Now blogging at THIS SIMPLE HOME.

Now blogging at THIS SIMPLE HOME.

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  • Homemade Magic Shell - I remember having Magic Shell once as a child. The chocolate syrup drizzled over my ice cream magically turned crispy hard. Mmm... So I was rather excited t...

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Organizing Recipes: Something Different




This could also be titled, "Annette's Best Idea.  EVER."  Okay, that may be going to far.

Since we got our laptop a year ago, I have been collecting lots of recipes on-line.  Allrecipes.com is by far the site I use most often.  It wasn't long before I started putting my recipes in Word documents. There was still a problem though.  The laptop needed to be in the kitchen to use it for a recipe.  (And I needed to have enough clean counter space, too!)

During the summer on a sleepless night I hatched a plan.  I would type my most frequently used recipes into Word documents, not just the ones from the internet.  This took many months to get most of my recipes...it's a long process, you know!  I knew I wanted to print them on colored paper so I could easily find which page I wanted.  The last step is to laminate them.  Laminating makes them somewhat childproof (see photo above) and easy to wipe off in the kitchen.  Since I have a personal laminator, this was easy for me, but you could take them to a teacher supply store, too.  Contact paper would do, but probably not as well.

Oh, see the watermarks?  I thought that was pretty clever.  (Sorry to sound prideful...I'm not clever too often.)












I store them in the cupboard vertically.
(Oh, those baby bottles may need a new home.  E is now drinking from a cup all day long!) 

So this is really working for me.  Something to keep in mind is that you only want to use this method of storing recipes for "tried and true" recipes.

I just realized I have not shared my French dip recipe with you.  I must.  It is so, so good!  (It never disappoints me, though I am occasionally disappointed in restaurants when I order a French dip.)  I'll share sometime soon.

Do you have a kitchen tip for me?  Maybe you have a better way of storing recipes?  Do share and leave a comment!  If you end up trying this, let me know!

10 comments:

Steph H said...

This is a great tip actually and I love how you watermarked the type of dish it is. Great Great idea. I am inspired!

Jennifer said...

I LOVE THIS!!!

I've been trying FOREVER to find a way to organize my recipes!

I have a huge ziploc bag full of recipes that I want to make, so I decided that for my monthly menu planning I'm going to try one new recipe a week. If the family likes it, it goes in the recipe book. If not, in the recycling bin!

~ Jennifer
http://thetoyboxyears.blogspot.com

Keri said...

ohh you crack me up- the watermarks are a very clever idea indeed! my recipes are ALL over the place- from several books, online, I even have a recipe box that I stuff printed recipes in. So i have no organization in that department, however, if I could do anything it would be to store them all on the computer- and somehow have my menu's pull all the ingredients from my recipes and create my shopping list- oh, and it would also keep track of all my food storage so I would be sure to use it before it expires..... and I guess I would have to install some type of touchscreen monitor in my kitchen so I could view the recipes while cooking! hey a girl can dream, right?

Sheena said...

What a great idea for those recipes you use all of the time! Might just have to steal this one!

Anonymous said...

This is a great idea...an even more creative extensive use would be to use your recipe laminates as placemats :)
However, I love making my own cookbooks using the binders from www.meadowsweetkitchens.com

Ticia said...

I have to admit mine tend to be printed off as I need them. But I do have lots that are on index cards and then stored in mini-photo albums, you know the type you just slip the picture in.

Anonymous said...

Great idea!!!
allrecipes.com is my favorite too!

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JennRawks said...

this is a great idea. have any ideas for hating cooking?

IHeart Organizing said...

Wow, such a great idea! I love you decided to come up with a system that worked great for you, and that you worked through implementation! :) Virtual high fives to you!!

xoxo,
Jen

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