-When I was planning this enrichment I started out by asking dozens of people their method for organizing recipes to find out what worked for people and get some ideas about different methods but I found that the vast majority of people were in the same boat I had been in and were still trying to figure out what worked.I had dozens of cookbooks with only a few favorites in each, loose papers of recipes I got over the phone when I needed to know what was Grandma's recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies, and no order to meal planning. I'd be at the store saying what shall we have for dinner this week and would do the same things or forget important ingredients.
-I'm just going to present my plan of what I found works for me, then show some options of what I learned other people use, and then I'd like if we can have a discussion about what you have used and what has worked and hasn't worked for you. And hopefully everyone can all go home with at least a motivation to find a plan for you.
My Plan
-I've tried several methods in the past but I needed something easy to do, big enough to fit all of the instructions and room for notes, having a picture of the meal for me was essential because I need it to motivate me to cook, protection for messy recipes( a lot of my recipe cards have a sort of sample attached to them but not on purpose), and I like things to be cute if at all possible.
-I found an idea on the internet for meal planning that suggested gathering your family's 30 favorite meals and writing the recipe down so that you have them all in the same place and have even the most basic things written down with ingredients so you can write your grocery list. This alone helped me so much. I typed them (can usually find same or similar recipes on line and copy and paste), either took pictures of our dinner (or found similar or better appetizing pictures on line and copied and pasted), and put them in a 3 ring binder with sheet protectors. I have over 45 now but I started with just 30-you can start with 15 or whatever you can think of. I also have a few other recipes that I have started to add of favorite desserts that I use often and favorite side dishes that need a recipe.
-I made another binder with recipes that I wanted to try- some were torn from magazines, some loose, some printed from internet, some copied from cookbooks. I didn't spend much time just stuck them in sheet protector categories. If they turn out to be favorites I will add them to my other binder.
-I meal plan one evening with the sale adds if possible and then shop the next day. This generally works for me. If I ever don't plan and I end up at the store I have this handy dandy book of recipe ingredients so that I can just buy what's on sale and make sure I have the ingredients to make the whole meal.
Other Methods
-Recipe boxes
most common and many people share their recipes by giving you a recipe card
-recipe cards in plastic protectors
-Professional published cookbook of your favorites
-Taped in notebook or placed in sticky photo album
easy to do
-Stored on Computer
can organize in folders and use search engine in Windows
-Stored on internet like Google Docs or Online recipe service
some have shopping list generators
-Bookmarking favorite recipe sites-can organize your bookmarks with Delicious.com
-Stored in email Gmail will sort and send to folders
accessible from other computers or some peoples phones
-Make your own blog
recipes are easy to copy by highlighting and then clicking blog this. Then you can sort with labels and you hae your own on line storage. You cn also get your blog published into a blook quite easily
-Computer programs
have option of searching for ingredients
Big oven has phone apps for iphone and palm
The Recipe manager has ways to track blood sugar
Cook'N has ways to adjust meal planning for number of people in family and has free downloads
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