Logging homemade food

homesteaderjo

NEW HERE!
How do we know the food tracker is accurate? I make a lot of foods from scratch, so my strategy was going to be to just select something that's close to what I make. Is this the best / only way?
I'll give a few examples:
I make homemade yogurt with our cow's milk. There are so many special things about it ... like the cow is grass-fed and is A2/A2; I do not sweeten the yogurt [I love sour foods, so I just consume it plain and it's like really thick Greek yogurt], and so on. I chose "Nancy's Full Fat Greek Yogurt" because that's the yogurt I used to get the initial starter from to make my own.
Homemade kombucha that is not nearly as sweet as the GT stuff at the store. I'm sure when I enter in "GT's Kombucha" the carb count is much higher than what my homemade stuff is.
Homemade sourdough bread using kamut and spelt. Really, I am just not sure what to select for that!!!
I even had a hard time figuring out how to enter in "beef roast" and "chicken bone broth". For instance, the boxed "chicken bone broth" options all seem to have lots of ingredients. Mine is just chicken carcass and water. And my beef roast is just a beef roast [usually chuck, but sometimes other] that's been in the slow cooker all day with a few seasonings and some butter. The option I choose for that may or may not have the right fat and protein numbers.

Soooo ... what would you suggest?! Do you think this dilemma will mess things up too much?
Or maybe there's a recipe calculator here that I have not found yet?!
Thanks!

Deanner03

You can build recipes with the ingredients you use. All you can do is get as close as you can.

Retroguy2000

Things like your yogurt, maybe pick something in the database that might be comparable, like a Greek yogurt.

For other foods, you might try picking one of the healthier options of similar database entries if you think yours is healthy, e.g. there are dozens of sourdough bread options to choose from. The macros won't be the same as yours, but the calories might be close.

In all cases, you'll need to measure/weigh your portions so it matches the database entries.

For meals like your beef and butter and whatever other sides, you can add those separately then save it in MFP as a meal so it's easy to add in the future.

goal06082021

There's a recipe builder.

lynn_glenmont

homesteaderjo wrote: »

NEW HERE!
How do we know the food tracker is accurate? I make a lot of foods from scratch, so my strategy was going to be to just select something that's close to what I make. Is this the best / only way?
I'll give a few examples:
I make homemade yogurt with our cow's milk. There are so many special things about it ... like the cow is grass-fed and is A2/A2; I do not sweeten the yogurt [I love sour foods, so I just consume it plain and it's like really thick Greek yogurt], and so on. I chose "Nancy's Full Fat Greek Yogurt" because that's the yogurt I used to get the initial starter from to make my own.

I think any plain, full-fat (assuming you're starting with full-fat milk) greek-style yogurt would be fine. For the nutrients that MFP allows you to track, I deeply doubt that that the particular bacterial strains in your starter or the diet of your cow will make a meaningful difference. (The latter might make a different in the full lipid panel, but you can't track that on MFP.)

If have the original container with the nutritional label from the yogurt you used, or can find nutritional information from the manufacturer online, compare the MFP entry to that. MFP database entries are largely user-entered, so you want to be sure the data was entered correctly. If you don't have access to the nutritional label, just compare the MFP entries to the entry on the USDA nutrient database for Yogurt, Greek, plain, whole milk.

Homemade kombucha that is not nearly as sweet as the GT stuff at the store. I'm sure when I enter in "GT's Kombucha" the carb count is much higher than what my homemade stuff is.

I don't have any useful advice here, other than to use whatever seems closest for a commercial kombucha, preferably one that you have the nutritional label data for.

Homemade sourdough bread using kamut and spelt. Really, I am just not sure what to select for that!!!

This is the perfect place to use MFP's recipe builder. I think most starters are about 1:1 flour:water by volume, which is roughly 1:2 flour:water by weight, I believe. I think the yeast in the starter is pretty insignificant for any nutrients that MFP tracks, but if you really feel a need to track it, I'd add two to three tsp. of yeast to the ingredients you're listing in the recipe builder.

I even had a hard time figuring out how to enter in "beef roast" and "chicken bone broth". For instance, the boxed "chicken bone broth" options all seem to have lots of ingredients. Mine is just chicken carcass and water. And my beef roast is just a beef roast [usually chuck, but sometimes other] that's been in the slow cooker all day with a few seasonings and some butter. The option I choose for that may or may not have the right fat and protein numbers.

For the chicken broth, the other ingredients in the boxed versions are not likely to make a significant different for the nutrients tracked by MFP, with the exception of sodium. Look for an entry for low-salt or salt-free broth.

For the beef roast: Don't use other people's home-made entries. You don't even know what cut of meat they're using, and you use different cuts yourself. Use an entry that matches the USDA nutrient database for whatever cut of meat you're using. Personally, I would use an entry for the cooked meat, and if I was using a significant amount of butter, I'd just add a proportionate amount each time I logged a portion of meat. Again, if you feel this is too inexact, you can use the MFP recipe builder to account for all the ingredients, making sure you're using a database entry for the right cut of meat.

Soooo ... what would you suggest?! Do you think this dilemma will mess things up too much?
Or maybe there's a recipe calculator here that I have not found yet?!
Thanks!

Yes, there is a recipe calculator. If you still can't find it, tell us what platform you're using (website, iOS app, Android app), and someone who uses that platform and the recipe builder will likely come along with screen shots and everything.

springlering62

My suggestion is don’t bother with the recipe builder. Use the Meals function instead, and enter recipe ingredients in it, as if it were a recipe.

You have a lot more flexibility with altering a recipe, and can even copy it.

I will often create recipe as is, copy it, and then fool around with how many calories I might save substituting cashew milk for milk, egg white for eggs, margarine or apple sauce for butter, cutting sugars and adding a bit of zero calorie sweetener and so on. Sometimes I get a winner, sometimes I realize the calorie savings isn’t worth enough to hassle with substitutions or potential reduction in flavor.

I break down any homemade meals by individual ingredients. If I’m making a spaghetti sauce, I’ll enter the canned tomatoes, Basil, herbs de Provence (my go-to seasoning for everything), cooked & drained beef, etc.

I enter everything as one serving, save it, and then add .25 serving to my food diary for that day.

Sparkuvu

I have found mfp 101 to help with the tech of all the suggestions coming your way. Not experienced yet enough to tell you how to get to mfp 101, but someone probably is, lol