Recipe Organizer Recipe

Organization Using Excel

Using an Excel workbook as a recipe organizer is a great what to create a recipe index.

A recipe index can be helpful to you in a number of ways:

• Saves times by helping you find your recipes quicker, especially if you have your recipes in a number of places

• Jogs your memory about recipes you're intrigued about and want to try later

• Helps you search for particular types of recipes, according to the categories you assign

• Open Excel on your computer

• In the first row, type Recipe, Where, Meal Type, Notes in cells A1, B1, C1, D1 respectively (see below)
  

  

  
  
• Now that you have the headings for your recipe organizer, populate the index.
  • The name of the recipe goes in Column A

  • The place where the recipe is located goes in Column B. This column is used to help you find the recipe when you need it. For example, I use recipes from cookbooks, loose-leaf recipes that I save in a binder, as well as have an electronic file of recipes. To make it easier to find a recipe when I need it, I put the exact location of it in this column. E.g. Cookbook, Pasta pg 54.

  • The Meal Type goes in Column C. Categorizing your recipes in this column will make it easy to find the type of recipe you are looking for. Want to make chicken on Tuesday as part of your meal plan but you’re stumped for ideas? No worries, check out the chicken recipes you have in your index for some inspiration!
  
  Note: You can also sort this column for a quicker view of what you have.

• To sort, click on column C so that the data in that column is highlighted.

  

• Under the Data tab in the horizontal menu bar, select Sort (Excel 2007). A dialogue box appears.

• In the dialogue box, in the field "sort by" select "Meal Type" from the drop down menu. Click ok. (see below)
  
  

  

  
  
  All recipes should be sorted. That’s it! You’re done! Now look down the list and choose which recipe you feel like giving a try.

  NOTE: You can also filter the data columns to show only the type of recipe you are interested in.

• To filter, select the Data tab in the horizontal menu bar, then select Filter (Excel 2007). Little tabs with triangles show up on the right-hand corner of each column. (see below)
  
  

  

• Select the tab in the Meal Type column

• Deselect "Select All" then select the Meal Type you want to filter. Click ok. (see below)

If you are looking for more information on how to organize recipes electronically, check out the information we have on using Outlook Express as a recipe organizer.