Kitchen

[Moonlady]

I have recipes in every format. Just as in the business world, where computers were supposed to eliminate paperwork, and didn't, I still have them on cards and in books.

I have those personal cookbooks that you can get at B&N for a song, and enter our favorites there. It's my own cookbook and I like that. Upon request, I'll print the ones in a computer file with the heading, "[Smith] Family Favorites."

[ChynnaBlue]

I'm another for binders and sheet protectors. I love Oceantown's idea of the computer to organize and then print.

Puppy Lips, I would go through all the recipes you've saved the same way I have to go through any of my clutter and really look at them. Decide if you're going to use them and, if not, throw them out. Consider number of ingredients and prep time in your decisions. If a recipe says it needs 15 ingredients you don't normally have on hand or never see yourself using or requires 30 minutes of prep time and you aren't willing to spend more than 15 minutes, toss the recipe out.

Of the ones you want to try, pick a few to try next week and use the ingredients lists to create your shopping list.

If you don't, you're never going to use those recipes, so just throw them all out.

[Puppy Lips]

On 2/27/2014 ChynnaBlue said:

I'm another for binders and sheet protectors. I love Oceantown's idea of the computer to organize and then print.

Puppy Lips, I would go through all the recipes you've saved the same way I have to go through any of my clutter and really look at them. Decide if you're going to use them and, if not, throw them out. Consider number of ingredients and prep time in your decisions. If a recipe says it needs 15 ingredients you don't normally have on hand or never see yourself using or requires 30 minutes of prep time and you aren't willing to spend more than 15 minutes, toss the recipe out.

Of the ones you want to try, pick a few to try next week and use the ingredients lists to create your shopping list.

If you don't, you're never going to use those recipes, so just throw them all out.

Thank you for all your replies. ChynnaBlue, I think you verbalized best what I needed to hear. So many have used the binders idea, so I think I will organized them that way. But I need to go through them all the just throw out the ones I will never use. For me, making "Hamburger Helper" is cooking, so I am not likely to spend too much time making anything really fancy. Too many steps or too many ingredients turns me away from most recipes.

[GloriBee]

Great minds think alike! I keep a binder of my tried and true recipes. Each section has pockets for recipes I might have cut out. I always used to print everything out and would have piles. Favorite recipes that I have actually tried (and we like) go in the binder.

I also have recipes saved by category on my computer. These are usually the ones I have gotten form this bb--great recipes!

To be honest, Pinterest has helped me so much and gotten me so organized! I no longer print out recipes. I am sure I have saved a few trees! I have a huge cookbook collection, and I have cut back on that, too. I have found a lot of my tried and true recipes and pinned them to the appropriate folder on Pinterest. I love it!

Gloria

[chickenbutt]

Great idea, those who mentioned backing up whatever you store on your computers!

I have several computers and also keep several external hard drives and flash drives. Everything I don't want to lose is stored on at least two of my computers and at least two of my externals.

You learn that the hard way, sometimes! In the way past I've had computers die and nothing was stored anywhere else so I lost it all. Now I'd have to have quite a few electronics die to lose anything important.

[VaBelle35]

I rip and print recipes out of magazines and put them in a file folder. I review them almost weekly when I draw up my shopping list and decide what I am going to make for the week. I have one file for savory and one for sweet.

If a recipe is in there for more than a year (I can tell by the date on the page of the magazine) and the "season" for it has come again and I have no interest in making it any time soon, I toss it.

I have started pinning things from magazines now, so I no longer have as much paper. In about 8 months I should be done with these 2 paper files and should no longer have any paper "to be made" recipes.

For older recipes that are tried and true that I keep in a binder, as I make them again, I pin them (if they are pinnable) and remove them from my binder, reducing the size and weight of my binder.

[forrestwolf]

I have a couple of sites that I store my recipes, and I can save from their site, from another site, or my own recipes, and make whatever heading that I want to save them under.......... I have many......very many cookbooks, and I do have somewhat of a photographic memory, so that I know which cookbook I need to go to for a recipe, and then I have page numbers written in the back of the cookbook to be able to go to the exact page quickly........I still have my mom's old card/metal box system, and I would never part with those recipes written in her handwriting, and my grannies recipes as well, but I have put them in my cookbooks online, and I am going to take my wand and scan them in , in their hand writing, and add to my online books, that does have a backup........When I find a recipe in a magazine, then I just add the site/recipe to my online cookbooks, as I can not stand to have loose paper recipes, that are unorganized and difficult to find FOR ME...........My recipes are always a work in progress........I really need recipe AA...........and probably more than just a 12 step program..........

[nomless]

Big ring binders are too big to use comfortably. I found small ring binders (7" x 9") and sheet protectors that fit in them. I have one binder for each type of food....soup, chicken, casseroles, etc. These are very handy and work well for me.

[joannecha]

DH & I now keep our favorites in an on-line app. I think we use recipes like our closets--we use the same ones 80% of the time & the rest just sit there. We still have 2 shelves of cookbooks, but are slowly eliminating them from our stock.

[PamelaSue72]

I use binders for those paper recipes that look interesting and that I'll probably try. Once I've tried something, I'll either discard the recipe if it's not worth keeping or I will type or scan it into the computer.

For those recipes that we really enjoy, I'll put it into my own cookbook. Once it goes into that, I'll take a picture of the finished recipe, too, and scan that in.

I have a Recipes folder on my external hard drive to my computer. In that folder are sub-folders that have the title of where I found that recipe. For example, I have a subfolder for QVC recipes that I've copied and pasted. That way I know where the recipe came from.