I have a confession: I collect recipes. Some people like stamps, some people like dolls. . .me, I like recipes. I’ve been collecting recipes for over 10 years (since I’ve gotten married) and well, let’s just say they were in need of some serious organization. I also collect cookbooks but I have a rule that if I haven’t used it at least once a year. . .it goes out to the trash. Since I can’t stand to loose a cook book, I make a point to cook from each one at least once a year. But I digress.
Getting Started Organizing
For some people it is sufficient to simply alphabetize their recipe collections. This is not the case with me. First of all, I have to many recipes to fit into anything besides a three ring binder. Secondly, I am too cheap to buy anything that’s not on sale so I need to know which recipes contain ingredients that are on sale that week. Thirdly, I also need to know which recipes are good for certain functions. (In case you’re wondering I am known for being a good cook. . .and never bringing the same potluck dish twice.) When I said that the recipes literally were taking over the kitchen–I wasn’t kidding. In my defense, I do cook a lot and I also cater a little and so I do eventually try everything. . .but I collect at a much more rapid pace than I try. Thus was born my recipe organization system.
Mastercook Software Saved the Day!
There are actually numerous places that you can keep track of your recipes on your computer. I use Master Cook software but you can even do it online. Most cooking sites like meals.com allow you to keep your own recipe box in which to do this. What you want at minimum, is a place to store all of your recipe ingredients that will also make a shopping list for you.
Master Cook will allow you to create your own cookbooks and then of course, includes several cookbooks. I have all of my recipes stored in “my cookbook”. In addition it will do nutritional analysis, as well as shopping lists and menus. So if I find say, 7 recipes that my family loves, I can make them into a menu and then click on a button and I have an automatically generated shopping list for a week of meals.
How to Get Started
All of my recipes are in a 3 ring binder. I then went through and added each recipe to my cookbook in my software. Yes, it took a ton of time but like I said, the recipes were taking over the kitchen. I had to regain control! I have my recipes filed alphabetically in my binder.
However, when I added the recipes to the software program I omitted the directions. The reason? It would’ve taken me years to do that! What I did instead was list the ingredients (and amounts), and then categorized the recipe into specific “events” such as dinner, potluck, or special brunch.
The Results
Like I said, this definitely took effort but the results were well worth it to me. Let’s say that I’m making my menu plan for the week. I have a brunch on Saturday, a super busy evening on Wednesday that necessitates a crock pot meal and that I’ve run through the local grocery’s circular and I’ve found chicken to be on sale.
I first search chicken and of course it pulls up a gazillion recipes. But the beauty of having it in a software program is the advanced search feature. So I search chicken and black beans and tomatoes which are all on sale. Now I have three recipes to make where most of the ingredients are on sale. Then let’s say I search ‘brunch’ and all the recipes I’ve added in the brunch category come up. Likewise, I can search crock pot recipes and I have a slew of those added too. Doing this is kind of like making a price book: it takes a lot of effort to start but the results are well worth it.
True Confessions
I know you’re thinking, “wouldn’t it just be easier to use the cookbook?” The answer is yes. . .if you have a few recipes. After adding everything to a searchable data base I have a grand total of 2,035 recipes. (I told you they were taking over the kitchen.) I have made all but 56 of them. (This does not include my own cookbook collection by the way.) Wondering where I get all these recipes? Look for my next blog. . .
Until then. . .happy cooking!
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