How do you organize and store your favorite recipes?

**KimZ** · 06-11-2011, 10:07 AM

How do you organize and store your favorite recipes?

I was thinking of creating a database on my computer.... but I thought I would see how everyone else maybe doing it incase there is a better way

**~Sherry~** · 06-11-2011, 10:44 AM

I use Living Cookbook on my laptop.

**oheoh's momma** · 06-11-2011, 04:17 PM

lord I need help with this, puter is upstairs and not with in reach of kitchen.

**nkotbjrkgirl** · 06-11-2011, 07:44 PM

i have mine arrainged in page proctectors by food type-- kinda old fashioned i know.

**Palooka** · 06-11-2011, 11:19 PM

Old fashioned here! The ones I print I put in folders with tabs.

I have my handy dandy box that I write down my favorite vegetarian recipes from cookbooks through out the years.

**Contrary Housewife** · 06-11-2011, 11:56 PM

I used to copy the recipe to a .txt file and keep it on my hard drive in a recipes folder. Some I have printed out and I have a drawer for them. More recently I write the ingredients on a post-it with a few notes and I keep them in a basket in the kitchen. I suppose that's my lazy version of index cards.

**KimZ** · 06-12-2011, 07:16 AM

Originally Posted by ~Sherry~

I use Living Cookbook on my laptop.

Whats a Living cookbook?

**acidcookie** · 06-12-2011, 08:27 AM

Most of my recipes I find online, so I just bookmark them into the "Food" folder on my bookmarks bar which is then divided into subfolders and sub-subfolders:

I rarely print recipes anymore; instead I just read them off my laptop screen or send them to my phone -- I have a browser extension that forwards my current URL to my phone's browser.

For recipes I find in magazines or elsewhere, I store them in a photo album. Each recipe usually fits nicely in one or two 4x6 photo sleeves.

**nuisance26** · 06-12-2011, 12:11 PM

~I print them on 4X6 index cards/cardstock and keep them in a photo album. The album I'm using shows 4 recipes per page.
Only a few of my cards have writing on the back as well. The larger size seems to fit the majority of recipes on the front space.
An album is very easy to reorganize or add to! I'm on year 7 with mine. ~

**zakity** · 06-12-2011, 12:46 PM

I have a file on the desktop called "recipes". They are organized into categories. I have things like dinner, breakfast, household medicines, breads, desserts, household stuff, jam/jelly, and misc. My list of meal ideas goes in here also. The recipes are saved as text documents. And, if i get enough recipes of one kind like brownie or cookie recipes, they get their own file folder inside of the appropriate file folder.

I also have a three ring binder with page protectors in it. When we use a recipe a ton or the boys need access to it, I will print it out and put it in the three ring binder. We only have a few printed out. I try to minimize printing as much as possible.

When the boys move out, I plan on sending them out into the world with a copy of the recipe file on their computers.

**NicJean** · 06-17-2011, 11:25 PM

We regularly #1 "fight" over the computer usage and #2 lose power. I do not keep things on computer for reference, I print them out, or copy in my chicken-scratch shorthand.

My recipes to try are marked with sticky note flags. Recipes I have tried, but not sure I love them, are torn out or copied and tossed into loosely grouped page protector sheets in a three-ring binder. (Once I've tried something a few times and have tweaked the recipe so its perfect for us, I copy to a card, a big one.) Most recipes are in a recipe box - a big one 5x7, that sits next to my dry chai mix in a kitchen cabinet so I can relax while perusing choices . . . yeah, right! My family favorites are recipe cards, tucked into a multiple pocket photo album, divided by page into categories. The album page holds 8 photos, or cards in my case.

I once saw a tv show where the owner had her recipes on cards that filled a narrow drawer in her kitchen, and loved the idea. Just a thought.

**Darlene** · 06-18-2011, 08:17 AM

I have 2 recipe boxes and also have a folder with bunches of recipes I've cut from magazines. I really need to do something with my pile of cut outs...
This year I turned one of the boxes into "Summer" recipes and it's made my most made summer fare easier to find.

**imagine** · 06-18-2011, 09:27 AM

I print them out on paper and keep them in a three ring notebook.

Have our own family cookbook that way

**Imarachne** · 06-18-2011, 09:28 AM

Since my computer crashes all the time, I keep mine in sleeves in a binder.

**greekislandgirl** · 06-18-2011, 10:18 AM

I get about 1/10 of my recipes from magazines, the rest from the internet, so the magazine ones, I cut out and put into a binder. The internet ones I just leave on the screen and work off the screen.

Once anything has been tried and it was good, whether from a magazine or the computer, I write it down in a notebook with all of my alterations and notes, and throw away the clipping or the website. I have these notebooks arranged by category (Salads, Soups, Pasta, Bread, Entrees, Desserts, etc).

I guess most people wouldn't bother to write them down but I am always changing the recipes anyway (or more often combining ideas from 4 or 5 online recipes) that it works for me. I have one notebook per year on average.