Homemade food - how do you guys put it in your diary?

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random_fruit
random_fruit Posts: 3
in Getting Started
Hey,

I like to make most of my food from scratch. Does anyone know the best way to put this into the app?

Thanks!

Replies

  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
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    Go to the my recipes and foods tab and create a new recipe, basically you log all the ingredients in and can tell it how many servings it makes and it does all the work for you
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Recipe Builder
    Log all raw ingredients by weight
    Weigh final cooked recipe
    Divide by the number of 100g servings to give you a calorie per 100g
    Then log it as 3 servings, or 2 or 5 dependent on how many 100g you take
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Unless it's a non-cook, plating up dish in which case I'd log all the ingredients in my food diary then set it as a meal
  • cresyluna
    cresyluna Posts: 48 Member
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    Pretty much as above, just check through and make sure the ingredients matched are actually what you put in - sometimes it is screwy, like one time a teaspoon of molasses got matched as a whole jar, giving me some wacky high calorie count. You can always go in and edit recipes too, so if say your pie recipe is nearly the same as a basic one on AllRecipes, copy the URL and edit it to suit.
  • dechelonian
    dechelonian Posts: 29 Member
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    I simply log all raw ingredients by weight, but that's because I usually don't prepare multiple servings. If my girlfriend is eating with me, I simply double all ingredients and then split the final cooked recipe in half (I weight it, although that might be a little bit ocd).
    That's because I work from home, next week I start a new job at an office and I would have to prepare extra portions at night to carry to the office for lunch and then I'll probably do exactly the same as @rabbitjb.
  • jhall260
    jhall260 Posts: 111 Member
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    I weigh all ingredients then add them to all the recipe builder. I then portion it out to 100g servings. When I portion something out I adjust according to the 100g serving.

    Working very well for me so far,
  • cdgabbert
    cdgabbert Posts: 55 Member
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    If I am making single serving, I weigh and add in, usually using bar scan if I can. If making something like dressings for salads or a larger amount, I use the recipe, even uploading it and then making the modifications in the recipe feature - which I do a lot - like dressings...I rarely use the oil amounts in recipe and cut it back so I modify in the recipe edit feature.
  • lizek316
    lizek316 Posts: 76 Member
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    4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »
    Go to the my recipes and foods tab and create a new recipe, basically you log all the ingredients in and can tell it how many servings it makes and it does all the work for you

    Thank you for this. I did not know that.
  • mscheftg
    mscheftg Posts: 485 Member
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    I highly suggest using the recipe builder on an actual computer, if you can. I've found that using it via the app is more difficult. (That could be user error.) The thing I do differently than rabbitjb is I measure the recipe out into the actual serving size that I'll eat and see how many servings it gets me.

    If you're only cooking for one, just enter each item individually. Also, research some of your common ingredients on other websites to make sure that you're choosing appropriate items from the lists here. Some foods are way off!!
  • Eliz_99
    Eliz_99 Posts: 85 Member
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    I use the recipe builder, then enter the amount of portions the recipe makes. Eg I made chilli con carne today and the recipe I use always make 6 servings so I just add a serving whenever we have it for dinner.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    recipe builder
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I mostly just log the ingredients, which I find a lot simpler than the recipe builder for how I eat. For example, for an omelet:

    Log whatever oil is used

    Chop, weigh, and log the veggies used (this morning 1.04 servings of broccoli based on the 100 gram serving size, and .36 servings of spinach based on the 100 gram serving size).

    Crack eggs into bowl to weigh them (I can estimate eggs fine when not cooking something that makes weighing easy, though). Mix eggs.

    Weigh feta cheese.

    Similarly, for dinner last night I had Chilean sea bass, roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and some sautéed green beans with summer squash. I just weighed each component separately and logged them. When I cooking for more than one person do this by making sure I know what piece of meat is mine and then partitioning the sides by percentage (I do this when making dishes that are to serve for multiple meals too). If you are worried about the accuracy of logging one fourth of the Brussels sprouts (for example), although I think it's easy enough to be accurate when you serve it all up at once, you can simply weigh it again to get the total cooked weight and then weigh your servings to get the percentage.

    (For example, total Brussels raw=450 grams, total cooked weight=420 grams, cooked serving=110 grams, so you would be having 26% of the total or 118 grams based on the raw weight. Most of the time I'd just eyeball it to get 25%, though, so this is just if you are really precise.)
  • Ellaskat
    Ellaskat Posts: 386 Member
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    I cook 99% of my meals too. So, I:
    Use the recipe maker tool and then
    Measure raw ingredients (I don't weigh anything) to make what I put in the recipe
    Know how many servings there are and divide by number of servings. So, if I cook for my husband and myself, and know there are 2 servings, I log 1 serving if I split it in half for us.

    I eyeball things. I know this isn't perfect, but neither is the number of calories your body burns just by living- since that isn't accurate, I think close enough counts.

    I've lost 11 of 18 needed pounds this way in only 8 weeks. My body fat is down to 26%, want to get down to 21%.

    If this stops working for me, I'll start weighing, but it has been unnecessary so far. My measuring cups have done just fine.
  • michelle_816
    michelle_816 Posts: 621 Member
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    ^^This! I am the same way! I measure, but don't weigh. And I have lost 31 lbs.

    Take everyone's advice above and modify it to what to works with you and your lifestyle!
  • Mary407
    Mary407 Posts: 635 Member
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    Lots of good advice here. Each person needs to strike the right balance between accuracy in weighing/measuring and a system of logging that fits your time constraints (and patience). I prepare nearly all my food from scratch as well, and find the recipe builder to be very helpful. I make many things the same way over and over (not by a printed recipe, but by my own habits and tastes), so it's a real time savings to only have to enter it once. The "save meal" option is great for things you eat in regular combinations. I have some sort of green smoothie every day, and have the basics of it saved as a meal. I can then log that meal and each individual ingredient shows up on my diary, so I can make any tweaks specific to that day. Another time saver.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Use the recipe builder, (easiest way).

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