Most people are overrun with recipes with no efficient way to store them. They have recipe books, recipe magazines, index cards, loose sheets of paper, etc. Then when they want to cook something, they have to dig through all those piles to find the recipe they want. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are a few different ways you can keep your recipes in order (sometimes a combination works best rather than one method):
- Use old-fashioned index cards and re-write each recipe onto a card. Or, you could do what I’m doing and get 5×8 recipe cards and cut the recipes out and glue them (tape works, too) onto the cards. I LOVE recipe cards and want to keep using them so this is what I came up. It only takes a minute to glue a recipe onto one of those big cards.
- Use a three-ring binder divided into sections (use dividers with pockets and store recipes you want to try in the pockets). Then when you get a new recipe you just put it in the notebook. When you’re ready to cook, you can either put the notebook on your counter or pull out the just the page you need. You can also put your recipes in sheet protectors so they stay clean. I don’t personally like sheet protectors because I like to make notes on my recipes.
- Use file folders. Get a filing box with hanging folders for each category and put your recipes in the folders – it’s kind of like a giant index card box but your recipes can be on any size paper.
- Use your computer. Keep all your recipes on your computer. You can download, scan, type –whatever works for you. The only problem is when you want to use a recipe you either have to set your computer on your counter (assuming you have a lap top) or print the recipe out.
And one final tip I heard recently: if you have a lot of magazines or cookbooks, photocopy the index of each magazine or cookbook and keep the indexes in a 3-ring binder. When you need a specific recipe, look through the indexes, find what you need and retrieve the appropriate magazine or cookbook.
So get to work and get those recipes in order!
