Recipe Binder

If you're like me and you like to try different recipes, then you know how much of a struggle it can be to keep all those recipes organized.  I will find a recipe online and either print it out or, when the printer was low on ink, write it out on notebook paper.  If the recipe tanked, then it was easy to figure out what to do with it - round file.  But if it actually turned out to be good and something my family enjoyed, then I'd have to find a way to keep it.

I've had a recipe binder for years, but never quite figured out a way to streamline the process from printing the recipe, filing it in the binder, and using it again and again; and - the tricky part - keeping the recipe clean while I cooked or baked, because I'm sloppy. 

I would take the recipe out, set it on the counter while I prepared it, and it would inevitably get something on it - oil or butter, juice from a piece of fruit, sticky honey, etc,.  Well, because I'm cheap and I don't want to keep printing out recipes over and over, I would keep it, even if it looked, well, like this:

Yeah, not too pretty. This one of my better-loved recipes, tried and true.

My other problem would be what to do with recipes that weren't on 8.5 x 11 paper, but on an index card, a post-it (yep, I have a couple), or some other form taken from a magazine or mailer. I can't exactly hole-punch them, so they would end up in the front pocket of the binder, never to be seen or heard from again.

So, I decided to streamline my recipe system, so that these issues would no longer be, well, issues.  First, I divided my recipes into categories - Breads, Main Dish, Pasta, Soups/Stews, Sides/Snacks, Sauces, and Desserts.  Then I found some dividers that are sturdy and have a pocket on the front.  They are also transparent so I can see those little recipes that might get hidden in there, like my recipe for Alfredo (which I just realized should be filed under "Sauces" instead of "Pasta").

I can also store full-page recipes there temporarily, until I can hole-punch it later (I'm a procrastinator, too).

But I still had the issue of how to keep my recipes clean while I was cooking.  Then one day it just came to me, like a flickering light bulb over my head:

"I already have a binder with a clear pocket in the front, I could just put the recipes in there!"

I heard angels singing, there were cherubs flying through my kitchen, and I saw a deer out front.  Okay, there wasn't a deer, there was a rabbit.  But I live in the desert and they're pretty common here.  But it WAS a special moment!

See?  It sits in there, completely protected from any mishap that I might happen to infringe on it.  Then, my binder gets dirty, but my recipe stays clean.  And, my binder can be wiped clean! (As you can see in the picture above, this recipe has endured war wounds, as well.)

My binder used to be decorated only by a piece of construction paper I cut to fit in the spine, labeled "Recipes" with a sharpie.  But I finally decided to decorate it with some pretty paper and stickers.

This system works perfectly for me!  How about you?  How do you organize your recipes?