My Favorite Blog Recipe Binders

If you are like me, you find a ton of different recipes on food blogs that sound and look amazing. You have every intention to try them but the problem is being able to find them all when you are ready to cook. And call me strange, but I prefer to look through cookbooks rather than look at a screen.

I decided to make a cookbook with a collection of all my favorite bloggy recipes. I got the idea from my sister who has been putting her personal recipes in these books for years. In fact, she and my sister in law had their recipes in a word file and were kind enough to pass them on to me. It's great to have recipes that are "tried and true" from people you know.

Here is how you start:

1. Go to Microsoft Word and create and new document.

2. Click File on the toolbar and go down to "Page setup". Go to Orientation and click on "landscape". While there change top and bottom margins to 1". Click "OK".

3. Click Format on the toolbar and go down to "Columns". In presets, click on "two columns". Click "OK". This will make it so you can get two recipes on one page.

4. Go to file again and click on "Save As". Type the name of your new file and click "OK".

4. Minimize the word document and start surfing your favorite food blogs.

When you find a recipe that you want to include in your cookbook:

1. Highlight the recipe. You can even include pictures if you want. Lots of blogs have a printer friendly versions of their recipes. This simplifies the process if you don't want to include pictures.

2. Right click on the mouse and click on "copy".

3. Open up your Word document, right click on the the mouse and click on "paste". Your recipe is now on your document. If you don't want the pictures, just left click the picture and then right click and click on "cut". You'll need to do some rearranging of the recipe to make up for cutting the picture out.

4. Make sure it has a title and you can play with the font size to make it fit better on the page.

5. Put the cursor on the the beginning of the next page so it is all ready for your next recipe.

6. Go to File, Click on Save and then minimize and go back to finding more recipes.

Here is what you need when you are ready to make the books:

8 1/2 x 5 1/2 Memo Size Binders
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 Memo Size Sheet Protectors
paper cutter
tabs to mark categories

1. Print your Word file with all your recipes. I used a flash drive and took it to Staples to print. I had almost 200 pages to print, so this saved me ink and the pictures were in color.

2. Use a paper cutter to cut the paper in half. I think Staples has a large paper cutter you could use if you are already there.

3. Organize the recipes into categories. I did: chicken, beef, breads, pasta, soups, sides, brunch, starters, salads, cookies, brownies, bars, pies, cheesecakes, cakes, frosting, candy, snacks, desserts, sauces and misc. Place tabs on edge of sheet protectors to mark categories.

4. Put the recipe pages in the sheet protectors and place in binders. Use different binders for the different categories as your recipe collection begins to grow.

5. Use a label maker to label the spines of the binders.

6. Enjoy all your new recipes in your custom cookbooks!

I've been working on these cookbooks for almost a year now. I would buy a new binder or pack of sheet protectors every month or so because it all adds up and can get expensive.

This would be a great gift for a new bride. You could even ask for recipe contributions from extended family to compile a family recipe collection. Have fun!