Create a Food and Recipe Journal
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In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, finding moments of mindfulness can be a game-changer. As a writer passionate about teaching, motherhood, and the power of journaling, I'm excited to share a new project notebook for the year: A Food and Recipe Journal. The idea for this journal all started with one spread in my journal that my husband and I would come back to over and over again when talking about the “what’s for dinner? question each evening. I would recreate this spread many times each time I moved over into a new notebook.
Nourishing our bodies goes beyond the mere act of eating; it's about embracing an approach to wellness. In this post, I will share how I set up my food and recipe journal. My hope is that this journal over the course of a year not only houses the meals that my family shares together but pushes me to try new things in the kitchen. The first page of my food and recipe journal is dedicated to my daughter. She is the best helper in the kitchen I could ever have, and she reminds me that even when we may self-identify as not being good at something (like cooking) we can try anyway.
Materials Used
Archer and Olive A5 Black Dot Grid Notebook (I love that A&O already has the pen loops on here)
I printed out my own Canva created category labels on sticker paper. Want the template? Grab it for free here.
The Canva labels also have the tabs I created for this journal. I kept looking for plain black journal tabs and the ones that I found were all $10 or more, so I made my own. I printed these labels out on sticker paper, and then I used moving/packaging tape over the top to make them glossy.
Washi tape: Black, brown, and white checkered washi tape came in a set of washis. I grabbed these three because of love neutral colors, but something about them reminded me of kitchen towels.
First Page
Recipe Index Pages
Two index pages that serve as a running list for all of the recipes I have tried in the past, and maybe still want to try
Categories of food correlate to the sections throughout the rest of the notebook
Helpful Spreads for the Year
Favorite dinners
Toddler-friendly meals (We could live on macaroni and cheese, so I want to keep a list of other options as well)
Meals under $20 because we are really trying to be mindful of how much food costs and how to maximize the value of our groceries when shopping (Example: Using one food for multiple meal prep, etc)
Recipe Sections
Sections that relate to the recipe index found at the beginning of the journal
Section labels made using Canva (Want to use my labels? Here is a Canva Template Link)
Categories: Pasta, Soup/Sandwich, Baking, Casseroles, Crockpot, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Seafood, Salad, Potatoes, Other (Your categories might be different from mine!)