To help people lead healthier lives, we need meals. To make meals that are engaging, easy to create, and, most importantly, healthy, we need recipes.
A great recipe can change the way your clients view healthy eating and become a catalyst for change—embracing the effort to create and enjoy eating!
Meal Garden will make it faster, easier, and more enjoyable to create recipes.
Table of Contents
Searching existing recipes
Before you import or create a new recipe, why not look at what's already been added to Meal Garden?
With over 7,000 recipes, you may be able to find something that can be easily modified to what you need.
To do this, start with a quick search of the Reviewed and Community sections of Recipes.
As illustrated above, Meal Garden equips you with advanced searches and filters, making it easier for you to find existing recipes.
Here's what you need to know:
Source
The first and most important field is 'source', this dictates which recipes the search focuses on.
The table below describes the different sources for recipes.
Source | Description | Count (as of 2022) |
Reviewed Recipes | These recipes have been reviewed by Meal Garden Nutritionists/RDs to confirm the tags, the images, and the instructions. | 3,500 (note: we add approximately 25 to 50 reviewed recipes per month) |
Public Recipes | These are recipes that have been created or uploaded by your peers. | 4,800 (note: these grow based on user generation) |
Your recipes (favorites and created) | Recipes you've created or favorited | It's up to you :-) |
Filters
Once you've set your source, you can further refine your search with the filters. Meal Garden provides the following filters:
Meal Types
Time (prep time + cooking time)
# of ingredients
Tags (lifestyles, conditions, and cuisines)
Ingredients (food sensitivities)
Dietary (ex. dairy-free, AIP, etc.)
Nutrients (any nutrient with a range)
Results are updated in real-time, and you can see the count in the top left-hand corner of the results.
Sort
You can also sort your results by:
Most recently added
Most popular (our favorite)
Health Rating
Time (prep+cooking)
# of Ingredients
Name (alphabetical)
Reviewing Search Results
Once you've isolated recipes that work for you can click on the three vertical dots to access some quick features:
Add as a favorite
Edit
Review nutritional information
Quick Add
You can select multiple recipes and then add them to an existing or a new meal plan or collection.
Editing existing recipes
You can edit any recipe in Meal Garden.
If you don't own the recipe, we'll automatically create a copy for you.
Once you've found a recipe you'd like to edit, click on 'view' from the quick menu or just click on the recipe.
This is especially helpful if you do, or don't want to keep all your recipes in sync.
If you don't want to change the other recipes, deselect them and Meal Garden will automatically create copies that retain the original recipe.
The image below identifies some of the key features of this screen
From here, you can:
Add, remove and re-arrange ingredients
To add an ingredient, click on the '+' and start typing the name, you'll be presented with a list of results to choose from.
Once you've selected the ingredient, you can choose the measurements and add any comments.
To remove a recipe, click on the garbage can icon.
To re-arrange the order of your ingredients, click on the two arrows on the left-hand side of the screen (pointed out in the image above)
Add pre-prep instructions
If there are prep requirements, you can add them and they will be added to the digital or PDF meal plans.
Here's how Prep-instructions help:
Reduce anxiety in novice cooks by providing more detailed instructions for more intricate ingredients
Update the cooking and prep times automatically for the recipe, providing more accurate times
Will appear on a Meal Plan based on the maximum or minimum days ahead, making it easy for your clients to be prepared.
You can update any of the other information in the recipe, which includes:
Instructions
Servings
Prep-time
Cooking time
Type of recipe
Tags
Kid-Friendly
Publicly visible
Allow comments
Image
Notes
Adding Recipes to Meal Garden
Couldn't find what you were looking for from the existing recipes?
No problem, you have three options to add Recipes to Meal Garden; let's go through these options now.
Importing Recipes
In this scenario, you've found a recipe on the Internet that you love. It might not be 100%, but it's close enough, and with a couple of modifications, you'll make it shine.
The first thing to try is to import the recipe from its URL. If it uses the Universal Recipe Mark-Up, Meal Garden will import all the information.
If it doesn't, Meal Garden will attempt to match based on common names, etc. However, there will be more work for you to do once it's imported.
To import a recipe, click 'Create' and then select 'Recipe' from the options.
The next dialogue will ask you how you want to create the recipe; via Import or Create New, select Import and then paste the URL for your recipe into the form.
Once the system has imported the recipe, you'll be brought to the Recipe Edit Screen to see the import results and finalize the creation process.
On completion, the top of the recipe will have any alerts regarding the import process in red.
There will always be a few ingredients that don't match, this is mostly due to the accuracy necessary in Meal Garden vs. a typical recipe site.
If for some reason you can't match an ingredient, you can leave it unmatched and our staff will address the issue within 24hrs.
As illustrated in the image above, it's quite easy to match ingredients.
Reviewing instructions
If you've made any changes to ingredients or want to ensure the instructions follow the best practices, take a quick look at the instructions and update them as necessary.
Adding an image
We don't import images for recipes. Using images from the author requires explicit approval.
Once you've loaded up the image, you'll be able to adjust the way the image appears in Meal Garden. You'll be presented with a window sizer that shows you what will be displayed in the recipe.
You can:
Zoom in and out on the image
Crop it
Rotate it
Once you've got the look you want, click save, and you'll be able to view the final product!
Other Recipe Data
Similar to the editing of a recipe, you'll add tags, notes, and any other identifying information that you'd like to have.
Once you've got the recipe the way you want it, you can click save and immediately start adding it to plans and collections.
To create a recipe from scratch, follow these instructions:
Give the recipe a name, then add:
A brief description
Ingredients
When you add an ingredient, you'll type in the name, and Meal Garden will provide you with a list of choices. These choices originate from the USDA Food Central API and are the same ingredients used by basically every system on the planet.
After you've identified the ingredient, you can add the amount, the measurement, and any comments that will help.
You can add pre-prep instructions and delete the ingredient.
To add a new ingredient, click on the '+' under the 'add' header.
To adjust the way the ingredients are displayed, click and hold the 'Sort' icons and drag and drop the ingredients in the order you'd like.
Instructions --> 'IN YOUR OWN WORDS'
Add the instructions, be sure to review and optimize the instructions to match your brand and reflect any changes that you've made to the recipe.
An image
Images are the most copy-rightable part of a recipe, so you'll need to find your own recipe images.
You can either create the recipe and snap a pic with your phone, or use a free image from the Internet.
Servings
Add the number of servings the recipe is for. This will complete the nutritional analysis.
Prep and Cooking Times
Add these times to help with searching and building meal plans.
Ancillary Data
In addition to all the normal recipe data, you can also add these data elements to make the recipe more searchable.
Servings
Prep-time
Cooking time
Type of recipe
Tags
Kid-Friendly
Publicly visible
Allow comments
Image
Notes
Other Time Savers
Bulk Add
This enables you to quickly copy and paste ingredients. Copy the ingredients, click on 'Bulk Add' and paste the ingredients into the provided form.
Click 'Add' at the bottom of the screen, and Meal Garden will separate the different parts of an ingredient (name, measurement, notes, etc.) and add them to your recipe.
You can also easily copy-and-paste instructions into the Meal Garden field as well.
Sub Recipes
The last aspect of creating recipes that is important to understand is Sub-Recipes.
The best way to describe a sub recipe is with a salad. You have a salad that you use often, but the way you dress the salad can be different. Rather than having multiple versions of the recipe with different ingredients for the dressing, you create one recipe for the salad itself and then another recipe for the various dressings.
You can then add or modify the dressing (as a sub recipe) to meet your needs.
Sharing Recipes
You can share your recipes or reviewed recipes in the following ways:
1) Through a link
2) Via email (we'll automatically open your default mail client)
3) Embedding (you can embed in another webpage or app)
4) Through social
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
All recipes you share will be presented with your brand and when someone engages with the recipe, they'll be brought to your Meal Garden.
Conclusion
Recipes are a cornerstone of your tools to help people achieve the changes they strive for.
Meal Garden is a great tool for creating, storing, and sharing recipes.
If you have any suggestions on how to improve Meal Garden or this document, don't hesitate to reach out.
Continued Reading
Now that you've mastered Recipes keep going, and get familiar with the other great aspects of Meal Garden.
Everything you need to know about:
Recipes (you are here)