Stupid recipe builder question

merewen314
merewen314 Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Why can't I seem to use foods from "my foods" in recipes? I've had it happen a couple times now where I can't find a food in the database, so I make my own in "my foods" and then there's no way I can see to select things from "my foods" in the recipe builder, and the food I just made doesn't seem to show up in the search either. It's a major pain, to say the least.

Am I just missing something, a menu or button or something somewhere?

Replies

  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    The Recipe Tool will not let you use personal My Foods; it uses a different search index and matching algorithm than the Add Food to Diary search, so it does not discover your personal My Foods or My Meals.

    I have developed a workaround for using My Foods or using a Recipe within a Recipe by first creating and remembering the recipe as a My Meal, then importing the My Meal to the new Recipe using the Old Recipe Calculator. It is available only on the web version. My instructions are at this link...

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10471173/how-to-use-my-foods-and-my-meals-in-a-recipe-a-workaround
  • merewen314
    merewen314 Posts: 6 Member
    Thank you! That is incredibly helpful.
  • mollycanine
    mollycanine Posts: 5 Member
    You can add your own recipes. Under "Food", go to "Recipes". Then go to "Enter New Recipe" under the old recipe calculator. When I add a recipe, I always click to add the recipe, but not so others can see it. Just my personal preference. Then when you want to add that food to your daily food tally, just again go to your food diary, click on recipe, and it will be on the lower left under Your Recipe Box. You can also click on the food item, and you can see what the ingredients were. I hope this is what you were referring to.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,206 Member
    Believe me, when it comes to the recipe builder, there are no stupid questions, only stupid programming.
  • distinctlybeautiful
    distinctlybeautiful Posts: 1,041 Member
    I've been able to use my foods when using the recipe builder. I wish I could tell you how it works, but they just show up in the search results. I do it on an iPhone.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    I've used the recipe builder twice in two years of weight loss and maintenance on MFP.

    I find it much quicker to just add the ingredients from my Recent foods every meal, since that seem to have everything.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    edited May 2017
    distinctlybeautiful wrote: »
    I've been able to use my foods when using the recipe builder. I wish I could tell you how it works, but they just show up in the search results. I do it on an iPhone.

    Unless there has been a recent change in the way the search works, a My Foods item that has been shared with the public Food Database will be searchable by all users and will be usable in the Recipe Builder. A personal My Foods item, meaning one that has not been shared with the public Food Database, has not been searchable using the Recipe Builder on the web version. I have not recently tested that, since I only use the Old Recipe Calculator now.

    Perhaps personal My Foods items that are stored on the mobile app are searchable. I have not recently tried to use the Recipe Builder on the mobile app, so that may be a possibility.

  • distinctlybeautiful
    distinctlybeautiful Posts: 1,041 Member
    @CyberTone When I create foods on the app, it doesn't give me the option to share them or not.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    edited May 2017
    distinctlybeautiful wrote: »
    @CyberTone When I create foods on the app, it doesn't give me the option to share them or not.

    That is interesting; per MFP, My Foods created on the mobile apps are by default personal and are not shared with the public Food Database. Thank you for the insight. I did a quick test on my Android phone with MFP version 4.8. It does seem to find personal My Foods using the Recipe Builder on the mobile app that the web version Recipe Builder will not find. I guess the subset of the Diary, My Meals, and My Foods that are stored on the phone's memory can be searched. When I get some time, I will test it out more.

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