What Works For Me

This is my way of organizing recipes. I thought I'd throw it out there so if someone wants to adapt it to their kitchen, they can. If you've got improvements, please let me know!

It's taken me at least 15 years to develop this system. I finally had just gotten fed up with stray recipes littering up my kitchen and pantry and so came up with this way that works for me.

First, I bought this accordian file box.

This recipe file is for all of the recipes that I've gathered that are still loose. These recipes are in that in between state of finding a copy and becoming a favorite. They look good either in the newspaper or RS Newsletter but I haven't tried them yet. They are all on different-sized scraps of paper.

I put all of these recipes in piles by category and then labeled the tabs in the file box accordingly. Just to give you an idea of what they're labeled--they are: Main Dishes, Mexican, Breads and Breakfasts, Smoothies, Fondue, Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Desserts, Soups, Salads, Veges and Dips, and Food Storage. That's just how it ended up based on my sorting through all of the loose recipes that I have.

The file box is full and messy, but all of the recipes in it are where they're supposed to be.

Now, if the recipe gets tried and is a keeper, it gets promoted from the file box and typed into the computer and I put a ".recipe" after the name of the dish when I save it. Even if the recipe is from a book, if it's a favorite that I will make again, I type it in. All of the favorites that I like to make and use often are now in the computer. When BJ left for college, I did a search to bring up all files with recipe in the name and made a CD for her. I plan on doing this for all of the kids.

This is also handy for when someone wants a copy of a recipe. I can find it and print it or email it very quickly.

Another thing I did was print up all of these favorites and put them in plastic sheet covers in this binder.
I made my own section dividers with colored paper.

Each recipe is printed nice and big and if it gets ingredients spilled on it I can wipe it clean.

It did take some time to type them all in initially, but it's worth it to have them so handy now. I think it took 3 or 4 days just to type in all of the cookie recipes (2-3 hours each day) but now they're easy to find and share. And now I'm only typing in one or two recipes a month. Easy peasy.

Also, if a friend emails me a recipe or posts one on their blog, I can just copy it and save it to a word document with .recipe after the name. I print up a copy and either stick it in the book if I like it or in the accordian file if I'll try it later.

Now I know why it took me 15 years to come up with this--technology had to catch up.