Recipe Book

A few years ago I decided that if I were able to collect recipes in a cute, organized manner I would be more inclined to start cooking...

...well, a few years later I have a beautiful binder of recipes collected from friends, family, magazines, and pinterest (of course) but my culinary skills are still slim to none.

Anyway all you need for this project is:

•  3-ring binder, at least 2-inches (I prefer the ones where the binder spine is on the back, it prevents the pages from bending)
• transparent sheet protectors
• bright colored paper (you can use printer paper or cardstock for a sturdier feel)
• Labels/tabs (I like the durable plastic ones you can write on with sharpie)
• Markers
• Glue
• Stickers (optional)

Directions:

• Each piece of paper should go in a sheet protector to keep it safe from the kitchen accidents and sticky fingers that often accompany cooking
• Divide your binder into main sections and sub-sections, with each section getting its own "title page" (see below)

• I divided my binders into the following main sections and sub-sections:
• Appetizers
• Soups
• Salads
• Dips/Sauces
• Entrees
• Chicken
• Fish/Seafood
• Meat
• Pastas
• Side Dishes
• Veggies/Potatos
• Rice/Bread
• Other
• Desserts
• Cakes
• Candies
• Cookies
• Ice Cream
• Other
• Beverages
• Alcoholic
• Smoothis/Milkshakes
• Juice/Tea
• Breakfast
• Eggs
• Pancakes/Waffles
• Sandwiches
• I labeled the main sections with tabs on the side of the pages and the sub-sections with tabs along the top
• After setting up the sections, start adding recipes
• Each recipe gets a full page
• I put white labels on the top of each page for a uniform look and used them to write the name of the recipe
• At this point you can get creative, sometimes I handwrote the recipes on index cards and glued them to the page, sometimes I typed the recipes, and sometimes I cut things directly out of magazines:

• If the recipe comes from a magazine with a picture I usually include that. Sometimes I'll also leave space on the page in case I want to take a picture of a dish after I've made it.

And that's it. Pretty simple but I think it looks really nice. Next goal is to actually cook something from this binder!!

<3 Bee