5 Layouts for a Bullet Journal Recipe Book

One of my goals for my winter break from school is to create a recipe book in GoodNotes. I was inspired to do this because I recently became vegetarian and wanted to keep track of the new recipes that I was trying so that it would be easier to meal plan and remember want I like to make. I am also helping my twin sister make her own recipe book.

In this blog post I provide examples of recipe book layout for your bullet journal along with tips and suggestions on how to make the layouts fit your specific needs and wants.

I plan digitally, using an iPad and the application GoodNotes Adonit Dash 3 Stylus from Amazon. These spreads were made on GoodNotes5, but are easily exported to be used on GoodNotes4. If you are curious to why I plan digitally check out my blog post Switching to a Digital Planner-Paperless Planning.

What is great about creating your own recipe book in your bullet journal is that you can tailor each recipe page to each specific recipe. Compared to when you buy a predesigned recipe book, making your own allows you to only include what is necessary for each recipe. I suggest looking over the elements I have included in the picture below and then deciding which ones are needed for each recipe. For example, some recipes do not require cook time or oven temperature so those elements would not be included for those recipes. Including the allergies in the recipe may not be important to you so having the option to not include it allows for more room to add the information that is necessary.

I have created a few different examples of recipe page layouts. I have also only included a few of the elements to provide an example of how they can be arranged to maximize the space on the page. As I said earlier each page will be different as each recipe requires different elements. Along with the layouts I have also filled some out to further show how to use the layout. There is enough space on each layout for more elements to be added if necessary.

This first layout focuses on creating a beautiful title for the name of the dish. This can be done using a variety of different fonts or lettering or even a small doodle of the dish. I have kept the rest of the layout simple to further emphasize the focus on the title. There is also enough empty space at the bottom of this layout to move the notes section down and have more room for the ingredients and directions. Like all of the layouts more elements can be added if desired.

For the second spread I changed the header and added a page ribbon. The page ribbon is designed to be used to identify the type of recipe. B represents breakfast, L represents lunch, D represents dinner, and S represents sides, snacks, and desserts. I would recommend that if you are not creating your recipe book electronically and are doing it on paper to move the page ribbon to the right side or left side of the page to make it easier to identify the different categories. Once again this layout can easily be adjusted to fit the needs of the recipe. If doing this in a physical paper notebook you can even use an actual sticky paper page ribbon to section of the different types of recipes.

This next layout is the most simple and focuses most on the content of the recipe and less on the decorative elements. In this layout I have also added the rating element to show how it can be incorporated. If you do decide to add this element to all of your layouts I would recommend placing it in the same place on each page to make the book more cohesive. To learn more about how to make your bullet journal cohesive check out my blog post Elements to Make Your Bullet Journal Cohesive. There is also room on the right side of this layout if you wanted to add a page ribbon or shape to categorize the types of recipe.

This layout uses a circle as the shape to represents the type of recipe (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, side, dessert). I also changed the layout of the ingredients and directions. Instead of being vertical I made them horizontal. Once again there is room for more information and elements to be added. In the pictures I have an example of the layout with the D for dinner and one with the circle blank.

For this last layout I rearranged the smaller elements to be one the left side and then placed the ingredients on the right side. This layout allows for more space to write directions and notes. The empty space at the top right is designed to be used to write the title of the dish. This can either be done with pretty lettering or in basic handwriting, which ever fits your planner style more. For the star rating I suggest using a highlighter to outline the stars.

Below are two examples of the layouts filled in with a recipe.

I would like to mention that just because these spreads are black and white, doesn't mean they have to be. They can easily be made to include color. For example you can use a yellow highlighter for a recipe about lemons instead of the light grey like I used in some of the layouts.

Stay safe and happy planning!!