Have you started thinking about Christmas gifts yet? Too soon? ;) Well, either way - we all know that Cook’n is amazing and would make a great gift to anyone- and while there are many fabulous features we could talk about, one of my favorite things is how easy it is to create cookbooks.

Obviously, we can download from many amazing cookbooks. But I also really love how I can put in my own recipes- and have them included in multiple cookbooks! I bet some of us could utilize this tool way more! But where to start?

Of course, we can start simple and organize our recipes according to the cookbook/website we get them from: Taste of Home recipes, Our Best Bites, Chef-in-Training, Betty Crocker, etc. This is a great way to keep things organized if you want to refer back to the original recipe/website/cookbook often; however, when you capture a recipe, the source is included for you, which makes it so much easier to go back to your original source- which means you can get a lot more creative with how you organize your recipes!

One way to organize them is to put your recipes in collections according to the time of the year- orange rolls in spring, your favorite hamburger recipe in summer, cauliflower soup in fall, peppermint cookies in winter. Obviously you can cook things whenever you want ;), but sometimes it’s nice to have everything grouped at least according to when they might typically be made- you’ll still be able to find them easily! And of course, you’ve gotta include the holidays- add a Christmas cookbook, 4th of July, Easter, April Fool’s- I love celebrating with food, so having a cookbook for each holiday individually really helps me to get organized!

Another great way to organize your recipes into cookbooks depending on when you would need them. Decide when you will likely use a particular recipe and organize accordingly. Maybe your grandmother’s giant batch of cookies recipe will go under a potluck cookbook, while your tried-and-true Hawaiian Haystacks meal will go under a weeknight cookbook. Maybe you and your spouse have weekly at-home date nights, and that special steak sauce recipe would be the perfect addition to your date night cookbook. We see these kinds of cookbooks all the time- meals in 30 minutes, meatless, dairy-free, special occasions, date night, breakfast all day- you could get really creative and create several cookbooks using this strategy! And you’ll never be left hanging when you need a killer recipe to take to your Bunco night (just look in your snacks cookbook) or when you need to get dinner on the table in 30 minutes (look at your quick and easy weeknight dinners cookbook).

But ultimately, maybe the best way to organize your plethora of recipes is to do a little bit of everything! Have a cookbook of your favorite fall recipes, your favorite potluck recipes, your favorite meals to cook when you have company, etc. The great thing about the cookbook tool is you can make it all your own- there are no rules! So do what works for you! I have several cookbooks, and there are recipes that are in more than one cookbook- because my really good recipes deserve to go in more than one ;).

How do you organize your many cookbooks? Do you have a system, or is it a conglomerate of strategies? Share with us below!