Recipe Remix



Our kitchen about 6 months ago...it's not that white or empty anymore!


I don't think it will surprise anyone that I am constantly looking for ways to organize and simplify pretty much everything in my life.  My biggest focus is finding ways to do this is the kitchen.  It is almost 1/4 of our living area and every family gathering includes the kitchen.  I also have big plans for growing and storing our own fruits and veggies in the next few years - I need an organized space to make it work.  I am constantly cleaning and organizing it, only to have it fall into a disaster zone after a week (or a busy weekend of DIY).  With the summer fast approaching, our plans are to finish the kitchen cabinets (including buying, installing and painting them).  This means I can FINALLY unpack all the boxes for the kitchen!! So excited! 

One of the most unorganized things in my kitchen are my recipes.  It seems like this would be a pretty small issue, but I constantly have recipes laying around that I have printed from the internet, torn out of magazines, copied from a friend, ect...Then I either leave them on the counter or put them in a "safe" place - never to be seen again.  Not a great system.  I also love sharing recipes with Felicia and Jamie, but sometimes it can be a hassle calling them for the same recipe 2 or 3 times because I can't find it.

So one day I decided there had to be an online solution.  Most of the recipes I use are online anyways - so it would definitely be greener to stop printing recipes and save them online instead.  Also, if I need a recipe just before I start dinner I search online instead of trying to find it in my random stacks of papers.  When I was talked to Jamie and Felicia, they both loved the idea - so we decided to start a Three Peas Create recipe library.  We all have access to it on our computers, tablets and phones - so pretty much anytime, anywhere we want it.

Once I started looking I found a few good options, a few bad options, and a few great options - but most of them either didn't have all the options we wanted or we had to pay for them.  Boo!  I finally found a site called Pepperplate*.  It didn't do everything we wanted - but it did most of it.  So after a few month of using it - I can definitely recommend it if you are looking for something to store recipes online. 

Here is a view of the main page once you log in:

 

It's very simple looking, which I really like.  The only downside is there is only one page of recipes - you can't make seperate pages for the different types of recipes you add.  What you can do is catagorize each recipe, so if you want Entrees you can select that catagory and it will only show those recipes.  You create your own catagories so you can organize it however you would like. 

Here is a view of a recipe I manually input.  All the recipes look the same, except the ones from websites say where they are from and will allow you to link directly to the website.  One of my favorite features is the ability to change the scale of the recipe.  The original recipe can be multiplied or divided automatically - so no math when you are trying to change a recipe!

This site lets you add recipes 3 ways:

Download recipes directly from certain websites, manually create a recipe,  

 or you can use the bookmarklet and add recipes from any website.  You just copy and paste the information and it formats it for you.  I keep the booklet in my favorites bar, so it's easy to find when I am looking online.

I have used all three options and they are all very easy to use.  The only downside is you can only add recipes from your computer/laptop.  You can do everything else on your tablet or phone, just not add recipes.

This site also has the ability to create menus, weekly planners and a shopping list.  Again, all things I have found very easy to use. 

These are available on all the recipe pages so you can add a recipe quickly:

Here's the screen to create a Menu.  You can create as many as you want.  Obviously I need to start using this more...

And here is the Weekly Planner...which I don't use, but would be good for some people.  I have just found that if I am too structured it can be just as bad as no planning at all.

 And finally, here is the shopping cart.  It is great because you can add the ingredients directly from a recipe as you add them to your menu/planner.  You also have the option of not adding ingredients that you already have stocked.  It divides everything into catagories, which is helpful when you are shopping - to cutdown on time and impulse buys.   

     

Overall, I am really happy with the way this site works.  I need to work on using it for more than just storing recipes.  I think next month I will put my whole menu into it to see how I like it. 

Has anyone else found a great way to store their recipes?  Sometimes I miss using the pretty recipe cards and holders - but I never used them anyways.  Plus, one of the fun features I am adding to my kitchen is a tablet station so I can use it for recipes.  I can't wait to share all the things I plan to do in my kitchen!!   

*Pepperplate has no idea I wrote about them today, but you should check them out!