Week 6: When you have too many to choose from.....

You have a pork loin.

You don't know what you want to do with it.

You type it into Google or go to your favorite blog and find a recipe that sounds good.

You make said recipe and love it.

6 months later you have a pork loin.

You can't remember what that recipe was that you loved 6 months ago.

So you go to Google.....

Sounds familiar?

When we started working at Gateway and I found myself going from cooking for 4 up to cooking for 12, I found myself doing this quite often.

I hardly ever perused cookbooks, finding it easier to just type in my request and go from there.

I didn't have a tablet or smart phone to read off of so I was always printing off the recipes. These recipes found there way into a specific drawer in the Cypress House kitchen and became a large pile of unorganized recipes. Both the good...and the flops.

I don't have a picture of the drawer full of recipes, just a 2 year old Madeline in the kitchen where said drawer is at (behind her on the right, under the microwave...)

So, I started organizing, creating 3 piles:  "The Raves", the "Want to Try but haven't yet", and the "Why did I even hold on to this one?"

After that I trimmed down the recipes, slid them into clear sleeves and put them all in a binder.

I found myself using this more than anything, and so, about 4 years ago, I gave away my cookbooks (minus a few for sentimental value).

And I haven't missed them.

The 3 sentimentals. Cookbook from high school, from Gateway, and from my home church growing up.

This has been great to save so much space that would otherwise be taken up with books.

I have a binder that contains ONLY the recipes we like, so whatever we choose, we know will be a winner.

Sometime we experiment, and when we do, we go to the world wide web.  We like it? We print it off and add it to the binder.

I do have a small pile of the 'Want to Try by Haven't Yet" tucked in beside the binder, for when we are feeling adventurous.

The binder and the cookbook that helps give me creative ideas for putting veggies in just about everything.

I have found, that to make meal planning simpler, it's best to stick to about 10 go-to recipes. Sometimes the ingredients vary a bit depending on what is on hand, but the overall recipe stays the same.

I figure if someone in China can eat rice 365 days a year and be fine, I can vary 10 recipes and be OK, too.....

Our go-tos:

Tacos

Stir-Fry

Pasta (change out the type and change out the sauce)

Broth-type soup

Creamy-type soup

Pizza

Curry 

Eggs

Lentil/Beans/Rice combo

Salad 

Next week, I think I am moving out of the kitchen....stay tuned....