Organizing Your Recipes

From Jennifer Allen

I love to collect recipes. There is a love of cooking and collecting recipes passed down from my great-grandma to my Mom then to me. I have been collecting recipes since I was 16. I have changed the way I keep my recipe collection several times. I started out in one of those recipe folders, but quickly outgrew it. I then switched to card holders. I outgrew that as well. This is my current system:

This is very simple and inexpensive way to keep your recipes organized.Buy a shoe size plastic container with a lid for $1.00 at Walmart. Buy card separators and write your categories on the tabs. These are my categories:

Appetizers and Dips

Jams, Jellies, and Preserves

Breads

Beverages

Fish

Biscuits & Muffins

Soups,Salads,&Dressings

Casseroles

Fruits

Snacks

Beef

Chicken/Turkey

Beans

Potatoes

Pasta/Rice/Grains

Sauces & Gravies

Mixes

Vegetables

Misc.

Canning

Freezing

Eggs/Breakfast

Candy

Pancakes/Waffles

Cookies

Cakes & Frosting

Pies

Desserts

I keep extra 3 x 5 cards in the very front of my recipe box to grab for any that I want to write down instead of print.

When I create my menu plans each week I pull those recipes out of the box. I have a recipe folder. On the left side I put recipes I'm interested in but haven't filed yet. On the right side of the folder I put all the recipes I will use for my menu plan this week. When the week is through I take those out and put them back in the recipe box.

When we bought our house the previous owners had installed this nifty pull down shelf in the kitchen. I don't know what they used it for. I put it to good use. That's where I put the food magazines I need to look through and the green folder with my current recipes in it.

I can push this up and out of the way. Works great! If I didn't have this I would put my current recipe folder in the cabinet with all my recipe books.

A couple of times a year I go through my recipes and get rid of the ones that may not have been awful but certainly weren't a big hit. As I am cooking if something was really great I put a happy face on the recipe. Those become well used favorites! If the food from a recipe was awful it's a simple decision. I open the trash can and toss the recipe (okay, sometimes the food too). Keeps life easier. Not making that mistake twice! This makes for a happy hubby and less waste of my food.

I hope this was helpful. You can customize these ideas to fit your own cooking needs. For other ideas on organizing your recipes go here. You can also see Part One of Recipe Organization here, then Part Two of Recipe Organization here. These are good post to read if you print a lot of recipes off the internet to keep.