Recipe Book Re-Design

Do you have one of these?

A large binder filled with random recipes that you've torn out of magazines, newspapers and printed off the internet?

Well I do! And it's busting at the seams!

Time for a little recipe book re-design...

First step, take everything out and discard the recipes that you will never make (you know the ones... they call for 20 ingredients - some of which you've never heard of - but it looks so pretty in the picture. Come on... toss it.)

Then, categorize the recipes you'll keep into piles based on food topics or meal times:

 Then, get some dividers to help keep things orderly in the notebook (I got the ones with pockets so that I can quickly stick a recipe inside the notebook in the proper category and then file it later):

Label the dividers according to the topics in which you sorted your recipes:

Put recipes back in the notebook inside plastic sleeves (this will protect the recipe from spills and splashes when you take it out of the notebook while cooking.

I also put a "table of contents" at the beginning which helps me with meal planning. I can just look at the category (chicken, crock pot, meat, etc.) and choose a meal that sounds good to me.

Stick some scrapbooking paper in the front cover and smile at a job well done!

What's your favorite recipe?