February 9, 2010
Personalized Recipe Binder
A lot of people have been sharing lately how they keep track of their recipes.
I suggest you also check out Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home’s system and Aimee @ Living, Learning and Loving Simply’s system for more ideas.
I would also like to add to that discussion! I’ve included some pictures so you can see what I’m talking about.
Firstly, there’s a bit of history to system. I received this lovely recipe binder as a shower gift when we were engaged more than 4 years ago! It was given to me at a family shower from all my aunts, cousins, great-aunts, grandmother, etc. It was a really lovely gesture and I am still so appreciative of it now.
This is the outside:
This is the inside flap. There’s a handy slot that I keep small miscellaneous recipe books in. I keep my bread maker book, a mocktail guide I got in the mail, and a recipe for a dessert that a friend of my printed for me.
You can see how there are little tabs along the side that divide the book up into the various categories (my apologies for the terrible picture!):
I keep all of my recipes in a word document on my computer that I update frequently. Every few months I re-print it and I put it into my binder in its appropriate sections. This keeps it organized, clean, and up-to-date!
I also have the original recipes that my family gave to me. To be honest, some of them I have never tried, but I really appreciate that family spent time sharing them with me and I’m keeping them in there as a nice memory!
How do you organize your recipes? Any tips you can share with me?
Posted in Kitchen Tips, Organization, Crafts/Homemade Gifts, Menu Plans
Ally says; February 9, 2010 @ 11:57 pm
I am totally jealous of your organization! I do have a binder, but mainly they are scribbled on printer paper and stuffed in a page protector. Anyway…great system!
Stacey says; February 10, 2010 @ 12:38 am
I write out my recipes on cue cards, then hole-punch the top left corner and put them on a key ring alphabetically, then they hang on a nail in my room beside my door =P This is only for recipes that I’ve tried and love! Recipes I haven’t tried yet are written in a little book I keep in the kitchen with the other recipe books, and when I’ve tried them, then I either rip the page out and toss it (if I didn’t like it) or rewrite it on a cue card for my keyring (if I love it!) It’s pretty handy! =)
Laurie says; February 10, 2010 @ 6:08 am
I like Alton Brown’s idea where he makes copies of the recipes from cards or cookbooks and puts them in page protectors in a binder. This way they don’t get messy while cooking and you can pull the page up and make marks/changes easily. With most of my recipes, I am constantly adjusting so this makes it nice. My daughter has her own so if we like the same recipe, but in different ways, we make the adjustments to our own copies.
Emily says; February 10, 2010 @ 8:59 am
Your binder is really cute! I’ve been noticing people talking about their recipe organization methods, too, but I usually find all my recipes online, so I don’t know if I could make any of these methods work for me.
I do have a few recipes I have that are handwritten and they’re mostly compiled in a spiral notebook my mom wrote for me when I got married. Does that count???
Mandy says; February 10, 2010 @ 9:09 am
Your binder is cute!! I depend on my recipe binder so much for meal planning and grocery shopping, I don’t know what I’d do without it!
Erin says; February 10, 2010 @ 9:12 am
I find that I use a mixture of recipe cards and printout in sheet protectors (poly pockets). If we like a recipe enough to have it several times it gets copied onto one of my pretty cards and added to my box, otherwise it lives in my recipe/menu ideas binder.
Administrator - Alison says; February 10, 2010 @ 11:28 am
Ally, haha…I have always been organized! It’s an addiction I have. lol. At least you have a binder! That’s more than most people have.
Stacey, That’s a good idea too!! Thanks for sharing.
Laurie, I agree that page protectors help out with the spilling and general messes that kitchens involve! Because I update my typed document so often I’m kind of weary of doing that as I’d constantly be adding more page protectors. But maybe I should consider it and make it a rule to keep my recipe list down to the amount of protectors I have! Thanks for sharing your tips.
Administrator - Alison says; February 10, 2010 @ 12:08 pm
Emily, I find a lot of my recipes online as well! I simply re-type or copy and paste them into my master word document. Then when it’s time to update I re-print it and hole-punch it and put it into my binder. It works well that way.
Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Hi Mandy! Thanks for the comment.
I fully agree with you - having a recipe binder makes life SO much easier! My binder holds the recipes I would have most ingredients for on standby so it’s a perfect choice for menu-planning.
Erin, that’s cool that you have a two-tiered system of how you organize your recipes. Seems like a great system that works well for you!
~m says; February 10, 2010 @ 12:33 pm
this is sort of what i use: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B000HT795I/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=1064954&s=office-products
it’s meant to be used as an art portfolio, has page protectors (splatter proof), and stands up!
the downside is that because it doesn’t have rings i can’t add more pages or easily rearrange the recipes. if i went all out and printed all my recipes, i’d probably just buy one portfolio for each major type of cooking i do.
Cate says; February 10, 2010 @ 12:59 pm
Haha–I have that EXACT SAME recipe binder! I like it pretty well–it’s definitely cute–but I’m starting to run out of room in it, and I don’t like that everything from bread to caramel popcorn ends up in the “miscellaneous” folder…but mostly I like it! I just print off copies of my recipes, punch holes in them, and file them that way. I’d die without my recipe binder, too!
Administrator - Alison says; February 10, 2010 @ 2:06 pm
~m, That’s a neat idea!! Your idea of buying a separate portfolio for each genre would work well.
That’s hilarious, Cate!! What are the chances?! As I said, I received it for a shower gift over 4 years ago! Funny.
I agree that not having other categories makes it difficult. However, I decided to put things like bread under “side dishes” as it’s usually in addition to a main meal. And something like caramel popcorn I would put under “appetizers” or “desserts” depending on how often I use it. That has worked for me. Thanks for your input!!
Jenny says; February 13, 2010 @ 8:20 am
Hi. Just stopping by to check out your site.
I love the look and you have some great posts 
Administrator - Alison says; February 13, 2010 @ 5:21 pm
Thanks, Jenny! I’m glad you came by. Feel free to stop by often!