Tutorial – Digital Recipe Book
I made this digital recipe book for myself because I was overwhelmed and frustrated with organizing my recipes. I felt like my favorite recipes were saved all over, from TikTok to Pinterest to Google Drive. I also wanted a way to quickly find recipes that met all my dietary needs (the celiac girlies get it). I just felt like I was collecting these recipes I wanted to try and then they were getting stuck in the black hole of my saves.
So I created a google sheets recipe book that allows me to save all my favorite recipes (I only save recipes I’ve tried and loved to keep it clean), where I can filter by all sorts of things, see a cooking view of my recipes, and easily plan my menu for the week.
If you’re like me and what a way to visually see and organize your recipes I hope you’ll love this template as much as I do! I use it myself and I’ll update the template as I add new features that I find helpful in my own life. Haven’t purchased yet? This template is available on Etsy!
This tutorial shows you how to do everything you need to in this template and solve problems that may arise. If you have issues with your template please message me on Etsy and I’d be happy to help troubleshoot!
Getting Started
Basic Keystrokes
CTRL+SHIFT+V = Pasting information without messing up the formatting (colors, fonts etc)
CTRL+ENTER = Move down to the next line within the same block, allows all your information to be in the same block but not in a continuous line
START HERE
Navigate to the “START HERE” tab along the bottom of your template. Here you’ll find the basics of using the template as well as customizing lists for categories, tags, and stores you shop add.
Here you’ll add or remove any categories you’d like. Add tags you want to use such as easy family meals, kid favorites, crock pot, or like me gluten free, AIP etc. For stores you can add stores you frequently shop at to help organize your grocery list.
*NOTE: you won’t want to change these lists later on as that will shift what you’ve already tagged, so be mindful when setting up.
Add A New Recipe
This page is where you’ll enter all the information for a new recipe entry. You can type all the information in yourself or simply copy and paste (paste using CTRL+SHIFT+V to keep the same formatting) from the original recipe source.
Add a photo = click the photo box and then select Insert -> Image –> Insert image in cell
Grocery List = for the grocery list you can enter all the ingredients you need for that recipe, or if you’re like me and don’t want to see your basics (oil, spices, flours) on your grocery list you can just enter the items you’d need to shop for or make sure you have before making that recipe. If you aren’t using the grocery list feature you can skip this step.
Save = when you’ve entered everything you’d like to click the “Save” button right above the title entry. This will save your info to the recipe database.
Clear = when you’ve added your new recipe and are ready for another one click the “clear” button right above the grocery list section to clear everything and prepare for a new entry.
*NOTE: the button functionality only works on a desktop. You will need to use a desktop to add new recipes but you’ll be able to filter and see your recipes on mobile.
Recipe Database
This is where all your recipes are saved. To make a change to a recipe you’ve already added visit the database, find the recipe, and click on the cells to make the change you need to. You can manually add new tags or adjust your grocery items. You can also delete whole recipes by clicking on the number of the row of the item you want to delete, right clicking, and selecting delete.
Recipe Book
Once you’ve added your recipes they will populate on the recipe book where you can see photos of each recipe. You can use the dropdown menu to filter by category, and add any tags you want to also filter by. These are stacking tags so if I were to select breakfast with gluten free and dairy free tags checked it would only give me items that meet all three conditions.
Pick For Me
Can’t decide what you want to make? Clicking the pick for me button on the recipe book will randomly pick one recipe for you. You can keep unchecking and checking it to get different options. You can also add your category and tags to refine that pick for me. So for example if I wanted a random dinner option that was sugar free I could select those options and it would only randomly select from recipes that met both those conditions.
Cooking View
When you’re ready to cook navigate to Cooking View. Then you can select the recipe you’d like to make from the dropdown on the top. I will admit this is easier to do on a desktop. It’s possible on mobile – you just have to get used to it. Then you can see all your recipe info. You can adjust the size of the columns to best fit your device.
Weekly Meal Plan
To make a weekly meal plan first start by selecting your starting date. This could be Sunday, Monday, or whatever day works best for you. After selecting that starting date it will populate the next 7 days.
In each meal category there are two drop down icons. Clicking on those will allow you to select from any recipes you’ve entered. You can also start to type your recipe and it will pull up faster.
Want to add something that isn’t in your recipe book? In the tan sections you can add whatever note or meal name you like (example, yogurt with berries). These won’t autogenerate ingredients for your grocery list because you haven’t added it as recipes but it will still remind you to manually add them (more on that later).
Printing Meal Plan
If you want a hard copy of your meal plan you can navigate to the weekly meal plan tab, then select File -> Print to print the entire page.
Only want to see your meal and not the sidebar? Before clicking File, highlight the area you wish to print, then select File -> Print ->then under the print dropdown you can select from current sheet or selected cells. Choosing selected cells will allow you to print just what you want.
Clear
When you’re ready for a new meal plan (after you’ve grocery shopped and printed if needed) click the clear button to clear your meal plan.
Grocery List
Your grocery list is auto generated from your meal plan. After all your meals are entered everything from your grocery list items will appear on your grocery list. On the Grocery List tab you have three sections, your grocery list, additional items, and double check these meals.
Additional Items
Have other items on your list? Paper towel, cat food etc. Add these items under additional items and they’ll be added to your master grocery list.
Double Check These Meals
This is where all your non-recipe items come in. Remember my yogurt and berries? This is the point where I’d want to add yogurt and berries to the “Additional Items” list.
*Note: adding any items to the grocery list directly will break the formulas. Anything you want to manually add needs to be under “Additional items”
Shopping
When you’re ready to shop you can assign your items to different stores if you shop at multiple places and only want to see what you need at that store.
Have items on the list that you don’t actually need? Check the box and mark them as shopped. You can also use this check box and you shop.
Filtering: The little triangle of lines on your grocery list are filters. Only want to see the store you’re shopping at? Click the little icon and only select that store. Only want to see items you still need? Select the icon and only choose “FALSE”.
Clear
When you’re done with your grocery list and have already cleared your meal plan, clear your grocery list by clicking the “clear” button above your grocery list. This will reset your list for the next week.