Recipe Folder

I'm not the world's best cook, I get by, my husband is a far superior cook to me, he can look at what's in the fridge and then prepare a truly yummy meal.  Me?  Nope, I need a recipe to follow and all the ingredients at my finger tips.  I have several cookbooks that I'm sure I have purchased over the years just because I like to drool over the photos.

One of my holiday projects was to organise and tidy up our my recipe folder which I think I started about 20 years ago as the new Mrs Manning and back when my aspiration of being the next Margaret Fulton was in my dreams (today it's Donna Hay!).  Well that dream didn't come true did it!

Anyway, after much time spent searching the WWW for recipe cards and how to store them, I decided that it was going to be an easier task to come up with something of my own, that suited my needs. 

So I purchased one of these 38mm 3 Ring Marbig Enviro Insert Binder from Officeworks....

I borrowed some We Are Memory Keepers sleeves from another project

Created my own Recipe 6"x4" Card in Photoshop......

Download Recipe Card pdf here

Size: 6x4 File: pdf Print: at 100%

and my own Front Cover and Spine to insert

Download Recipe Front Cover and Spine pdf here (I have removed "Manning Family" on download copy, you can add your own words if you would like to)

Size: to fit 38mm Insert Binder as specified above File: pdf Print: at 100%

I really wanted some strong plastic dividers that were going to stand the test of time, but I couldn't find what I wanted at Officeworks so I resorted to trimming down some Cropper Hopper Vertical Storage Dividers that I had spare to fit into the file.  I'm sure I will find a use for the offcuts in another project!

 I added some good old fashioned Dymo labels to the tabs so that if I change my mind about the sections I can easily change them around.

The end result...

 

 

I'm not a fan of my own handwriting so I might just type the recipes using my little typewriter I scored from my parents the other week.

 

I have also added some single A4 sleeves to hold some recipes that have been hand written and I'd like to keep that way - so I intend to mix it up a bit.  Now the hard part begins......sorting through years of recipes, what to include and not!