Creating recipes on MFP

ShesKindaBlonde

I created a recipe on mfp for something I eat regularly and I feel like I’m doing it wrong because the calorie count per serving comes out so low.. Could someone have a look and please tell me if I’m doing it right?

Beef stir fry (Beef stir fry)
19 oz, 665 calories
Sweet Onion (Sweet Onion)
1 oz. 9 calories
Taco Seasoning Mix (Old El Paso)
0.25 cup(s), 90 calories
Mild Picante Salsa (Old El Paso)
1.5 Cup (50 mL, 120 calories
Corn Tortillas (Guerrero)
20 tortillas, 630 calories
Lime (Fruit - Walmart)
134 9, 40 calories
Cilantro (Fresh)
10 tbsp(s), 50 calories

80calories per serving - 20 servings

cmriverside

Where's the beef? Beef is very high calorie and you've left it off.

I've never heard of a tortilla that's only 31 calories. You can't divide up the tortillas like you would the (for instance) onion. They would need to be added separately per meal. What I do is use all the ingredients of the filling as the recipe then just add the tortilla on to the meal slot when I use it.

I don't understand what you have posted.

Lietchi

cmriverside wrote: »

Where's the beef? Beef is very high calorie and you've left it off.

It's the first item, no? As for 'very high' calorie I wouldn't necessarily agree, depends on the cut.

The thing I can't understand is how this is 20 servings, those sound like tiny portions?

cmriverside

Lietchi wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

Where's the beef? Beef is very high calorie and you've left it off.

It's the first item, no? As for 'very high' calorie I wouldn't necessarily agree, depends on the cut.

The thing I can't understand is how this is 20 servings, those sound like tiny portions?

Oh, I see - it's a stir fry and cals are on the second line.

Still - beef is the highest calorie ingredient other than the tortillas.

I originally posted that I didn't understand any of that recipe/portions/ingredients' sources - I still don't.

Beautyofdreams

Is this beef tacos(20 tacos=20 servings) and not beef stir fry?

ShesKindaBlonde

The beef stir fry is this meat chopped up into smaller pieces, I’m new to ALL of this so my apologies. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Beef-Stir-Fry-0-6-1-12-lb/46491663

ShesKindaBlonde

😋

cmriverside

ShesKindaBlonde wrote: »

image

Okay, so the tortillas are 100 calories minimum. That beef looks like 2-3 ounces in each of those wraps...

I don't know how you got 50 calories per serving. Maybe go back and give us a screen shot of your recipe ingredients in Myfitnesspal.

Like this is one of my soups:


11 Ingredients [serving size, one 4 ounce ladle]
0.50 tablespoon Oil - Olive -
calories 60
Total Fat 7
Total Carbs 0
Protein 0
1 onion Onions, sweet, raw -
calories 106
Total Fat 0
Total Carbs 25
Protein 3
4 clove Garlic, raw -
calories 18
Total Fat 0
Total Carbs 4
Protein 1
8 cup (140g) (4.9) Acorn - Baked
Squash
calories 480
Total Fat 0
Total Carbs 120
Protein 8
2 tbsp (30g) 1/3 Less Fat,cream Cheese
Kroger
calories 70
Total Fat 6
Total Carbs 1
Protein 3
0.50 cup Milk
Milk 2%
calories 65
Total Fat 3
Total Carbs 6
Protein 4
0.50 cup 2% Plain Greek Yogurt
Fage
calories 75
Total Fat 2
Total Carbs 0
Protein 12
0.80 tbsp(s) Butter - Unsalted -
calories 81
Total Fat 9
Total Carbs 0
Protein 0
4 cup Chicken Broth Fat Free Low Sodium
Pacific
calories 40
Total Fat 0
Total Carbs 4
Protein 8
1 tbsp Oil - Vegetable, coconut -
calories 117
Total Fat 14
Total Carbs 0
Protein 0
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
Trader Joe's
calories 0
Total Fat 0
Total Carbs 0
Protein 0

Lietchi

I looked up the tortillas, if my Google search was correct, it's 110 calories per 2 tortillas (51gr). So for 20 it would be 1100 calories, not 630.

AnnPT77

Lietchi wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

Where's the beef? Beef is very high calorie and you've left it off.

It's the first item, no? As for 'very high' calorie I wouldn't necessarily agree, depends on the cut.

The thing I can't understand is how this is 20 servings, those sound like tiny portions?

That was my reaction, too. A serving would be one tortilla with an ounce of beef, and some seasonings, basically? I guess that's possible.

@ShesKindaBlonde, was the beef stir fry ingredient a packaged food that included veggies as well as beef, maybe, with a brand name you could use in the ingredient list or a nutritional label you could compare to the calorie count you got from the recipe builder? Or was it just meat, from the meat section at the store? If the latter, any indication of the cut of meat or fat content?

As far as the tortillas, Guerrero makes various types. The sort of normal looking white corn ones are 2 tortillas per serving, 51g, for 110 calories, i.e., 55 calories per serving, times 20 would be 1100 calories. But they also make mini tortillas that are 3 per 90 calories, so 30 calories each; and a low calorie version that mysteriously says 25 calories per tortilla on the front of the package, and 4 tortillas for 90 calories on the nutrition label, which would be 22.5 calories each. There are others - maybe some really are 43 calories per each?

@ShesKindaBlonde, when you put in a recipe, the more specific you can be in typing the ingredients, the more likely you are to get an accurate result (no guarantees, though). If it were me, I'd be typing something like "Guerrero White Corn Taqueria Style Mini Tortillas" (or however specific the label is), then checking the calories of the result against the label on the package.

If you use the recipe builder in web MFP, you can correct any items that don't match your product label, in a way that may not initially be obvious. (I think the phone/tablet app works similarly, but probably looks a little different on screen. I prefer using web browser MFP for recipes, so I'm less familiar with that function on my phone/tablet.)

On the web, after you submit the recipe URL, you of course get a list of (it says) matched ingredients. If you hover your cursor over the upper right "blank" area of an ingredient's line, you'll see the options "edit quantity" "replace" and "remove". If you think an item is wrong calorically, click on "replace" and it will give you some additional options, where you can click on quantities and such to modify.

If you think none of those are suitable, change the words in the search box a little (that's where you can put in more specific things like a brand name if you're using a branded product but didn't type it all in at first, or add a sensible adjective that applies, like "yellow" or "white", and you'll get different options. (If somethings really wonky and hard to get good entries, sometimes I whip out my phone and search ingredients as if I were going to add them to my daily log, because that gives me more options at a time to look at, then I put the exact title of the one I prefer into the recipe builder "replace" search box.)

You can of course use the "edit quantity" instead, if that's somehow wonky, rather than the actual item. (For example, some of the tortilla examples have counts per serving, and the label says a serving is multiple tortillas - sometimes the matching brings up a "per serving" item that doesn't meet your needs, but you can get info from your product label and adjust as needed.)

The recipe builder is a little difficult at first, kind of a learning process. IMO, it gets easier as you get used to using it, learn the little tricks.