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Copyright © 2008 Happy Clean Living

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Recipe Book

I have been busy getting my recipes all organized. Recently I found "Controlling My Chaos" blog and she had the cutest dividers for your recipes. I knew I had to print them and put together a VERY organized recipe book. Woo Hoo!

As you may have guessed, I have been working on learning to be a better cook and learning how to cook with long term food storage items. One thing I have loved about the blog world is all the great cooks who share their recipes with me and share all their creative juices too! You all are very amazing women! I absolutely love blogging for this very reason ...... being motivated to greater heights every day. Thank you for all being great women and great examples to me and my life. I am becoming a better person everyday by the things I read. You are all awesome!
Here is my book from the print outs from "Controlling My Chaos". This is the front, back of the book. How cute is that?
I wanted a book instead of a box ... so I modified it a little.
Here are the dividers..... Cake, Pies and Cobblers, Fish & Seafood, Meatless Main Dishes.
Grilling, Salads and Dressings, Vegetables and Sides, Sandwiches & Spreads.
Appetizers, Breads, Beverages, Meat.
Poultry, Cookies, Soups & Stews, Pasta.....
And the last one is Candy. You can print all of these off at the Controlling My Chaos site at this link here.
To make my binder pages I used a real divider as my template. I added about a 1/2 inch to the bottom before I traced the pattern. I used 12 x 12 scrapbook pages and cut them out, added the picture (I used another scrapbook page under the picture and cut a boarder around the picture with fun scrapbook scissors - just to dress it up a bit).
I don't have a laminating machine. I've never really felt like I needed one, because I have always used clear contact paper. Recently they have made a Laminate contact paper - which I love and it's easy .... no machine I have to find a place for. Plus, over all - I am sure it's much cheaper. It's the frugal girl in me.
I covered all the pages with laminate contact paper and cut them out. Then I added them to my binder and went to work organizing all the recipes I have printed out from my blog and all of yours. It's very nice to get some organizing done and in a pretty way.
I also think it's a great heritage to have your recipes done in a scrap booking way for my children. I think I will make them a book for Christmas (I hope they are not reading this).
However, when I was putting my recipes in the binder.... it was missing some places I would like to keep certain types of recipes. Like Zucchini for instant. I felt Zucchini needed their own place - so when I am overwhelmed with zucchini I can go to one place and be inspired in what to cook. I had to then get my creative juices going and make my own pages. These are the pages I came up with on my own. I think they turned out pretty cute too.
I had recipes that didn't fit in Cakes, Pies, Cookies or Candy..... So I had to have a general Dessert page.
I have lots of recipes to use my powdered milk ..... so I came up with this divider. Now, I was really sad when I put it together that I miss-spelled Powdered with just Powder... Oh well... It's fine and I wasn't going to re-do it.
I am trying to figure out how to incorporate beans in everyday cooking. It needed it's own page too... It could have been with Meatless meals or even Meats... but I needed a section to get BEAN inspiration from...
Plus.... I wanted a section for Breakfast only too. I had a bunch of breakfast recipes. I thought this picture was cute.... a smiley face to start your morning out with.
I also needed one for sauces.

Don't you think this is such a creative cute way to organize your recipes. Most of the recipes I have in the book are step by step instructions... All have a picture of the final dish. I have them all enclosed in a plastic page protector to keep the recipe clean while I am cooking.

It's nice that as I continue to go through my other recipe books, I can take pictures and add them to my "Tested and True Recipe book". I hope to condense all my books into only 1 book. If it gets too big for one binder then I can expand it to two. Still .... it will be less space then the many cook books I currently have with recipes I don't use. I'm excited that I ran across this amazing woman who inspired me to control my chaos. :-D... Thanks!

11 comments:

Kimmie said...

What a FUN way to make your recipe binder exciting to look at!!

My recipes are all in plastic sleeves in a 3 ring binder and don't have any colorful cute dividers. I need to do something to add a little more Pizazz to my recipe collection!! Mine binder is pretty boring...just black/white pages in a blue binder! It works though...by having everything in plastic sleeves it doesn't matter what size of paper the recipe is on. It's functional.

Maybe this winter when we are stuck in the house without outside projects to work on I can give my binder a little TLC and make it a work of art and cute. Thanks for sharing!

I just love your excitement for life...It is contagious!!

Have a wonderful day!

Scrappy Girl said...

This is absolutely gorgeous Sondra! I love it. You put so much love into putting it together. I love the idea of giving books to your kids. It would be neat to make it one they can add to so you could give them a set of recipe "cards" each year.

I am getting so excited about New Moon! Your blog looks fantastic! I am going to add some more stuff to mine too! It's getting closer every day. I wish we lived close enough to go see it together!

Robyn said...

My sisters, mom and I have been planning on compiling a cookbook together for the last 2 years- so I have a PILE of recipes with no place to go (on envelopes, scrap paper, print outs- you name it). It's a mess! I love what you did with your recipes. I think I am going to have to copy you. :)

Nonna said...

That is so cute !!!

Zoey said...

Me too! Me too! I have recipes that are in a box, 3 different cookbooks, and then of course, the ones floating around on scraps of paper. I definitely need to get more organized with it all.

CB said...

You did a FANTASTIC job on this Sondra. You are so very talented!!
I wish I was organized enough to do this. It has been in my head for awhile but I have not made any progress.
Your book looks so great. I love how you did the dividers and even made a section just for Zucchini.
GREat job!!

Controlling My Chaos said...

Sondra, I love what you've done with the dividers and that you've made them work for you. I also like the additions you put into your book. Thank you for your sweet compliments, visiting my blog, and finally for linking to me. Your recipe binder turned out great. :)

Connie said...

Wow! I am so impressed. I love the dividers and the organization of the recipes! Very creative.

Small House said...

WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA!!!!!!!! I'm so glad you shared this. I've got so many stray recipes, this would be perfect.
Have a good one.
Sandra

Hesses Madhouse said...

CUTE! CUTE! CUTE!!!! I need you to get me motivated to do something like this! I have a daughter who will be graduating and heading off to college in 2012. Do you think I can actually do something cute like this for her for when she leaves? Wow! I'm just so impressed with people like you.

Anonymous said...

When I made my recipe binder, if it was a recipe past down from family I tried to make it like a tribute to that person on that recipe page. Makes it like a family heirloom by personalizing it with family memories and people.

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