The Family Favorites Recipe Book

I am going to encourage you to try making a family favorites recipe book. I have been doing one for a while and have found it really takes the guess work out of what to make. (Which I think is the hardest part of cooking, I'm sure a lot of you will agree!)

This is what I want you to do. Get a regular 3 ring binder some sheet protectors and a package of dividers with pockets. I like these dividers cause they stick out past the sheet protectors and the pockets are a must (you will see in a minute;) The package should have eight dividers but six would work too. Label each section; These are the sections I have in my book.

Breakfast, Breads, Main Dishes, Soup and Salad, Desserts, Cookies and Candy, Food Storage, This and That

Put everything in your binder with a few sheet protectors after each divider. Now start paying attention to what you make. If you have a recipe you are always using or something that you always make even without a recipe. Type it up and put it in a sheet protector under the proper section. Recipes you print off the Internet or scribble down or get from this blog (you know the ones that are just scattered everywhere that sound good and you want to try) put in the divider pockets under the appropriate section. The pockets make it really easy and helps control all the scrap recipe clutter. They are GREAT! When your feeling creative or are in a recipe rut try a recipe from the pockets out on your fam! If you find that your family likes it and you are making it lots. It gets promoted to a sheet protector in that section. You may want to print you a new one cause if your like me yours will have gotten food all over it!

Before you know it you will have quite a few recipes that you know your family likes and that infamous question "What's for dinner?" Will no longer be a problem. Building up some food storage, shopping, and menu planning should be much easier too. Although I'm not a big menu planner, those of you who are it WILL make it easier. I find that keeping things on hand to make our family favorites makes it so I don't have to plan. I love that! I can almost go to the store without a list and know what to get cause I have used my book for long enough. I do forget things though so I usually make a list.) I will try to get to that staple guide post soon;)

Now just so you know not everything my family likes ends up in the family favorites book. We will try a recipe that is really good and we all like it but for some reason or other I never make it again. My guess is that it either had some weird ingredient that I don't use in anything else and NEVER have on hand or it was really complicated to make or something. That recipe never does get retyped and promoted to a sheet protector. It eventually gets thrown away. (I'm all about convenient and SIMPLE;) Now we do have some favorites that are kind of complicated but we find we like making them for special occasions and holidays. We may only make them once or twice a year but these still end up in our favorites.

I hope this makes sense. I hope you will all give it a try. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and ask. I will be sure to answer!

Also If your goal is to get your family to eat healthier this is the way to go! When you make it yourself you know what's in it. Look at my Ingredients Post and be more particular about not using bad ingredients. Try "healthifying" your family's unheathy favorites! You will start to make good things more often and building them up in your supply. If you are feeling really brave throw away the bad stuff in your pantry. Before you know it you will be eating Simple, Healthy, Tasty!