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  1. #1
    ahrimie is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    Default how do you organize recipes?

    in my attempt to organize my house (and my life!), i'm tackling little projects around the house. first, my recipes.. or, rather, just pieces of paper here and there or whatever's in my head.

    i want to organize it all though so that if i'm in a cooking rut (which i am often.. haha), i can just flip through it and muster up something. eating out often just isn't economical and i just have a hard time thinking of things to cook.

    how do you organize your recipes? in a binder, notebook, cards?? i want something not too bulky but big enough to see easily. or, do you have a different method that works really well for you?

  2. #2
    BeachBum is offline Emerald level (3000+ posts)
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    Really organized people use a computer program called "master cook" and if you have the time/ inclination to figure it out it really is wonderful.

    I use 3 ring binders with those clear plastic sleeves. I have one for entrees, one for breakfast and appetizers and breads, one for sides, and one for "to try". I only put recipes I've actually made (and want to make again) in the binders except obviously for the "to try" pile. I print a lot of recipes from online so being able to just print and put in a sleeve is easy enough. Plus the sleeves can be wiped off if they get splattered.

    It's not a perfect system, but it works well enough for me.

  3. #3
    egoldber's Avatar
    egoldber is offline Black Diamond level (25,000+ posts)
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    Google.
    Beth, mom to older DD (8/01) and younger DD (10/06) and always missing Leah (4/22 - 5/1/05)

  4. #4
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    I just finished my huge recipe project - I also did binders with clear sleeves organized into sections. It took me 8 months to finish!!!

  5. #5
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    Three ring binder here. I 3-hole punched a stack of white cardstock and tape the recipes to them. Most of what I have are cut out from the newspaper, printed from e-mails, or printed off the internet.

    I have a plastic zipper pouch that attaches to the binder rings in the front. I keep a stash of recipes I want to try in there. Once I actually confirm we like them, they get taped into a page.

  6. #6
    hellokitty is offline Pink Diamond level (15,000+ posts)
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    Mine is not really high tech, but it seems to work. I just cut out or print out the recipes I like, and then I used a photo album with those sticky pages and just stick the recipes in there. I know that it will eventually yellow, but it is the easiest way for me right now to get oddly shaped bits of paper into a binder w/o getting anal retentive over it. I am not a fan of recipe cards for some reason, I feel like everything is crammed in and difficult to read, so that is why I prefer a binder type of set up, and the one I have is easy to wipe off if it gets food on it.
    Mom to 3 LEGO Maniacs

  7. #7
    brittone2 is offline Blue Diamond level (20,000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by BeachBum

    I use 3 ring binders with those clear plastic sleeves.
    <snip>

    I print a lot of recipes from online so being able to just print and put in a sleeve is easy enough. Plus the sleeves can be wiped off if they get splattered.

    It's not a perfect system, but it works well enough for me.
    same here.

  8. #8
    ahrimie is offline Sapphire level (2000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bean606
    I just finished my huge recipe project - I also did binders with clear sleeves organized into sections. It took me 8 months to finish!!!
    8 months??! o dear! :P luckily, i don't have too many recipes. i don't cook THAT often but when i do, they're usually things i always make... i have a handful of recipes in my repertoire i rotate.

  9. #9
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    My system isn't the best because it's 3 different styles of organizing, but you might get some ideas. For newer recipes, off websites, or from friends or those from mags I do the 3-ring binder thing with plastic sleeves. I also use 3x5 recipe cards in a tin with pre-labelled dividers "meats", "desserts", etc. This is only because I inherited it from my grandma and she kept them this way. For smaller but new recipes I file them accordingly in her system. I don't know if you can still buy those recipe kits (because that's what it was) but it's very handy for flipping through, and takes up very little space. And then there's the stuff-it-into the cookbook randomly method. That, I don't recommend It'd be better to do all the recipes one way, but *I* know which ones are where.
    DS, Summer '07

    "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." ~Jack Layton

  10. #10
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    Yup. I finally pulled out all my old Cooking Light and Gourmet magazines, cut out the recipes I liked/wanted to try, recycled the magazines to clear off some bookshelf space, and organized the binder along with the other scraps of paper I had stuffed into various cookbooks -- that was my previous method of organization.

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