I've been meaning to organize my recipes for a long time and just got around to it this week. I'm hoping this will make meal- planning way easier and save me some time. For the cover I used this free template and just printed it out on our color printer.
In the front I have a blank calendar where I can write in our menu for the week with a wet erase marker. I included breakfast and lunch because we work from home I have to plan for those meals as well.
On the next page I included a shopping list to go with my menu. I can just grab this binder before we go to the store to make it easy. I might even be able to plan on the way to the store.
On the next page I included a page for recipes to try. Sometimes when I'm blog surfing or searching through my cookbooks I find something I want to try so I can jot down where the source is and have a list available when I'm planning my menus. I'll can also write on this sheet which recipes I've tried, makes the cut, and needs to be typed out to be added to the binder.
Here is a look at the Dividers I designed in PowerPoint. I have it divided into Breakfast, Entrees, Sides, Breads, Dessert, Drinks, and Party Foods.
I dug through all my cookbooks and compiled all the recipes that have ever made it into our rotation. Now I don't have to eat the same old things and have some variety to choose from. I found so many things we love to eat, but forgot about because we were stuck eating the same things because they came to my mind faster. Also all the recipes are tried, tested, and taste good; no gross recipes included. Every recipe I would ever need is in this notebook in one place.
I know it didn't take much crafty ability to make this, but I spent 8 hours on this baby so it deserves an honorable mention on my craft blog. I love it and I feel like it's going to make my life so much easier.
