplyDeleteyou need to get on pinterest! Boom recipes galore, everything you need in one place. I love it esp when I am grocery shopping. I can just pull up the app on my phone and if I am making a meal or need ideas from what I had pinned it's all there. I guess, since everything is in one place I love it for that reason.
ReplyDeleteYou would be disturbed if you saw my collection of recipes ... torn from magazines, printed out, printed out again because I couldn't find the first print out, etc., etc., etc.. I have a filing cabinet full and piles all around the house. It's a serious problem, haha!
ReplyDeleteYou would be disturbed if you saw my collection of recipes ... torn from magazines, printed out, printed out again because I couldn't find the first print out, etc., etc., etc.. I have a filing cabinet full and piles all around the house. It's a serious problem, haha!
ReplyDeleteOoooo I am very jealous of this! I go both ways. I either use cook books, I jot the recipe down on a recipe card, or I use my kindle fire! But that is tricky - b/c my hands get messy, and then I have to wash my hands everytime I need to refresh the screen....
ReplyDeleteI love my super organized sister :)
Such an awesome organizational project! I also recently tackled organizing a massive stack of papers that were in our kitchen into different file folders and it felt so great to get it done and get them out of the way!
ReplyDeleteI mostly access recipes on my phone or online and very very rarely print them out. When I find a recipe online I want to try later I email it to myself and I have a recipe folder in my gmail that I periodically go through though I admit I haven't been super creative in the kitchen lately and tend to eat the same things over and over again recently with the meal planning and prep I've been doing. One thing I really want to do is spend a whole afternoon making crockpot ready meals to go in the freezer. Ones that I can just take out and dump in the crockpot in the morning! One day...
Oh, I have to do this. I started printing recipes and putting them in binders, but they are not organized and I am constantly searching for a specific recipe....
ReplyDelete