How To Save Time and Cook for Your Family

If you've already started making your meal plan for the week, and shopping accordingly. Here is your next step to save time.

Create a digital cookbook of all of your favorite recipes.  You can do this on your smartphone, on your computer, on your iPad or any other digital device.  Below I will discuss some of the ways to organize your cookbook, primarily on a Netbook, but I will touch on other mediums.

A reader of mine, who also happens to be my step mother Betty Vondran, expounded on something that is critical to the money saving aspect of meal planning.  LOOK AT THE CIRCULARS before you go shopping.  If you are aware of the deals on meats for example, you will be better prepared to create your meals based on those sales.  If you already have a freezer stocked with meat (hunter) you can still benefit from checking the circulars for vegetables and other produce.

To start your cookbook, you will need:

• Either digital copies of, printouts of, or pictures of your recipes.  Certainly you can also type them up in a word processor, but screenshots and pictures are quick and easy to edit and insert
• A digital platform such as a Netbook (mini laptop), a Laptop, a Smart Phone, or other internet ready device.
• Time

For computer style Digital Cookbook we will stick with the simple Microsoft Word rather than Publisher.  However, if you know Publisher well, feel free to apply the methods listed herein, and add your own flare.

Create a Title Page.  Remember that this is YOUR personal cookbook, so give it a fun name!  Next, choose your organization style.  You might choose to organize them by meat, or by meal time, or by cooking style.  No matter what you choose, make it simple for yourself.

Using the Headings settings available in Microsoft Office 2010 Word will make creating a hyperlink table of contents MUCH EASIER and faster.

I would organize my meals in order of meal type, then create subcategories for the main ingredient (usually meat).  For example, my Setup might look something like:

Breakfast
>Shakes
>Cereals
>Sausage
>Bacon
>Other
Snacks
>Shakes
>Vegetables
>Sweets
>Proteins
>Dairy
Lunch
>Chicken
>Seafood
>Pastas
>Venison
>Tofu
Dinner
>Chicken
>Seafood
>Venison
>Pork
>Tofu
>Pasta

You will want to create these headings first.  So, open up a new blank document.  Create your title page.  Hit Enter and insert a page break.  Hit enter until you get to a new page and insert another page break.  This leaves space for your table of contents.

Next use the Heading 1 setting for your MAIN categories.  Use Heading 2 for your subcategories.  Within each categorie begin "inserting" your pictures of your recipes, do not paste them.  If you are typing them out, do so in the same space.  Rinse and repeat until you have all of your recipes inserted into their specified places.

Create your table of contents:
Hit Ctrl+Home to get back to the top of the document.  Click your mouse on the blank page between your title page and your cookbook contents.  Click the "References" tab. Choose either Automatic Table of Contents 1 or 2.  If you have used the "Headings" in word, this will auto-generate your table of contents, and make accessing your recipes that much faster.

Always save your document when you add more recipes.  If you add a heading to the document after you've created the Table of contents, simply click on the TOC, and hit F9. This will update the TOC with your new headings.

Another simple way to create a cookbook is to create a Main Folder, and insert a series of subfolders in your documents folder on your computer.

For Smart Phones, iPads, and other internet ready platforms, To-do List apps are great for this style of recipes.  Screenshot apps are great for quick captures of recipes found while surfing the web on your phone.  I personally prefer the Netbook/Laptop for cookbooks because The print is larger, and I can store more information.

Hopefully this HOW-TO has helped and/or inspired you to keep a good record of your meals for easy access.  And as a final note, maybe you want to create a book based on How quickly the meal can be prepared, or if it is a "set it and forget it" slow cooker recipe.

Happy organizing.  A little hard work now creates time saving later on.  Remember that.

Cheers!
Lisa "Kingslayer" Rebaglia