adding homemade food to recipes

Kate_jordan33

Is there is a way to add a homemade item to a recipe. For example, I was making something that called for bread. I made my own bread and was able to add that to my own recipe list, but couldn't find it in the list to add it directly to the other recipe. Any advice?

penguinmama87

I recently started my own thread about this too, and I know there have been others in the past that might offer some insight.

To sum up what I know, there's no simple way to do it, but there are a few workarounds:

If you're using the whole recipe (say the entire loaf of bread), just open up the recipe and copy the list of ingredients over to the new, then add whatever else is needed. If you're using only a part, and you know how much that part is, you can adjust the ingredient amounts accordingly. After reflection I think this is the method I'll use most going forward. I do have a couple text notes saved (not on MFP) so I can easily copy over the ingredients for items that don't change (the example I used in my thread was pie crust). They won't always be neat and simple, but this is probably what I want if I'm aiming for accuracy.

I'm not sure how you use the recipe function most, but IME I like to search on mobile but edit on my laptop web browser. You can pull it up on your web browser easily by changing the number of servings after searching on mobile, which will bring it up to the top of the list (this is one of my favorite MFP hacks which is why I'm mentioning it )

You can also just sub in a database entry that is similar enough for your purposes (much more potential for error here).

TeresaWJ

I realise this is an old posting, and you may not be monitoring to see my response, but...

Yes, there is a way to copy your own recipe and use it as an ingredient in another recipe you are creating. Let's assume you want to create a sandwich you eat routinely with your own bread recipe. Use the meals feature--heres how: First, go a day forward and use a blank meal space (delete entry when finished). Now, add your original bread recipe to that meal. Adjust bread amount for portion desired (presumably 2 slices instead of whole loaf). Then, using quick tools, "remember" those bread ingredients as a meal. Use a unique name you can easily find later. Once this is done, you can go to Recipes and add a new recipe. Name your sandwich recipe, put your remembered meal name in "add ingredient" and scroll til you find your remembered bread meal. Click Add to the list of ingredients for your sandwich recipe. Each ingredient for your remembered bread meal will be listed in your new sandwich recipe. Bread ingredients can be adjusted if needed--for example, 2 slices needed for a sandwich, but only 1 slice needed for cheese toast. You can make that adjustment in the recipe, but each bread ingredient would need to be adjusted, of course. It would be simpler to make a remembered meal for 2 slices, and another for 1 slice, named appropriately. If you need 4 slices for a new recipe you are creating, just add the 2-slice remembered meal twice; ingredients will look weird long, but they will be doubled.

A couple of things about remembered meals feature...

Once named, a remembered meal can have ingredients changed, but not the name of the meal. To change ingredients, log remembered meal into diary, modify ingredients as desired, then remember meal and select "replace existing meal."

A remembered meal can be used successfully instead of a recipe, especially if there is a unique ingredient which often changes. When logging a recipe, you cannot change an individual ingredient portion amount, only the portion amount for entire recipe can be changed. But you can do this in remembered meals because all ingredients are logged individually in your diary and, therefore, can be adjusted individually.

I have found that remembered meals are best to use where a meal has an ingredient that changes brands occasionally. All peanut butters are not created equal, and when I change brands, it seems easier to log the remembered meal, delete the peanut butter shown and add in the one being currently used.

Unfortunately, I've had some experience where deleting a remembered meal also deleted the values in my diary. The meal ingredients were listed, just no values. But this does not always happen. Weird, but just something to be aware of that might impact your historical records.

I have been using MFP for over 10 years and I just learned this trick of copying a meal into a recipe. Hope it helps others.

Kate_jordan33

Thanks, this is pretty much what I did, but I was hoping for a easier solution.

Teresa, I posted this just a few days ago, so not old at all