entering "homemade" recipes

VixFit2011

Does anyone else have problems entering foods that you make yourself? I have a heck of a time with that. Yes, I'm a little on the lazy side trying to figure out some of what I cook because I don't measure and just "create" most of the foods I make. I've found that eating lean cuisine makes entering quick and easy so besides the convenience of their foods for me (and yes I know the sodium levels aren't good), I find myself eating things that are easier to enter. When I tried to enter foods or recipes I make I get so frustrated I just grab at things off the MFP food lists that seem close to what I use but I know they aren't always right.

lil_pulp

I totally understand what you're saying, but I just keep a little notepad in the kitchen and write down exactly what I use while cooking. It's a bit time-consuming, but I think worth it in the long run. Good luck!
-LP

autumnridge

Sometimes I have to break the recipe down...how many ounces of this ingredient, how many cups of that, how many eggs, etc. and divide it by the number of servings.

kateanne27

I try to estimate and log ahead of time whats going into a recipe, which helps me to keep from adding too much olive oil or something, and then if I need to adjust it after, I do.

Pandorian

There is a recipe feature under foods, if I'm baking I'll enter the recipe first (it then totals the recipe calories and nutrient contents and I can decide how many servings it makes to get the per piece calories I want) Like my home-made pretzels... recipe totals 2400 calories so when I make a dozen large pretzels they are each 200 calories, easy as pie.

No remembering etc, just give it a descriptive name, and yes I do find it annoying that we can't take an already entered recipe and modify it IE my goulash with ground beef, I have to enter the recipe again to change the ground beef to ground turkey. Or my shrimp and chicken pasta dish, we got different shrimp this time so they are smaller, have to remember to not count them the same as the ones we used last time.

kklemencic

I stuggle with this too because it takes time to measure when I cook which I am not used to and then more time to enter my recipe into my fitness pal. But I have been really trying to do both so I can have a better accountability of my calories. I keep telling myself once my recipe is in then I'm set. Slowly I am building my recipes. I seem to have a harder time with the servings and how many to put for my homemade concoctions. I make a lot of soups and just put in what I like to eat but never know in the end when my pot is full really what the serving size should be. I now have 4 recipes in it's a slow process but every step forward brings me closer to my goal.

NoWeighJose74

The Recipe calculator under "TOOLS" is wonderful for this. Name the recipe whatever you want, and how many people it serves. Then enter the ingredients and amounts. It does all the math for you.

Then you can share it on the database for all MFP users, let us all know what you've named it, and we can ALL share in the yummy goodness NOM NOM NOM

VixFit2011

I tried this with one recipe and it wouldn't list the herbs and spices.