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Monday Motivation: Organizing Recipes

If you're one of those cooks who can whip up dishes without using a recipe, I applaud you. 

I'm not one of those cooks.  I need recipes - printed recipes.

Actually, I love written recipes. Especially ones written in the handwriting of the person who gave me the recipe.  I have recipe cards from grandmas, aunts, cousins, neighbors, co-workers, and church friends. 

My problem is having too many recipes and trying to keep them organized so I can find them when I need them. 

I've tried a few different types of organizing tools over the past 10 years and I've finally come up with a system that works for me.  Because every cook is different, there is no perfect system that will work for everyone. 

I found that I really like to use recipe boxes.  I have a nice solid oak box and I'm looking for an additional one as my current one is a bit "stuffed".  I'd like to have all of my baking recipes (breads, desserts, and various breakfast foods) in one box and  savory recipes (entrees, salads, sauces, side dishes) in their own box.

I also have a small binder with pocket dividers where I keep recipes that I'd like to try.  After they pass family approval, they get transferred to my recipe box.  I tried using a photo album with pocket sleeves to hold my recipe cards, but I wasn't happy with how the cards slipped around the book. 

I've come across several recipe systems around the blog world lately and thought I'd share them with you. 

1. Online Options:
         Mom's Online Recipe Organizer (MORO)
         one tsp. - keep your recipes online so you can access them anywhere
         Tip Junkie's guest blogger shares how to use Delicious (a bookmarking site) to organize recipes

2. Binder ideas
        To The Moon and Back - uses several binders for different categories
        Prudent Baby - cute templates to download for your binder
        The Organizing Boutique - great step by step instructions

3.  Recipe Card ideas
       Simple Organized Living - uses a large photo box as a recipe box       
       Source of beautiful recipe boxes
       Displaying heirloom recipes on Complete Organizing Blog


I'd love to hear how you organize your recipes.  Please share your ideas in the comment section or even better, send me an email with photos of your system and I'll share them in a future post. 
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