How to create your own cookbook online for free

Posted on August 23, 2007 at 8:15 am

Ever wanted to make your own custom cookbook that you could give your friends and family for free? Are you one of those people who create their own unique dishes that everyone raves about at parties? Or maybe you just want to create a special gift for a daughter or son with your favorite recipes in the world?

MidWestLiving has a free service that lets you create a professional-looking and customized cookbook online. You can grab recipes from MidWestLiving’s database of over 10,000 recipes or add your own recipes. You can even start with one of their recipes and modify it to your tastes, so you don’t have to start from scratch. Your cookbook is downloadable as a full-color PDF file, which you can then print professionally if you like.

To get started, click on Start Your Cookbook Now. Enter a title for your cookbook, author information and the date. You can also select from up to 5 styles.

The next page is the central page for creating all the content for your cookbook. You can add up to three introduction pages, which includes a heading, some text and a photo in JPEG format. You can use these pages to dedicate your book or explain what kind of food it is about.

After that, each section is broken up into Chapters, most of which are already created for you. You can, of course, delete a chapter you won’t use or you can edit the title, etc. Chapters include Appetizers & Snacks, Beverages, Main Dishes, Sides & Salads, Soups & Sandwiches, Breads, and Desserts.

Click Edit Chapter to begin adding recipes to the cookbook. You can “upload” your own or pick one from their recipe site. If you upload your own, you select the category, give it a name, how many does it serve, ingredients, cooking instructions, and a photo.

The final book created by MidWestLiving is very elegant looking and professional. And since you get it in electronic format, it’s easy to email to your friends and family instead of shipping a book. It’s also great for fund-raising to sell cookbooks to office workers, etc for some cause. Check it out!