Tips on creating recipes

thefreebiemom

So....I have a hard time creating recipes on here. I did it with my lasagna the other night and that was just crazy. Last night I made home made beef quesadillas. Basically, taco meat on a big burrito shell folded in half and cooked on my family sized george foreman grill. Its hard to put in all the ingredients because the stuff that is preset on the website to choose from sometimes just doesn't fit the quantities that I use. Like I figured out that we use about 1/4 cup or less of cheese on each one, but you either have to put the whole bag in or just 1 serving which is 1/3 of a cup not 1/4 of a cup. So frustrating. I make a lot of stuff like this homemade that doesn't use recipes that are already created in cookbooks and stuff.

Would it be easier to just figure out how many servings of each ingredient I used for just me and enter it individually into the diary. Like:
3 servings of taco seasoning.
1/4 lb of hamburger meat
1 burrito shell
1/4 cup of fiesta blend cheese
???

Or to continue working on trying to create the recipe from it. I really really wish the scan barcode option on my phone worked for creating recipes.

thefreebiemom

Anyone at all who has a lot of experience creating recipes on here?

Josephina57

Ive never really had a problem putting in my recipes. Sometimes an item will have multiple entries in the database, you might be able to find the serving size you need in one of the other ones.

thefreebiemom

Thanks!

I have noticed that. On my lasagna recipe I found 1 item that used 4ths instead of 3rds for the item and I needed that but I just hope it is accurate. I assume most things listed are user created and that makes me nervous.

That's why I wish that they would let you make recipes using the phone app that way I could scan the bar code and not worry that the size package I am using is not the same as what they are using.

pdworkman

Most of them will also give you a 1 cup measure, and you can put in .25, .33, .5, whatever.

Pam

Thanks!

I have noticed that. On my lasagna recipe I found 1 item that used 4ths instead of 3rds for the item and I needed that but I just hope it is accurate. I assume most things listed are user created and that makes me nervous.

That's why I wish that they would let you make recipes using the phone app that way I could scan the bar code and not worry that the size package I am using is not the same as what they are using.

ElizabethRoad

I always create my recipes on the app. For Android (sorry, don't have an iPhone)
Click the drop-down at the upper right of the screen and choose "Edit Foods & Exercises".
Choose "My Recipes".
Choose "New Recipe".
You should be able to use the barcode scanner from there.

As for the cheese, you have a couple of options. Most entries, if there is an option for 1/3 cup, there will also be an entry for 1 cup. So you would enter .25 serving of 1 cup. Or, you could create a new food with the correct serving size.

mfp_1

It's easy and more accurate to log weights rather than volume. Do you have digital scales?

april522

Amen! I always measure what I'm cooking the food in first, measure after it's finished (in the pot/pan), and then subtract the weight. If it's 8 servings, I divide the measurement by that # to get the weight per serving. Much more accurate. FYI, if you do this, it's much easier to use grams than ounces. Subtracting 3948g - 305g is a lot easier than 4 lb, 3/8 oz - 6 7/8 oz!