Every day we put together dinner, many times reaching forthe trusty recipe books or box, wouldnt it be nice to have them betterorganized. Find out how to organize your recipes once and for all and reduceyour daily stress!
You sit downto plan the menu for the week and get ready for another trip to the grocerystore. There was that recipe you made a couple weeks ago that everyone loved,where is it? You dig through handwritten papers, torn out magazine pages, andtattered index cards. Stop and read a card youre you remember now you weredying to try 6 months back. Somehow when it came to your home filingsystem you just never got to the kitchen. Now is the time to takeaction and get all those recipes organized!
Paper Recipes: As Im sure you have found printedrecipes come in many shapes and sizes. In order to begin your recipe homefiling system collect all your recipes together in one place. You will thenbegin by sorting them into categories. For example: vegetables, appetizers,main course, and desserts. You can either choose your categories before hand,perhaps with the help of a cookbook, or choose them as you begin to sort. Itspossible your categories will become obvious while you sort as everyonesrecipe collections are a little different. Some categories may become verylarge, if this happens consider breaking them into subcategories. Main coursescould be broken into Hot and Cold, or Vegetarian and Meat. Alphabetize yourrecipes within each category once you have them sorted.
While youresorting have you been coming across recipes that no one liked, you never made,or are something youve found a better recipe for? Now is the time to purgeyour collection. Dont put back recipes you arent going to use again now thatyou have everything spread out. Recipes you didnt like can just go into therecycling. If it is a recipe you still want to try I would suggest one of twooptions. You could admit you arentreally going to try it and recycle it, or you can create a recipes to trycategory in your home filing system. This category is great when you arelooking for something different or exciting! Then when you finally try them forthe first time you can either file them into one of categories you created orrecycle them!
Storing Paper Recipes:If you have varying size pages a standard recipe box probably isnt yourbest choice for storage, and now that you have your recipes sorted andalphabetized youll want just the right container. The good news is there areseveral economic choices for new containers to start your home filingsystem.
A simplenotebook can be used. Staple or tape your recipes to the pages and then use thespace around them to make notes about them as you try them. Make sure to leaveblank pages in each category so you can add additional recipes. Tuck any sizerecipe behind a tab in an accordion file. A three ring binder or photo albumare both excellent options. They both allow flexibility for sizes of recipes,and give you the ability to add in pages where you need them as your collectiongrows and changes. They will easily stay open while you cook, and can be easilycleaned off if you spill food on your recipe.
Electronic Recipes: Keeping our recipes on computers asoppose to on paper is becoming more and more common. When starting a home filingsystem for your electronic recipes you have two choices. Are you goingto store them on your computer or online?
You canfollow a similar layout to your paper recipes by creating categories withfolders on your computer. Storing your recipes in this way on your computer youhave the benefit of making your recipes entirely portable. If you have yourcomputer with you, you can access all of your recipes, no internet connectionneeded. They also sell software that willhelp you organize on your computer, the benefit of many of these is they canproduce grocery lists or help with meal planning. Keep in mind if you are intransition from paper to electronic scanning is a good option to move yourpaper recipes without having to retype everything.
There are anumber of different formats that you can use to store your recipes online. Thebenefit is many of these programs also can help generate meal ideas and grocerylists. Also you dont need your computer in order to access your recipes, allyou need is an internet connection.
Regardless whetheryou choose to go with paper recipes or electronic recipes dont underrate the effectof organizing the portion of your home filingsystem. Think of the daily frustration that could be eliminated byorganizing getting your recipes. Take the time to organize today!
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