Blogging with Friends: “Tuesday Tips” at Just Peachy

I am so excited to be sharing with you a collaboration of blogging with my good friend Erika at Just Peachy Photography! She has invited me to guest blog, but we are excited to be doing it in a different way than just me posting on her site or vice versa.

We are going to be sharing a series of posts about things we as moms have discovered for ways to help us around the house. Between the two of us, we have 7 kids and feel like we might have some insight into being efficient in the home. By all means, though, if you have a thought or idea to share…SHARE AWAY! We are always ready to try new things to keep our families and homes running smoothly! This first post is about where to find recipes. Erika has started the post with her ideas and thoughts. GO HERE to read her awesome information and ideas. Once you’ve read her post, click my link at the bottom to head over here and finish the post.

Don’t forget…. DON’T READ ANY FURTHER UNTIL YOU’VE GONE HERE FIRST! 🙂 Thanks!!

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RECIPE FINDING

When looking for recipes, there are a lot of options. Here are a few of my favorite ways to acquire new recipes:

• Websites. I can Google whatever kind of recipe I am looking for and find a plethora of websites offering variations of a recipe. After a few times of searching for recipes on Google, I have found some of my favorite sites to grab recipes from. I like to bookmark the sites I find and love, so I can go directly to them whenever I need to.
  • Allrecipes.com
  • cooks.com
  • foodnetwork.com

• Blogs. Following several blogs for coupons and thrifty ideas has opened up a whole new world of recipes. These thrifty moms have posted all kinds of recipes for every kind of meal or course. Whether they’ve made up the recipe themselves or pulled the recipe from another site (and usually they link to that site, so you can go and search for even MORE recipes on that site!), they open up more resources online for where to grab recipes. The three blogs I have listed below often post about recipes from other sites and link up to those sites; that really broadens my recipe searches to places I didn’t even know of!
  • MoneySavingMom.com
  • LynnsKitchenAdventures.com
  • OurBestBites.com

• Cookbooks. Good, old-fashioned cookbooks offer some of the best tried and true recipes. But where do you start? I prefer the simple cookbooks that cover every course of a meal, rather than the theme books (5 ingredient, 30 minute meals, etc.). By all means, get the 30 minute meal books, if that’s the kind of time you have to work with in the kitchen. But, if you are just starting out, I would recommend a cookbook that covers a bit of each course (appetizers, main dish, side dishes, desserts, salads, and even beverages). This is a good starter for every type of meal (family, party, special event, and so on). Some of my favorite cookbooks are:
  • Pillsbury Kitchen Cookbook
  • Better Homes & Garden cookbooks
  • a slow cooker cookbook (you might be surprised at the variety of recipes for your slow cooker!)

(And if you don’t have the funds to purchase a good cookbook right now, check out your library.

I have found a great number of cookbooks to write down recipes from. I just write down the ones I try (and love!) and return the book – new recipes for free! Or you can check garage sales or library book sales to get and keep a few good cookbooks without spending a fortune.)

• People. Odd category, but what about just asking friends and family for recipe ideas? I love asking my mom for recipes of dishes she made for us when I was a kid. My mom is probably the best cook I know. And she has a ton of recipes from her mom, grandmother, in-laws, and other relatives, so I like making those family recipes to keep them alive. I enjoy getting the recipe from her and finding out who she got it from (and I make a note of it on my copy of the recipe, so I can keep that info passed on, too); she usually has a story or comment about when she got the recipe. If you don’t have a good cook in the family, ask your friends. They may have some of their own family recipes they’d be willing to share. Family recipes are like love….most of the time everyone likes to give them out and everyone definitely likes to receive them. 🙂

So, whether you’re online or using a book or talking to friends and family, there are so many recipes for you to find and try. But what do you do with your recipes once you’ve acquired them? Here are a few options for how to store all the recipes you find:

• Online bookmarking: save your favorite recipe websites by bookmarking them on your computer. You can easily just pull up that site instead of having to do a Google search each time you’re looking for something.
• Recipe album: writing out recipes on the 3×5 cards and storing them in a recipe album can be very handy, especially if your computer or internet connection isn’t working. I have found great use in having a recipe album. I even write down the recipes I find online in my album…because there has been more than one time when I needed to pull something up online and my computer did not cooperate! Having them in my album assures me that I have an easy way to get to my recipes.
• Cookbooks: If you purchase a few good cookbooks, storing them just as you have them in the cookbook is super easy. Overloading your kitchen area with 50 cookbooks, though, isn’t going to be handy. If you keep cookbooks on hand, just be sure to keep them at a small number, so you’re not overloaded with info!
• Computer recipe filer: I have a program on my computer that acts like my paper recipe album. The recipes are typed up on 3×5 faux cards in this program and stored like an album. I can search by name, ingredient, etc to find the one I need. This is a very handy way to keep the ones you love without having to search your favorite sites. If you’re internet connection is down, that’s ok because it’s just a document stored on your computer!

Regardless of how you find or store your recipes, finding several that your family likes or loves is a great way to ensure you have meals each week and aren’t scrambling around to create something new. Trying new things is great, but if you don’t have 7 evenings each week to create a fantastic meal….you better be sure to find and store some recipes ahead of time!