DIY Recipe Journal

DIY Recipe Journal

SETTING UP A RECIPE JOURNAL STEP-BY-STEP

I have finally started tackling the task of curating my recipe book and I am much more excited than I thought I would be, now that I have gotten the first few pages going.

My first recipe book was started around the time I got engaged to my husband. We had been trying all sorts of new foods together but I kept losing the recipe printouts after we ate the meals. I grabbed an old EC notebook that I still had not found a use for and started to just washi tape them in. As the years went on I added recipes from family or bake-offs or Pinterest, but it was always sort of thrown together.

I want a book that works well in the kitchen but is also nice to look at and easy to read. I want to format it well so that the kids or my husband can follow a recipe, if they ever decide to one day.

SETTING UP THE FOUNDATION PAGES

First, I decided to go with this spiral recycled paper notebook and I think it will hold up well. I know biodegradable shouldn’t be a requirement but it made me feel better, and so far it is holding up to stray water splashes. The pages are thick enough that stamping doesn’t bleed through too, and I can stick down pictures of the food. Plus, it was less than eight bucks.

 

 

I’m going to try and remember to keep the pages simple so that other people can read the recipes too, but it’s in my nature to decorate pages just a little bit. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I stamped out a little title on the very first page, along with the month and year I started collecting recipes. The next page I left blank, in case I want to add anything I haven’t thought of yet. (I think if I pass this down one day way down the line, it’d be a good place to write a little letter to the new owner.)

The following page is a short list of easy measurements and their conversions. I was able to find a few versions of this online, but I always had to piece them together to get what I needed. The tough one for me was always butter!  A recipe would list a certain amount of butter in grams, but of course the butter itself is broken into tablespoons. And I’d stand there, stick of butter in hand, stuck. So, I put those conversions right up front, ready for me and anyone else who needs it. I typed it out but obviously ended up not using it, so instead of letting it take up digital space in my computer, I’m passing it on as a freebie, in case anyone here needs one.

Click here to download the printable Conversion Chart for your own recipe book or journal.

I was unsure about using completely blank pages at first. Dotted pages tend to be my preference because they keep me from getting too crooked, without ruining the look of the whole page. I am so glad I went for it now! The layouts can switch up for each recipe and include (or leave out) any sections I want. Looking forward, I think my favorite will be the idea of adding little memories into the journal. The memory keeper in me never sleeps!

DO YOU HAVE A RECIPE BOOK? WOULD YOU CONSIDER MORE OF A JOURNAL FORMAT?

I will continue to share the progress in this journal here, but I am not sure if videos will keep coming. Depends on what happens with this one I guess.

Smooches.

RECIPE JOURNAL SUPPLIES:

Notebook
Stamp Ink 
StazOn Ink 
Stamps: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Stamp Blocks (similar, I can’t remember where I found mine)
Adhesive 
Vellum Paper
Circle Punch
Black Pens | White Pens

 

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