Recipe Renovation

This, friends, is my little black book.

Okay, more like my giant black book. And it's filled with recipes instead of gentlemen's phone numbers. 

I just revamped and reorganized it completely. It makes me so happy to flip through it now! I'll take you on a tour:

The 1st section starts off with my weekly menu planner. I make a copy of this each week, and write down my menu and all of the ingredients I need to buy. Then this goes on the fridge by our calendar.

 Right after this I have some recipe inspiration lists. Two pages full of dinner ideas, so I can just spot something quickly that looks good.

After this I've got conversion charts and some cooking tips, and then a short (hopefully will become longer) baby food section. Recipes for homemade baby food. 

The 2nd section is chock full of my favorite recipes. If I hadn't made it in the past year or if it didn't sound healthy or appetizing anymore, I tossed it. Here's how my sections broke down:

-appetizers (dips, beverages, things I'll probably rarely make)

-main dishes (taco soup, fried chicken, pasta, caesar salad...)

-side dishes (green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, roasted broccoli)

-snacks (mostly lunch ideas, like my couscous salad)

-cookies (snickerdoodles, levain's chocolate chip, rootbeer cookies)

-desserts (chocolate bliss cheesecake, cinnamon rolls, brownies)

-breads (artisan bread, french bread, all sorts of yummy breads)

-breakfast (sour cream coffee cake, whole wheat pancakes, quiche)

Basically I grin every time I get to open it now. With an organized "black book", menu planning is so much simpler!