Recipe Collections are easy to build and easy to share, making them one of the most powerful types of content in your Meal Garden.

When shared with clients digitally, they are an excellent way to guide your client towards building better eating habits and helping them to navigate the complex world of healthy eating.

Watch the video below or read on to learn how to create Collections and how your clients can use them to achieve their short and long-term goals.

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Table of Contents

Before you start creating a Collection from scratch, why not do a quick search and see if something in the pre-made category will work as a starting point?

The image below highlights the ways you can search and interact with pre-made collections.

Pre-made collections can be found in the 'reviewed' source. These have been reviewed and approved by the Meal Garden Nutrition Staff. The review takes into consideration like diets and conditions the collections are focused on as well as the number and quality of the recipes included.

You can search for collections by:

If you find a Collection that looks good, click once, and you'll open it in 'Preview Mode.' From the Preview Mode, you can:

Click 'personalize' from the action bar on the bottom of the screen and add the Collection to your Meal Garden.

Just find the plan you'd like to use and click 'other' and then 'create a collection'.

Anytime you access a recipe, you can click on 'options' and add it to a collection.

You can also use the recipe filters from the main library to narrow your search and create collections by selecting multiple recipes at once.

If you don't find something that's ready-to-go or that you can modify from the Pre-made section, you can create one from scratch.

To do this, just click on 'create', give it a name, and press 'save'

Once you've decided the best way to start your collection, you're ready to start editing it.

You'll be presented with a screen that's similar to the meal plan and program's screen.

On the left hand side, you'll see tabs that you can use to personalize the collection:

The Details Tab: Here you can add a description, activate comments, add tags, set your privacy settings and set-up a custom URL.

The Recipes Tab: This is where you arrange your recipes (Organize Recipes Tab) and add new recipes or filter out existing recipes (Add Recipes Tab)

The Cover Page Tab: You can add a cover page for PDF's

The Preview Tab: Here you can see what will be shown when someone first opens your collection. You can also share from this tab.

Let's explore the 'Organize' and 'Add' Recipe tabs.

If you haven't added any recipes, you'll be presented with the 'how to' video at the beginning of this article.

If you've already added recipes, you'll be presented with sorting options and the recipes that are part of the collection.

In Meal Garden, you can take any collection and quickly 'edit out' unwanted recipes or 'add in' additional recipes.

The search filters in the 'Add' tab are exactly the same as those found in the main recipe search and the meal plan search (add meal).

The real power here is the ability to filter existing recipes based on your filters.

Highlights:

Once you've filtered the recipes you can either remove them OR add them to a new collection.

Similar to Meal Plans, you can click on any recipe and edit that recipe directly from within the collection.

When you're done editing, the system will bring you back to the collections screen.

The preview tab is where you'll find the sharing features and the grocery list.

Preview Grocery List

Clicking 'More Options' and you can preview the grocery list.

Now that you've created your collection, you have all kinds of options to share it.

Before you download, you'll be prompted to choose the data that is included in the plan; the options are:

Once you've selected download, Meal Garden will create your PDF and display the final product onscreen. You will also be emailed a copy of the PDF via a link accessible for 48hrs.

Sharing Collections via social is a great way to engage your audience, manage a group, or highlight your services to potential clients.

Using the floating toolbar on the right-hand side of the Preview and Details screen, you can share your Collections to:

The most effective way to share with your clients is digital; this way, they can take advantage of Meal Garden's tools for clients. To share with a client, click on 'Share' from the Details or Meals screen. From here, you can share to:

Now that you've mastered Collections keep going, and get familiar with the other great aspects of Meal Garden.

Everything you need to know about: