Comments on: Reader Tip: Make Your Own Cookbook

By: Tackling Our Debt

Tackling Our Debt — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:29:45 +0000

I started doing this in December with Christmas recipes and just carried on from there. I usually put in recipes that I find online that I love and I put them in the plastic inserts as well, so that I can have the recipe right beside me when I am cooking or baking and I do not have to worry about getting anything on the paper.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:00:01 +0000

I started one like this a few years ago, and have loved it! I too had also gotten overwhelmed by all the magazines and recipe clippings I had about! I have found that it also makes a great idea for a wedding shower gift that is fairly inexpensive! When sending out wedding shower invites you can ask for them to bring along a favorite recipe, then have a table of scrapbooking supplies set up where they can put together a page to add to the bride-to-be’s personalized cookbook!

By: Belinda

Belinda — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:45:56 +0000

I just started working on a binder for all of my recipes! It is so much work! I have been doing this challenge http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/organized-home.html and it was one of the things to do, but it is taking WAY more than a week!

By: Valerie

Valerie — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:16:13 +0000

I typed up a cookbook of all my recipes, divided into appetizers, main dish: beef, chicken, etc., desserts. I have a table of contents with page numbers and an index in the back, with a cover page with picture of a kitchen with “Cox Family Recipes” as the title. I bought a black and white laser printer, bought the 24 lb. (heavier) laser paper, printed it out (only prints 1-sided copies , then hole punched it, and put the little metal rings (from office supply store) to hold it together. This serves as a very cheap and well-loved wedding gift. I’ve given out more than I can count. Now, mine is in a binder with the sheet protectors, but that was a lot more expensive and time-consuming for gifts. You can always make that suggestion to the recipient – to at least transfer it to a binder.

By: Shari

Shari — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:09:00 +0000

Making your own cookbook…
I have done the binder and pages for years. I have run out of room. I have about 7 books. What I have also done in the past is save all of my recipes to a word document on the computer. The only problem is I would have to print it out or bring the computer into the kitchen. (not a wise idea when it is so big and heavy.) So what I have been doing recently is save all recipes to a word document then convert to a pdf and then save to my kindle. Which I can also access on my phone. So I have the recipes in a couple places just encase one of them failes. Oh by the way I have also saved the same above documents in a folder I created on yahoo. Never know when I might need a recipe elsewhere. I know this is exessive but I want my bases covered.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:51:18 +0000

I like this “Make Your Own Cookbook” idea using a binder & plastic page protectors. I am going to try it. Thx for the suggestion.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:43:55 +0000

I do the same thing and have a rating system for each recipe I use. I also make notes about little changes that I have done or which family members loves or hates. Not only is it helpful for myself, but when my husband is on his own with the boys they have some tried and true recipes of things they love.

By: Christin

Christin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:09:40 +0000

I gave one of these cute ones (empty) to my Dad for Christmas. I know he has a lot of recipes from magazines and the internet that he uses. He thought it was the best idea ever! It was from Barnes and Noble approximately $20 I think. It has pockets, dividers, and blank printer paper in the coordinating pattern so you can print from the internet and it will match the rest of the book. For my own book, I used a 3 ring scrapbook that was given to me years ago as a gift. It already came with sheet protectors. I had just never used it to scrapbook, but it’s perfect for recipes!

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:30:49 +0000

I store all my recipes electronically on my HD. I’d hate to think of the tree I’d kill printing out everything. I also keep a back-up copy of all my recipes on a flash drive I keep with me so if I’m at work/visiting I always have them with me. This makes it especially easy when you want to share a recipe(s)!

Most magazines/etc have their recipes online as well (or it’s findable) so it’s super easy to create your electronic cookbook in nothing flat. Any site I’m at I can “save as text*” and file it into my recipe folder, where I have additional folders in sections just like a cookbook. Of course it’s searchable too. Honestly, I don’t need pictures, but since the site name is saved when I copy it, I can reference/go back to the site if I need to. If you wanted to go the extra step and convert the text to word + add the photo you could, but I don’t bother to take the time.

I just bring my laptop into the kitchen. I do have a few recipes printed out and in my Household Notebook, but those are only ones that are beyond tried and true favorites, they must be something that’s earned a heavy rotation as well as personal 5 star rating.

In addition I recently found a site where I can enter a URL of a recipe – from any site, even works with a food forum I’m on, that will take a recipe posted and convert it to a grocery list — that you can add items to so you have just one list. http://www.saymmm.com/grocerylistmaker.php I wish it would scale recipes too, but given it works for most any site/blog I’ve found, I’m happy.

Hope someone finds this info useful.

*If you are on a PC, go to your File menu in the top left corner, pull down to “save page as” then name it and save it as a text file, choose to file this in the folder of your choice – and you’re done. Takes all of maybe 10 seconds.

By: suzanne

suzanne — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:36:42 +0000

We keep 2 binders with 1 being “to try” and 1 with “tried and true”. We also keep an index in the front of the binder with the names of favorite recipes, the name of the cookbook, and the page number. That way we don’t have to copy the recipe or look through every book trying to figure out which one it’s in.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:17:28 +0000

Use photo pages for the smaller recipes, and page protectors for the large ones. No need to fiddle. I bought the best quality three ring binders I could find as these get a lot of use. Found this idea in a magazine several years ago. Just reorganized mine last week on a getaway.

By: Selena

Selena — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:54:42 +0000

Oh my gosh, she IS the coolest! Your mom has really got it together!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:34:22 +0000

I LOVE cooking and I definitely prefer a little variety. I mostly get my recipes off of the internet, or from books in the library. I go through the books from the library and try recipes out. If I make them and like them I type up the recipe in Word and take a photo of the finished project and add it to my recipes folder on my laptop. Recipes I find on the internet get bookmarked and; again, once they have been tried and approved, they are added to the recipes folder with their own photo. I have printed these off and put them in plastic sleeves in a 3 ring binder; but I mostly use my laptop to access the recipes. One day when I have enough favorites put together, they will likely be categorized and such; but for now I like the convenience of accessing more than one at a time without flipping pages…and wireless internet access is helpful when I need to find information like how much dried herb to use in place of fresh, etc.

By: Joy

Joy — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:31:26 +0000

Love, love that idea!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:31:15 +0000

I have 4 binders. Dessert, Soup/Salad/Side, Meat/Main Dishes, Bread/Breakfast/Beverages. I put new recipies in the front pocket. I try to pull out new ones every time I write my grocery list. If we like it, it gets filed in the binder in a sheet protector… if we don’t like it… trash! I love this system! If I find a recipe in a book I will type it out or photocopy it to put it in my binder.

By: Nina

Nina — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:22:38 +0000

I bought several cheap photo albums. They have plastic covers and can hold 5×7 index cards in the plastic sleeves. I copy the recipes onto the cards. Right now everything is just in one album. But as I collect more, I plan to categorize the recipes into seperate books.

By: Brandy

Brandy — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:06:21 +0000

I have been considering doing this very thing! I print out so many recipes and I am sick of trying to thumb through folded up recipes but I’m too lazy to shrink all of them to index card size!

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:25:38 +0000

I LOVE this idea. I’ve been thinking through how to organize one for quite a while. My question for Sara is this… where did you get the pages for your book? or did you create them yourself?

By: Patty Gardner

Patty Gardner — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:17:36 +0000

I tried using a notebook but I hated it. I switched back to index cards but I use the big ones – 5×8, I think. I print recipes off to try, and if we like them, I cut them out and glue them onto the index card. I’m much happier doing it this way.

I have a stand on my counter that I clip recipes I’m preparing to. Sometimes I have three or four at a time. Trying to maneuver full-sized pages was too frustrating. The cards work better for me.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:11:02 +0000

I did this too and it’s always my go to cookbook. Mine is made from a photo album that I received but didn’t match the others on our shelves. It was a great way to repurpose and so easy to clean