Getting organized

I know that if I want to learn to cook, I need to have some sort of organized system.  I've been reading Kathi Lipp's book The What's for Dinner? Solution.  (More on this next week, as I'm participating in a blog challenge next week....and I'll be giving away  copy!)

Anyway....I'm reading the book this week, and one of the things Kathi challenged me to do was to create a paper cookbook.  I've been collecting websites and recipes, but every time I want to try something I have to find it and print it out.  She also encouraged me to only include recipes that I might actually make.  (And if they don't work --- get rid of them!)

Last night I went through my Pinterest links and bookmarks and printed off about 3 dozen recipes that  I want to try.  Today I went to Target today and bought a binder with a pocket to put put my own title page; a set of 8 pocket dividers, and 50 page protectors.

I divided my cooking method rather than ingredient: Make Ahead (make one to eat and one or more to freeze); Oven/Bake; Stove top/fried; Crock Pot; Grill; Quick; Sides; and Desserts.

I put about 40 recipes in sheet protectors in the appropriate sections.

Then I picked some recipes and entered the items into my ZipList app.  Before I went to the store, I compared my list to the pantry and checked off the items I didn't need to buy.

My shopping trip was successful! But that is a post for another day....I'm tired.