help...how do u organize your recipes??

I have a recipe box that is OVERFLOWING with my recipes, newspaper/mag clipping....etc

do you re write them? transfer them to cards, binders?

Is there a website that helps or computer program you used?

I am trying to get my kitchen organize and this recipe box looks GOD AWFUL!

1st thing is 1st i am going to throw away recipes I have never used or dont plan on it. For my bridal shower everyone had to bring a recipe. I am tossing ones with seafood. Dh and I will never eat seafood....

TIA for any suggestions

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I have not found a good way yet but I'm trying.

Originally I had a recipe box but then it overflowed and I couldn't close it and many things didn't fit in that small of a size anyway. I also had a file folder and I have about 8 main cookbooks I go to often and I have e-mails, and bookmarks on my internet browser and I have saved word documents. I started to get annoyed with everything being everywhere and I now went to staples and got a large binder with those plastic sheet protectors and am trying to type up everything and/or transfer it straight to the binder so that everything is contained in one place. Like you said, this was when i started to throw out all the old recipes we don't use or tried and didn't like. I took just my favorites. The plastic is good too because if food gets on it, I can just wipe it off and I don't need to reprint the recipe over and over again. I also made an index (the names of the recipes we make a lot, by categories) so that I can quickly look at it and it can help me make my weekly menus and so that I remember what is in the binder easier.

When i get rich though (as if that will ever happen ) I would really like to make a hardcover cookbook via shutterfly or another photobook website like that. Where I can design the pictures and format and it will look and feel like a real cookbook- except personalized and I'll actually like all of the recipes!!

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

DH great aunt made me a recipe book using a binder, dividers and page protectors. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts I received for our bridal shower. She put in a whole bunch of recipes and wrote little notes on them about what she liked, how she put her twists on them, etc. Then I added my own as time went on.

I also have a box with recipes on cards.

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

Yea maybe I will just do a binder....i really need to fix that recipe box!

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I use a photo album...you just slip the recipes in the plastic where you would put pictures. Works great!

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

i made a binder that i organized into app's, main courses and desserts

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I use this recipe binder

Message edited 2/2/2011 11:02:59 PM.

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I wish their was an electronic way to store/organize them I am sick of the paper trail but having my laptop in the kitchen is just too much.

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I have a meat binder, a vegetarian binder, a binder for soups/salads/appetizers, and a binder for desserts/tips.

I use the clear poly sleeves and take out the recipe when I want to use it.

For the ones I had in a recipe box, I took them out, stapled them together and put them in the sleeves.

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I transfer a lot of them to index cards so that they will fit in my recipe box.

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I have found putting them in a binder is the best. Especially if its a full page that you ripped out from a mag - you put it in a sheet protector in the binder and its much easier to view than in an index card box.

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I have a computer program called MasterCook. I admit I don't really use it much because I don't really cook new recipes much but it's a great program.

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I keep them on my PC. I print them out when I go to make it.

Re: help...how do u organize your recipes??

I have a binder with clear plastic sleeves

i also started keeping a folder separate from the binder for recipes i cut out of magazines and want to try out.
I have to make it once before determining if its good enough to make again and go into the binder.

Before i did that i was just putting everything i saw into the binder and i wound up with a bunch of recipes in there that once i tried, i didnt like. So i re-organized it and its working better this way with the 'to try' folder