Creating a custom recipe Topic

RogueScholar 08/09/18
Hi, I'm new to the app and website, but I've gotten as far as inputting the ingredients for a meal that I made. It consists of chicken breast, cream of chicken soup, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cream cheese, chicken broth, and pasta. I've got all those individual items in and I'm on the Create Recipe page. It wants Total Servings. How do I figure that out? One thing I read said to measure the whole meal in cups and input that, but I'm not sure the best way to do that. Would I take the chicken out and measure that separately? But then, I'm measuring weight, not volume. And the article said don't worry about weight, because it figures that out from the ingredients I put in.

And when I eat the meal, I might just eat a whole chicken breast, or a partial one, so how would I accurately record that?

Thanks for the help,
Lee

Dietician 08/09/18
Hello Lee,

Here is instruction from an article on entering recipes. I have also attached the entire article in case you care to read.

Servings – the default is 1 serving. If the recipe yields multiple servings, then measure the yield and enter that (e.g. 8 slices for a pizza, 12 enchiladas, etc.). If your recipe is a liquid or flows (e.g. chili, sauce, smoothie), then measure the recipe’s total volume and enter that. For example, I might enter 7 cups for my spaghetti sauce or 3 tablespoons for my pesto sauce. Note that the system will automatically calculate total recipe weight based upon the sum of all ingredient weights so reserve the Servings field to add more serving options for food entry. If you use common units of measure for volume (e.g. cups, fl oz, etc.), then the system will also be able to calculate teaspoons, tablespoons, etc. too.

https://www.mynetdiary.com/tips-for-accurate-recipes.html

Hope this is helpful! Brenda (Dietitian)

RogueScholar 08/09/18
Thanks for the help Brenda.

I think I figured it out. So, I took out the chicken and measured the pasta and sauce by volume (6 cups). I estimate the chicken to be about 4 cups, so a total of 10. Since the recipe is in cups, I assume I can't use my kitchen scale to figure out my portions, I'd have to use a measuring cup.

I gotta say, this isn't as easy as I thought it would be. It seems to add a whole lot of time to the whole process. But I also know it will be good for me if I can just stick with it.

Dietician 08/10/18
Hi Lee,

If you enter all the ingredients into a recipe, the recipe will calculate the total recipe volume for you. Then you can enter the volume or cups you eat at a meal and it should calculate the nutrients your serving. That might be a little more practical. It is not going to be a perfect science but an estimation. Make sense?


Take care, Brenda (Dietitian)

Creating a custom recipe