Organized Cooking

After I graduated from college, I started cooking more frequently. And, I’m lucky enough to have lots of people in my family who have passed down recipes so my collection grew quickly. For a while I kept my recipes on top of the fridge, then in a drawer, then in a folder, and eventually in a three-ring binder. Recently I’ve outgrown my 1 inch three-ring binder and had to move into a larger one. Here’s how I keep all of my recipes, and in turn, my kitchen semi-organized.

I started with a bright blue binder with metallic polka dots from Target.

Then, I began sorting through all of my recipes.

Next, I organized them into piles, separating them by course.

{appetizers, soups + sides, mains, desserts, breads, breakfast, and misc.}

With my recipes sorted, I labeled some tabbed dividers and filled the binder.

I also use my recipe book to keep kitchen tips close at hand. Ingredient substitutions, common conversions and grain cooking methods are all listed on the front page.

Lastly, to make grocery shopping and meal planning easier, I use post-it notes with days of the week written on them to mark what I’m making for dinner that week. Days when I’m not cooking stay on the inside front cover of the binder.

{not cooking too much this week}

This is one of the ways that I keep my kitchen organized, which for me makes cooking more fun. If you have methods to keep your kitchen calm and easy to work in, I’d love to hear about them.