Posts Tagged ‘find ingredients’

Now you can Add Your Own Ingredients!

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

You’ve been asking.  (And asking.  And asking!).  And we’ve FINALLY relented, and added the ability for you to add your own ingredients.

This will make building your own recipes much easier – when that special ingredient you like to use isn’t available, just add it yourself (it takes just a minute!), and you can use it in your recipes.

Add Ingredient Link

If you've never added an ingredient before, this help link appears. Click it for the option to add your own ingredient.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1:

In the Recipe Builder, search for the ingredient that you want to use.  If it is not in the database, the list of matches will be empty.  If the list of matches is empty, there will be a new box below the list of ingredients (see image at right).

If this is the first time that you’ve ever added an ingredient, it offers a “Get Help” link, which gives you some great tips on how to use the ingredient search.  And, after the tips, there is a link to add your own ingredient. Click that link to be taken to the “Add Ingredient” Page.

Add Ingredient Link

After you've added an ingredient before, we figure you know what you're doing, so you just get this "Add Ingredient" link.


(Note that AFTER you’ve added your own ingredient, we don’t make you jump through those same hoops to add another ingredient – it will just show you the “Add Ingredient” link, like the second screenshot shows).

Step 2:

Once you’ve clicked the link to “Add Ingredient”, you will be taken to the “Add Ingredient” page.

This page is designed to look just like a Nutrition Panel from most packages at the store, so putting the information in should be easy.

Take special note of the “Grams” box just to the right of the “Serving Size” information.  This is VERY useful information to have, so please do your best to enter it!

Add Ingredient

The page is designed to look like a nutritional panel so that it is easy to use.


Also, notice how on the right in the green box it shows you the nutritional makeup of that ingredient, including whether it’s balanced or not.

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Posted in New Features, Recipes | 2 Comments »

Learning How to Eat Well

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Our Most Common Requests

Many members ask if we can add this ingredient or that ingredient, or tell us that their brand of cottage cheese is not exactly like our cottage cheese.

Our ingredient database includes many generic foods to choose from. We also have added many specific foods that members have suggested.

Taking the Time to Learn

FormulaZone is a place where you can learn about healthy living and make a transition from reliance upon fast and convenience foods to preparing fresh whole foods. During that learning process you can learn to make subtle adjustments and understand that although a specific brand of a food may have a slightly different carb-protein-fat profile, close is okay. Obviously there is a distinct difference between non-fat, low-fat and full fat dairy products, but if you compare the labels of the store brand, Lucerne, Dannon, Yoplait, you will find that they are quite similar.

Many brands of products are specific to certain regions or certain grocery stores and are not widely available. So, again, the learning process, if the ingredient is not exactly the same, find one very similar and it is okay to substitute. I might buy Dave’s Killer Bread in Portland (a local company) but you might buy Orowheat from your local food chain. I simply compare my label with Bread, whole grain, in the database and see what’s close enough.

What? It’s not 40-30-30?

No recipe will be exactly 40-30-30, even if it says it is 40-30-30 because every time you measure and prepare something, measurements are not exact and can vary each time you make something, So the balance might be 39-31-30 one time and 42-27-31 the next time.

Giving You the Tools

Most people join FormulaZone to either lose unwanted weight or maintain a healthy lifestyle. Our goal at FormulaZone is to provide you with the tools to do just that. We understand that our members come from many backgrounds, but they ultimately have a common goal: To get healthy.

It’s Worth the Effort

There is no easy solution, but we hope that the learning process will get you to a place where you can understand how foods affect your health and how you can make good choices, hopefully reaching a place where you can eat less prepared convenience foods and more healthy whole foods.

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Posted in Using FormulaZone | No Comments »

Checking if a Recipe is Balanced

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

NOTE that this article contains a LOT of information, but the time it takes to actually USE the new recipe builder is very quick. I just wanted to be completely thorough for you for all of the options and information!

You have two options:

Option 1: Label Analyzer

IF you know the totals for grams of fat, protein, and carbohydrates, you can use the Label Analyzer (www.formulazone.com/labelanalyzer.html). Just enter the grams into the appropriate boxes on the label analyzer, and it will tell you if it is balanced, and a best-guess at the glycemic index.

Option 2: Recipe Builder

If you don’t know the totals, but want to enter the ingredients to find out the totals, then you should use the Recipe Builder (you were in the right place!). You might try the tutorial (it’s the question-mark link at the far right end of the orange toolbar at the top). Plus, I’ll try to add some information here that may not be clear from the tutorial:

  1. Step 1 is to find the ingredient you want to add. The new recipe builder is MUCH smarter than the old one when searching, but still some tips apply.
    1. First, try NOT to enter too much in the name field. The more you enter, the more it restricts the list, and the less likely you are to find the food you want. For example, entering “94% ground beef” will not give ANY results, but entering “ground beef” will show a short list of the available ground beef options
    2. Remember that “close is good enough”. Sometimes you can’t find the EXACT ingredient – that’s ok. Finding one that is close is good enough. The nutritional differences between 94% and 95% ground beef are effectively irrelevant, so don’t worry too much about it!
    3. Don’t think “brands”. Because it’s complicated enough with SO many ingredients already, we don’t typically put in every different brand of something (unless it is nutritionally significantly different). So, think of the food itself – not about the specific brand.
  2. Once you see the ingredient in the list, just click on the one you want to use. In our example with the “ground beef”, you’d see about 8 options – just click on the “Beef, Ground, 95% lean” to select it. Clicked the wrong one? That’s ok – just click on the right one.
  3. Once you’ve selected the ingredient you want to use, then it’s time to enter the amount called for. Enter the amount, select the measure from the drop down, and click the “Add Ingredient” button.
    1. Once the ingredient is added, you can STILL make changes. In the list of ingredients in the recipe, you still can change the amount, change the measure, or even delete the ingredient.
    2. ALSO, once the ingredient is in the list, you will see the carbohydrates, protein, and fat – as well as the Glycemic Index (L for Low, M for Medium, H for High, or VH for very high).
  4. Repeat steps A through C for each ingredient in the recipe. As you add foods, you will notice that there is a row just below the list of ingredients in the recipe that shows you a lot of information about the recipe:
    1. “Balanced” or “Not Balanced” (along with the balance ratio),
    2. a link to help you balance it (makes suggestions for foods to add)
    3. The TOTAL carbs, protein, and fat
    4. The overall glycemic index of the recipe.

Happy Balancing!

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Posted in Recipes | No Comments »