Food Search Question

HeyJudii

Is there a way, when adding a recipe manually, to search my lists? For instance, my "Recent" or "My Foods" lists, instead of the willy-nilly way that MFP searches? It seems that the MFP search just brings back the first hit it gets.

I get so tired of entering "Milk" and it comes back with "chocolate milk". Or I enter "cottage cheese" and my recipe then has "cottage cheese with pineapple" added to it. I probably modify or create at least one recipe a day, and some have 10 or more ingredients, so it becomes really tedious to have to replace all of them, when it would be so much easier if I could just select the list I want to search/look at, one of mine, or the generic MFP list.

tcunbeliever

I use the desktop version and my "add food" page has a tab for "frequent" where I can usually find entries that I have used before if I want to use them again.

HeyJudii

tcunbeliever wrote: »

I use the desktop version and my "add food" page has a tab for "frequent" where I can usually find entries that I have used before if I want to use them again.

Thanks for the reply, but this has to do with adding recipes. Not just adding food to the food diary.

DisneyDude85

This is my biggest pet peeve when creating recipes as well. I haven't found a way around it either, but interested if anyone else has!

lynn_glenmont

I don't believe you can do anything but search the main database when creating recipes. That said, you could have two windows or tabs open if you're working on the web instead of the app, and copy and paste the exact language from the entry in "my foods" into your search for the recipe ingredient, and that should greatly increase the odds of getting the right hit. Also, if you use the "old" recipe builder (the link is on the right side of the page if you go to "create recipe" on the website), you can choose from a variety of hits, the way you get to choose when logging food in your diary using a search, rather than have MFP "choose" the way it does for the new recipe builder.

rosebarnalice

I also use the "frequent" tab, but I've learned to put in extra keywords for things that may have many entries-- e.g., "Kroger 2% milk" instead of just "milk" or "USDA broccoli raw" instead of just "broccoli"

Duck_Puddle

You can use a saved “my food” in a recipe. But only on the website and only in the old version of the recipe builder (and I don’t think it works with the recipe import feature).

This is what you would do if you wanted to use one of your recipes as an ingredient in another recipe (create a “my food” for it, then you can select it as an ingredient on in a differently recipe on the website).

You’re not asking about that specifically, but it does seem like the recipe ingredient search results either come from some other place altogether or are sorted in some non-sensical order and you can’t use a frequent or recent list.

I have several items that simply won’t appear on the search results on the recipe builder-even if I copy the same exactly (and those items are returned first in a regular food search), I’ve creatded “my foods” entries for them and use the process above to include them in my recipes.

If you search the help desk for how to use a recipe in another recipe, it’ll give more info on how to do that (create a “my food” and how to add that food to a recipe) even if you’re just trying to add a regular ingredient that is somehow mysteriously not found when searching in the recipe builder.

HeyJudii

Duck_Puddle wrote: »

You can use a saved “my food” in a recipe. But only on the website and only in the old version of the recipe builder (and I don’t think it works with the recipe import feature).

This is what you would do if you wanted to use one of your recipes as an ingredient in another recipe (create a “my food” for it, then you can select it as an ingredient on in a differently recipe on the website).

You’re not asking about that specifically, but it does seem like the recipe ingredient search results either come from some other place altogether or are sorted in some non-sensical order and you can’t use a frequent or recent list.

I have several items that simply won’t appear on the search results on the recipe builder-even if I copy the same exactly (and those items are returned first in a regular food search), I’ve creatded “my foods” entries for them and use the process above to include them in my recipes.

If you search the help desk for how to use a recipe in another recipe, it’ll give more info on how to do that (create a “my food” and how to add that food to a recipe) even if you’re just trying to add a regular ingredient that is somehow mysteriously not found when searching in the recipe builder.

Will check it out, thanks.

buffywhitney

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

I don't believe you can do anything but search the main database when creating recipes. That said, you could have two windows or tabs open if you're working on the web instead of the app, and copy and paste the exact language from the entry in "my foods" into your search for the recipe ingredient, and that should greatly increase the odds of getting the right hit. Also, if you use the "old" recipe builder (the link is on the right side of the page if you go to "create recipe" on the website), you can choose from a variety of hits, the way you get to choose when logging food in your diary using a search, rather than have MFP "choose" the way it does for the new recipe builder.

I do this. hit and miss though. Would also like to see a place for per serving size weights or measures.

ktekc

I just make sure i'm specific when filling out my recipe. like not just "milk" but" Fairlife 1% milk" or instead of "cottage cheese" i'd put "cabot 4% cottage cheese". A lot less having to go find the right thing that way.