Getting Organized – Recipes

One thing I realized as I was moving for the second time in two years – I have a lot of recipes! Do I use them? Not so much. Why? They are scattered everywhere! You know what I mean – recipes scribbled on tattered pieces of paper, ripped out of magazines, saved as photos on my phone, written on index cards in a recipe box, etc.  Whenever I think, “Oh, I’d like to make ________ ,” I can never find my recipe. Then I go online to look up a recipe for it only to find it isn’t quite what I’m looking for or I’m tweaking it anyways. I’ve decided to put an end to all that! I’m getting organized!

Sure it will take some time, but when I’m done, it will be great! When I want to make a certain recipe, it will be at my fingertips. If I don’t know what I want to make or I’m bored with meals, I can flip through to find inspiration or that recipe I’d forgotten about. (By the way, the picture above is only a sample of the mess I’m facing.)

So next was to decide HOW to organize it all.  Once before I made a recipe card template on the computer to type them all out.  I thought I’d put them in my recipe box but also have them saved digitally so I wouldn’t lose them. That didn’t last long. It was just tedious to get everything to fit on that small of a format.

I’ve searched the internet for solutions. Everyone has their favorite. Although I haven’t found one yet that did everything I hoped it would, I discovered a free app called Pepperplate. I can add recipes on my computer using a full sized screen and keyboard but access them on either the computer or my phone app.  I started using Pepperplate a few years ago, but I was just too busy to do much with it. Now I’m excited to try again.

Soon I will be able to share recipes with my daughter and future daughter-in-law. Next time they ask for a family recipe or a new idea, I can share it with them through Pepperplate. I can send it through email, Facebook or Twitter.  I can print it out in several formats.  If I want recipe cards, I can print those. Or I can print in a larger format to make a recipe book to give to family and friends. And I can pull up the recipe on my phone when I’m at the grocery store so I don’t forget an ingredient.

Have you organized your recipes? What format did you use? Did you use any tools or apps you like? Share! We’d all like to know! And if you haven’t organized them yet, it’s ok. That’s where most of us are!