Organizing Recipes for $1

Hello all! Spring is finally starting to sprout it's little head! Thank goodness! Anyway, this week I have just a little treat for you guys. A few months ago I posted about my methods in preparing slow-cooker freezer meals, and let me tell ya, that has been one successful little post! It kinda makes me wish that I was more savvy in the kitchen so I could post about preparing meals more often. Unfortunately, I am not. Working on it though!

One thing that I have received a lot of feedback on, are the little recipe cards I used in that post. I created those a while ago but never actually took the time to sit down and transfer my recipes onto them. It's a daunting task, but I was motivated by you all and your requests for a printable. Your requests will not go unanswered! Get your free printable here {large size} {index card size}!

I'd like to think I'm a pretty organized person but when it comes to storing my recipes, I just hide them. I hide them in the back corner of our lazy Susan cabinet. Since I don't see them, they're clearly organized, right? Umm... wrong.

Truth is, I'm unmotivated to even use these recipes because they're so unorganized and difficult to find, so I typically resort to googling some kind of dinner recipe and just winging it. This has been successful on some nights, and very, very, interesting {for lack of a better word} on others.

Yes, that is a Star Wars cookbook, no I do not want to discuss it.

See, what I do is, when I find a recipes in a magazine, or someone shares one via email, I just print it out and shove it back in that corner. This is NOT an organized method. So I finally dedicated some time to getting that situation under control. To address the issue, I bought this little expanding file at Target {in the $1 bin!}.

Yes, it's green. If you haven't noticed by now, it is a favorite color of mine. I labeled the dividers in the expanding file with little divider stickers, they come with the file to make this super simple.

I created a label for each of the major meals that I prepare, or at least have recipes for. 

Let's just disregard my inability to evenly place stickers onto a file and to write in a straight line...

Using index cards, I printed off my recipe cards. I used index cards because I was feeling too lazy to get my paper cutter out and cut each card to size {one large chore at a time, please}. But if you're more motivated than me, don't worry, I attached printables in two different sizes. Now, time to get to work!

So I did what any reasonable person would do, I gathered all my materials and sat myself down for a nice West Wing marathon {I may be a decade or so late to this one, but have you guys seen this show? It's a good one!}.

After just a few dramatic episodes, I was all finished with copying down 25 recipes from magazines and emails and was ready to file them away neatly.

If you choose to do something like this, make sure you've just had your dinner. Going through all of these recipes can really get a girl's mouth to water!

After I finished with the file, I tackled one more recipe organization task {any excuse to watch one more episode}. My Pinterest board. Sometimes I get a little bit carried away with pinning recipes and ideas. Also, sometimes I try out a recipe and find that it really just isn't for our tastebuds. But, I leave it on my board, and inevitably go back months later and think "ooh I'll make that tonight!". Our tastebuds suffer, again. This could easily be avoided if I just took a few minutes to run through my board, and delete the pins I've made and don't like.

Look at all that deliciousness!

The other little step I do is I write small notes in the comments section of recipes I have made, so I can easily remember how much we loved them and any other little notes that may be useful.

Ok, so organizing my recipes has left me satisfied but also dissatisfied. I kind of wish I would have spent all night preparing these meals instead of just writing about them. Oh well, maybe tomorrow evening will be filled with deliciousness.

Cost: $1 - So awesome. I am definitely a number one fan of the Target $1 Spot.
Time: Several episodes of the West Wing. I probably could have gone a little faster, but I kept taking breaks to respectfully listen to President Bartlet speak.

Have you done any recipe organizing lately? Have you tackled some Pinterest clean up?

Thanks for visiting!