Organizing Recipes!

Diving right in today... 

Here's my old system: 

When we first got married these magnetic folders were cute and worked great, and held the hand full of recipes I knew how to make quite well. But as time went on and I acquired more and more recipes that we loved, they started to get over stuffed and not look so cute anymore (not to mention that the magnets could hardly hold them up!) 

So it was time for a new system. I had this vision of a cute little binder with plastic page protectors divided to fit individual recipe cards, something that could look cute on my counter and maybe even come with extra recipe cards inside... But hadn't seen it anywhere. 

I was on a girls outing with my mom and sister and describing to them my dream recipe binder (they are such good listeners... I mean really, who wants to hear me describe my dream recipe binder? Oh! Wait! I just did it again, just without all the hand motions.... you must be a good listener too! My apologies, I'll stop now...) when lo and behold, the very store we were in had the EXACT thing I had just been describing!! My wonderful mother announced that she was getting it for me as a Christmas gift. 

It even has tabbed dividers for different categories inside. Truly, my dream come true. (happy sigh...)

Why did I want a binder, not a box? 

I mean, a recipe box is great, but I want the boys to be able to flip through the book and tell me what they want me to make for dinner. That's not gonna happen with a box.

So if you are looking for something similar, the brand is jesse steele, and you can find them on amazon. You can even order more page protectors (I already filled mine up and had to do that) 

Other tips for organization, kind of pertaining to recipes, but not really. Make a grocery list and go shopping once a week. It's much more enjoyable if it is not completely overwhelming. The once a weeker thing is huge for me. 

Also, I have a chalkboard in my kitchen where I write down and check off what meals I am planning to make for the next week (or two) It helps me remember what I bought and use things up instead of having things go to waste. There are lots of cute ideas on pinterest for displaying your weekly meal planning too I believe. I don't plan my meals by the day (like monday- stir fry, tuesday- enchiladas) I usually just buy enough to make three or four meals (planning for leftovers) a week and then we see what we feel like that night. 

I also have a few recipes that whenever I make them I double them and freeze a whole dinner in case I don't plan for enough for one week (or we run out of money in the food budget by the end of the month...) 

 OH! and I almost forgot! I have one whole recipe card dedicated to dinners that I don't need a recipe for but will forget in the rotation if I don't have them written down somewhere. 

Things like cheese steaks, hamloaf (premade at our grocery store) spaghetti, tacos, mac and cheese and stewed tomatoes, dried beef gravy, roast, chicken parm, shish kabobs, pulled bbq chicken, chicken croquets etc.