Recipe Binder Challenge

    

What's better than one recipe binder?   Two recipe binders?  8 )


Over the past year or so, I've sorted my recipes into two binders.  The binders were pretty much put together, I was just missing pretty covers for them.  I couldn't decide what to do for the covers  - they were too many cute papers in my scrapbook stash.  I ended up picking two semi coordinating papers from my scrap stash.  I wish that I had realized that I needed *two* sheets of each paper to do the cover and the spine.  Since I was using paper from my scrap stash, I only had one 12 x 12 sheet of each color.  There wasn't enough paper to completely fill the spine part of the binder.  Doh!  Still, it's better than it was before!

Anyway, one binder contains our favorites - those recipes that we enjoy having over and over (and over and over....).  This binder has what you would think of as the "traditional" tabs - chicken, beef, pasta, salads, bread machine recipes, crockpot recipes, cakes and cookies, etc.  Here is our family favorite binder -

 

I have a second binder that I call my "Monthly Recipe Ideas".  The idea is similar to having a weekly meal plan - only instead of planning for one week, you plan for the whole month instead. 

A few years ago, I noticed that there was a sort of seasonal theme to the recipes that I was collecting from magazines and from some of my favorite recipe blogs and websites.  For example - during the summer I was collecting recipes with a lot of fresh veggies and grilling recipes; and in the winter a lot of soups and stews and comfort food type dishes.  I started to put them in files such as "recipes that would be good to have in the summer" and "recipes that would be good to have in the fall".  That eventually evolved into creating monthly meal plans.  Each month has a tab and when I make my weekly meal plan, I pick most of my meals from the Monthly Recipe Ideas binder and then pick one or two meals from our family favorites.  That way, we don't eat the same things over and over and over and over.  Here are just a few of the recipes that I've filed under February -
1.  Kung pao chicken
2.  Chicken tikka masala
3.  BBQ cola meatballs and spaghetti squash mac n cheese
4.  Spicy tuna melt pie
5.  Spinach and tomato stuffed chicken
6.  Homemade beefaroni
7.  World's best shepard's pie
8.  Hot roast beef sandwichees
9.  Rosemary Turkey meatloaf

I add recipes to the monthly ideas binder as I collect them.  I put an index (or would that be a table of contents?) in the beginning that lists the name of each recipe and the month that it is filed under.  That way I don't end up with the same recipe in multple months. 

Here is what my monthly recipe ideas binder looks like -

There isn't room in our kitchen for these to sit out, so they are stored in a cabinet next to the stove -

Don't mind the messy shelf underneath - that is my baking supplies.  Those could use a good cleaning out - maybe that will be one of the challenges!





While I was taking pictures, I couldn't resist catching one of my Valentine roses -

Aren't they beautiful?

Friendship blossoms

I saw this idea in FamilyFun magazine a last year or the year before -  Friendship blossom link.  I've been hoarding ideas to use once my kids hit school and I am very excited that we got to use one!  These paper flowers were right up daughter # 1's alley!

We used pink cardstock from my scrapbooking stash.  Who would have guessed that I have eight different shades of pink in my stash?  I helped her cut out the hearts - which are used as the petals for the flowers - and she hole-punched them herself.  I also helped her cut out the middle - it was tricky even for me.  What can I say - I'm not great with scissors (- that's why I LOVE my cricuit!). 

The finished product

We weren't sure of the best way to transport these to school without the flowers getting squished - so hubs made this flower holder out of a pice of scrap wood -

Flower holder

Isn't that cool??

All of the flowers ready to go!

Once I saw it, I thought that it would still be pretty unweildy, so hubs made the holder vertical instead of horizontal - think like this lollipop stand  -

Lollipop stand

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the revised stand.  Now we are all set for Valentine's Day!

Back pack tags



At the beginning of the school year, my daughter couldn't decide if she wanted to ride the bus home from school or if she wanted to be picked up in the car.  She thought that she might ride the bus one day and then get picked up the next.  To prevent her from getting confused, I made her these little tags for her back pack so that she would remember which way she was coming home that day.  And it would help out the teacher as well!

I did a google search for a bus .svg file and a car .svg file.  I can't remember the name of the websites where I found them but they were pretty easy to find.  I used my Cricuit and the Sure Cuts a Lot software to cut out the pieces for the bus and for the car.  I made the car green because we have a bluish-green car.  The paper is actually a pretty close match to the color of our car!

After the bus and car were assembled, I glued them to a rectangular piece of cardstock.  Then I laminated the cardstock for added durability.  I used a hole punch to make a hole in the tags.  I even added her bus number to the bus in case she forgot what bus she needed to get on.





My husband found some little carabiner hooks in the camping section of our meijer.  They were the perfect size for her back pack tags.  We hang the tags on the hook where her back pack goes and we change them out in the morning as needed depending on how she is coming home that day. 



Turkey Hats

How cute are these hats? 

My husband came up with this idea while I was out shopping yesterday.  My 5 year old drew the turkey heads and made the feathers on the back.  My husband did the cutting and the stapling.  My 2 year old just ran around shouting "Gobble gobble!".  8 )

I came home to them wearing their hats and swinging on the swingset.  They were having a blast and so proud of their work!

Gobble Gobble!

Paper bag pumpkins

We have almost no Halloween decorations up at our house.  Not because we don't *have* any Halloween decorations, we just don't have any that I like!  Ha ha!

I've seen so many decorations that I'd love to do.  However, life being what it is - I just haven't been able to do them. 

I saw these cute paperbag pumpkins over at Best Toys for Toddlers (side note - I just found this blog a few days ago.  So far I haven't figured out why it is called "best toys" since most of the posts are about art projects/crafts.... any thoughts?) I've been wanting to do some craft projects with my middle daughter and thought that this would be a great opener.  She has never painted before and it looked fairly easy.  Here she is having a good time:

 

So proud!


Here is a picture of the final product.  I made one, my oldest made one, and my middle daughter made two. 

Isn't our mantle sad?  I had hoped to make one of those penant banners that are so popular right now.  Maybe next year!