Free Printable Recipe Cards and Recipe Binder Tutorial

As we’ve all been hunkered down during this strange social distancing situation, I’ve noticed a trend in many of the social media posts and memes going around right now:  We all seem to be spending more time in our kitchens than usual! This seems to be because of some combination of the following:

a.) We’re just home more in general, b.) We’re stress eating through the chaos, c.) We finally have time to cook a nice meal, and/or d.) We’re cleaning up kitchen messes made by our loved ones approximately four hundred times a day.

Well, friends, all this extra kitchen time inspired  a fun little freebie I’m sharing today. And it might just help you bring a little organization to your recipe collection while you’re at it!

I added a couple of pretty, floral recipe binder kits to my Etsy shop recently—they’re printable files you can use to collect all your favorite recipes  into one convenient place. But for my More Like Grace readers, I wanted to share some of the goodies from those kits for free, so I’m offering a set of free printable recipe cards and recipe pages to you!

Once you grab a set of these free printables, you’ll have a great place to jot down those new recipes that seem to be getting shared a lot these days.  (Or if you’re like me, you just want to finally tackle that chaotic folder stuffed full of torn-out recipes from cooking magazines.)  And they’d be great for sharing too!

Picture a stack of these recipe cards tied together with a pretty ribbon.  Wouldn’t they be perfect as a Mother’s Day Gift, volunteer appreciation gift, or just a sweet little birthday gift idea for a friend? Or hand out recipe cards before a bridal shower and invite all the guest to share a favorite with the bride-to-be!

You can grab the free printable recipe cards and pages by clicking the blue button at the end of the post.  But if you really want to tackle your recipe organization (or you’re just looking for a fun gift idea), check out a variety of printable binder sets in my Etsy store:  They’ve got a matching recipe binder cover, divider pages and tabs, and a handy kitchen conversion you can include too!  Plus, there’s cover options for “Mom” and “Grandma” if you’d like to put together a great Mother’s Day gift right from home.

(Downloads are only available to More Like Grace subscribers: By clicking the download button below, you consent to OPT-IN to our email newsletter with monthly encouragement and freebie news. Unsubscribe any time.)

Here’s what I love about recipe binders:

• It’s so much easier to flip through a binder for recipe ideas than trying to wade through cards in a recipe box.
• With a standard-size binder (8.5 x 11), you can store both standard recipe cards AND also full-page printouts of recipes you grabbed from magazines or online.   
• When you use sheet protectors in your binder, you can keep those recipes protected from splatters and spill while you cook.
• They make great gifts: For Mother’s Day, birthdays, bridal showers, and more, a recipe binder makes a sweet gift, especially if you tuck in a favorite recipe or two to share!

How To Make A Recipe Binder

If you’d like to put together a recipe binder, there’s just a few basic supplies you’ll want to pull together:

• a basic 3-ring binder: (with pocket, if you’d like to add a cover) – pick any size, depending on the amount of recipes you want to store!
• sheet protectors: you can use standard sheet protectors for full-page recipes, or use recipe-card sheet protectors like these if you plan to include recipe cards
• recipe cards and/or pages: (grab my free printable version below!)
• dividers and tabs: adding dividers for different sections like soups, salads, main dishes, etc. will keep your recipes organized and easy to find.
• optional, kitchen conversions chart:  I hate looking up equivalents on my phone while I’m cooking, so it’s great to have those kitchen conversions right in the front of the binder. There are lots of options available with a quick Google search–or you can get the one included with our shop’s full binder kit. 

Once you’ve got your supplies together, it’s really just a matter of putting everything together:

1. Slip a cover into the front of your binder, and add a label to the spine. 

You can make a simple cover and spine label yourself, or grab pretty ones here in our shop. Either way, it’s nice to have your binder labeled so you can find it easily when you’re ready to cook!

2. Place your recipes and/or recipe cards into sheet protectors.

I used to have a recipe box, but then I always found this dilemma: What do I do with recipes I printed out from online, or with articles I’d clipped from a cooking magazine?  With your recipe binder, you can keep them all together!  Handwritten recipe cards can be tucked into recipe card sheet protectors, while your print-outs and magazine recipes can be slipped into full page sheet protectors.

3. Label your dividers and tabs and insert into binder.

Again, you can either make simple dividers yourself, or use the pre-designed dividers in our printable recipe binder kit.  If you want some category suggestions, try these:  Appetizers, Soups, Salads, Main Dishes, Meats, Side Dishes, Desserts, Beverages, Baked Goods, Slow Cooker, This & That (for all those recipes that don’t quite fit a neat category!)

4. Insert all your recipes/sheet protectors into the corresponding sections of the binder.

5. Cook or bake something yummy! 

Chances are, you’ll probably feel inspired to start cooking by the time you get your binder all put together. 🙂

Free Printable Recipe Cards

You can grab your free printable recipe cards/pages right here! Just click on the BLUE button below.  And if you’d like to see the full matching binder sets, just click right here.  Enjoy!

(Downloads are only available to More Like Grace subscribers: By clicking the download button below, you consent to OPT-IN to our email newsletter with monthly encouragement and freebie news. Unsubscribe any time.)