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Recipes and Meal Plans

Discover new recipes, create meal plans, assign them to clients, and more.
Kim
By Kim
• 13 articles

Create Custom Recipes

To get started, click on the Recipes tab and then click on "Create Custom Recipe". After that, you will get to the main recipe creation interface which has two columns. On the left, you are able to upload a recipe photo, ideally what it looks like when cooked. Of course, you can also customize the preparation time, serving size, cooking instructions, ingredients, and quantities. On the right, you can preview the total nutrition information for this recipe as you add more ingredients and/or adjust their quantities. Adding Ingredients To add ingredients, click on the "Add Ingredient" button and type the ingredient name you're looking for. You can choose any nutrition database that is available from the dropdown field on the right. Type the name of the ingredient in the search field. Our search is almost instant and results appear as you type. Tap on the plus + icon to add the ingredient to your recipe. You can keep adding ingredients, once you're finished, click the "Done" button. Editing Units and Quantities The default ingredient measurement unit is grams. This value can be changed to other mass units such as ounces and pounds. However, many food items have more unit options such as cups, tablespoons, fruit, bunch, piece, and more. Some ingredients have units known as "common measurements". These measurements are provided by the Ministry of Health (of each country) and represent the common amount for that ingredient in that country (measured in grams). For example, one cooked omelet with cheese in New Zealand has a common measurement of 78 grams. This is useful because people don't normally measure how much the eggs weigh before cooking them. Cooking Instructions We highly recommend adding cooking steps when creating custom recipes and making them as clear and simple as possible. To start adding cooking steps, click on the "Add Step" button. To remove a step, click on the trash can icon. You can add as many steps as you want and you can enter as much text as you want in each step. If you would like to link to your recipes blog or a website, you can do so in the "Cooking steps website" field. This is an optional field and is not required to create a custom recipe. Diet, Health, and Custom Labels Adding health labels such as High Fiber, High Protein, and others are useful for your clients as a quick summary of what's good about their meal. You can add diet labels by clicking on "Add Diet Labels" as well as health labels by clicking on "Add Health Labels". After that, choose the labels you want from the available list of labels as shown below. You can also add your own labels by clicking "Custom Labels." Once you're done customizing, click the "Create Recipe" button. Your new recipe will be available in the "My Recipes" tab. All the recipes you create are only available to you and your clients. Troubleshooting - If you get a red banner when trying to create a recipe, contact the team through the green chat bubble and we will help you resolve any issue. - Avoid refreshing the page when you're creating a recipe as your changes will be lost! - Recipes you create are saved in the "My Recipes" section. - Once a recipe is created successfully, a green banner with a success message will appear.

Last updated on Feb 09, 2024

Import Recipes using a CSV File

You can import hundreds of recipes into Foodzilla using a CSV file. To start, download our CSV template file and fill in your recipe data following the format below. Prepare the CSV file The following table explains what each field does and the expected format in order to import recipes correctly. Title and Ingredients are the only required fields. Please note that the nutrition information must be entered for a 100 grams measurement. Field Name Description Example Title The title of the recipe Chicken Soup TotalCalories The total number of calories for this recipe (measured in KCal). Only enter a number. 450 Servings The total number of servings 6 CookingAndPrepTime The total time needed to prepare and cook this recipe (measured in minutes). Only enter a number. 30 TotalWeight The total weight of the recipe (measured in grams). Only enter a number. 75 TotalFat The total fat in this recipe (measured in grams). Only enter a number. 32.5 TotalSodium The total sodium in this recipe (measured in milligrams). Only enter a number. 13 TotalProtein The total protein in this recipe (measured in grams). Only enter a number. 35 TotalFiber The total fiber in this recipe (measured in grams). Only enter a number. 5 TotalCarbs The total carbohydrates in this recipe (measured in grams). Only enter a number. 35 Ingredients The ingredients for this recipe. Must follow this format (multiple ingredients are separated by a comma) : ​ name quantity unit, name quantity unit... 🆗 Correct Example: ​Green Apple 1 Serving, Cauliflower 1 Bunch This example is correct because the ingredient name comes first, followed by the quantity, and then the measurement/unit and the ingredients are separated by a comma. 🔴 Wrong Examples: ​1 Green Apple, 1 Orange This example is wrong because the quantity comes before the ingredient name. CookingSteps The cooking directions for this recipe. Separate multiple directions by a new line. Sauté the olive oil, garlic, and onion over medium heat in a large nonstick stockpot or Dutch oven. Add the celery and fennel and sauté briefly, then add the tomatoes. DietLabels A list of diet labels for this recipe. Separate more than one label by a comma. No Sugar, No Added Oil. Author The name of the recipe author. If empty, your name will be used. Jane Doe RecipeWebsite The website link for this recipe. Can be your own website or the website you got the original recipe from. It must start with https:// https://foodzilla.io SuitableFor The category or meal type that this recipe is suitable for. You can enter anything here or you can leave it empty. Breakfast HealthLabels Similar to DietLabels. Can be empty. Balanced CookingTips Cooking tips for this recipe. Can be empty. You can swap Potato with Kumara. Description A recipe description. Can be empty. This recipe is easy to follow and full of nutrients that keep you balanced throughout the day. Note: do not change the field names or add new ones. Import Recipes Once the data is ready to be imported, go to the Recipes tab and then click on the Import Recipes button. After that, upload the CSV file you prepared earlier and click "Import Recipes". Once the recipes are imported, you will be notified with a popup to tell you how many recipes have been imported and that you can view them from Recipes -> My Recipes. That's it, you can import hundreds of recipes this way in a matter of seconds. Contact our support team if you need help doing this.

Last updated on Feb 09, 2024

Searching Recipes

Click on the database of your choice to search for a recipe, including My Recipes, Dietitian-Approved Recipes, Online Recipes, or Team Recipes (available if you're on a team plan). ​ You have multiple options to search the recipe databases, allowing you to find what best suits your requirements. - Search By Keywords Type your keyword in the search box. This keyword will be used to find recipes that have this keyword in their title. This can be an ingredient name, cooking method, or a popular recipe name. For example, you can search for salmon recipes by typing Salmon in the search box like this: - Search By Filters Click on the Nutrition & Diet Filter button to bring up the filters menu. To select a filter, just click on it. To unselect a filter, click on it again. Selected filters are highlighted. Once you're done selecting filters, click on the green Apply Filters button. In this example, we've selected Paleo from the Health & Allergy Label filters. We offer a wide range of filters, and you can even combine multiple filters to refine your recipe search. For detailed definitions of each filter, please refer to the Recipe Filter Definitions section below. We're continuously expanding our filter options and adding more recipes to our database, which already boasts over 100,000 recipes. Recipe Filter Definitions Filter Name Definition Celery-Free Does not contain celery or derivatives Crustacean-Free Does not contain crustaceans (shrimp, lobster, etc.) or derivatives Dairy-Free No dairy; no lactose Egg-Free No eggs or products containing eggs Fish-Free No fish or fish derivatives FODMAP-Free Does not contain FODMAP foods Gluten-Free No ingredients containing gluten High-Fiber More than 5g fiber per serving High-Protein More than 50% of total calories from proteins Immuno-Supportive Recipes that strengthen the immune system Keto-Friendly Maximum 7 grams of net carbs per serving Low-Carb Less than 20% of total calories from carbs Low-Fat Less than 15% of total calories from fat Low-Sodium Less than 140mg Na per serving Pork-Free Does not contain pork or derivatives Paleo Excludes what are perceived to be agricultural products; grains, legumes, dairy products, potatoes, refined salt, refined sugar, and processed oils Peanuts-Free No peanuts or products containing peanuts Pescatarian Does not contain meat or meat-based products, can contain dairy and fish Red-Meat-Free Does not contain beef, lamb, pork, duck, goose, game, horse, and other types of red meat or products containing red meat. Sesame-Free Does not contain sesame seed or derivatives Soy-Free No soy or products containing soy Sugar-Conscious Less than 4g of sugar per serving Tree-Nuts-Free No tree nuts or products containing tree nuts Vegan No meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, or honey Vegetarian No meat, poultry, or fish Wheat-Free No wheat can have gluten though

Last updated on Feb 09, 2024

Create Meal Plans

You have three options for creating a meal plan: 1. Start from Scratch: Build a new meal plan from the ground up to tailor it precisely to your client's needs. 2. Import from a Template: Import a meal plan from an existing template you've created, or explore our database of evidence-based templates. 3. Auto-Generate: Let our system automatically generate a meal plan based on your client's specific nutrition needs. Please Note: To create a meal plan, you must have added at least one client. You can use a "test" client for this purpose, such as yourself, to get started. Start from Scratch Now, let's begin crafting your first meal plan from scratch 🎊 - Go to the "Meal Plans" tab and click on one of your clients - After that, click on "New Empty Plan" - Fill out the Meal Plan's details - Adding Recipes or Food Click the "+" symbol on the day you'd like to add a recipe or food. 1. Adding Recipes - Click on the Add Recipe button to open the recipe search popup - You have the option to select recipes from "My Recipes", "Dietitian Approved Recipes", "Recipe Database", or "Team Recipes" if you are on a team plan. - Once you've finished selecting a recipe, it will appear in your meal plan. ​Pro Tip - Make sure the total nutrition of your planner meets the goal of your clients by checking 'Client's Goals' ​ 2. Adding Foods - Click on the Add Food button to open the food search popup - Start typing for the food/ingredient name you're looking for, you can select All Databases (Exc. the US) or a specific country's food database from the dropdown menu. - To choose a food, click on it and the green check will be displayed - When you're done setting the quantity, click the "Add Ingredient" button **You can also update the measurement for each food. The default measurement is 100 grams but you can change that and the nutrition will be re-calculated automatically. Pro Tip - Utilize the copy feature to duplicate the recipe in the meal plan for your selected day and meal type by clicking "・・・" next to the name of the meal. After that, all you have to do is to select which day and which meal you wish to repeat the meal for. Nutrition Calculation The nutrition for each food and recipe is automatically calculated for you and the total can be seen in the "Nutrition" Section. By clicking it, you can also see the details of it. Repeating a Plan Here's how to repeat a plan: - Click on "More Options" and then "Repeat Plan" - Choose the start and end dates - Choose how often it will be repeated. - Finally, click on "Confirm" ​ For example, W\we will choose our start date to be the 2nd and the end date as the 8th of October 2023 and set the Recurrence to 2 times. Notice we get a green bar in the calendar as an indicator for our selected period and an orange bar as an indicator for our repeating periods. The result looks like this: You can repeat as many times as you would like and the repeating period can be any number of days. Importing from a Template Importing from a template is easy as. You can read this article to see how.

Last updated on Feb 22, 2024

Auto-Generate Meal Plan Templates

Are you spending countless hours creating meal plans for your clients? Did you know that Foodzilla offers a time-saving solution? We provide auto-generated meal plan templates tailored to specific dietary and nutrition requirements. These templates can be used for a group of clients or customized for an individual client. Say goodbye to the time-consuming task of manual meal planning and let Foodzilla handle it for you. Ready to save time and boost your efficiency? Let's get started. First, go to the Plan Templates page then click the Auto-Generate button. Fill in the specific requirements, such as daily calorie intake, the number of meals per day, and the duration of the meal plan you wish to generate, as shown below. Meal plan templates are highly adaptable, accommodating various dietary preferences like dairy-free, sugar conscious, or gluten-free. Additionally, you can outline any specific ingredients to exclude. TIP: For the Macros Requirement details, you can put a number either in grams or percentages. Once you entered all the details, click Generate button at the right top corner**.** Upon generating the auto-created meal plan, you'll have the option to customize it further if a particular meal doesn't align with your client's preferences. If everything looks great, simply save the template, and you're good to go! Saved templates can be found in the My Templates section on the Plan Templates page. You can then use one of your templates for your clients from the Meal Plans page. Go to Meal Plans and choose a client, then click on Import From Templates. You will be able to see your templates and choose any that are suitable for your client. OR you can do it from the Clients page as well by clicking Meal Plans after choosing a client. You can learn more about Foodzilla's recipes and meal plan features here. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at any time :)

Last updated on Feb 09, 2024

Create Meal Plan Templates

Templates are reusable meal plans for a group of clients (such as clients suffering from IBS, vegetarian diets, and so on). They can also be customised to fit the individual's needs when imported as a meal plan. There are two ways to create a template: 1. New Template (starting from a new blank template) 2. Auto-generated Template (using our recipe database) Let's go through each option in detail. 1. Creating a New Template Let's get started, head over to the "Meal Plan Templates" tab. On this page, you can see the list of existing templates. To create a new empty template, click on the "New Template" button. Create your own meal plan by adding Recipe or Food to the template. For more details on how to build your own meal plan template, please see this article. After that, go the Details tab and fill in basic details like the template name, and finally, click "Save Template" when you're done. If you want to auto-generate a template, then follow the section below. 2. Auto-Generate a Template You can quickly generate a template that matches specific nutrition requirements. To do that, go to the "Meal Plan Templates" tab and click on the "Auto-Generate..." button. For instance, we can create a meal plan template that is Dairy-Free, comprises 1400 calories daily for a duration of 5 days, includes 3 meals each day, and avoids the inclusion of onions. You can also include specific nutritional needs like high-fiber content or specify particular micronutrient requirements. Once you're done specifying the requirements, click on the "Generate" button. If you're happy with the generated plan, you can go ahead and Save it. Otherwise, you can add/remove recipes by clicking on the "Add/Remove Recipes" button. You can also edit each individual recipe by clicking on the recipe and then clicking on "Edit Recipe". Once you're done, your new template is available in the templates tab and can be used to create meal plans. Let's see how we can do that. ​ Creating Meal Plans from Templates Go to the "Meal Plans" tab and select a client. Then click the "Import From Template..." button. Select the start date (the starting date where the recipes will be added from) and the template you would like to import and click "Import Template" That's it. Now the meal plan is populated with recipes from the template you chose. Easy as! You can now save the meal plan to save your changes. You can of course also edit each recipe or add new ones. You can also add foods directly to the meal plan such as fruits, drinks ...etc.

Last updated on Feb 22, 2024

Editing Recipes in a Meal Plan

Recipes in a meal plan can be modified to match your client's needs without changing the original recipe. Let's explore how we can do that. Editing Recipes in a Meal Plan First, open a meal plan for your client. Then click on the recipe you want to edit/personalize from the Meals section to open the recipe details popup. After that, click on the "Edit Recipe" button. TIP** Click on the More Options button and then the Copy to Collection to save a specific recipe you like from any Meal Plans! This will bring up the Edit Recipe modal where you can edit the details for this recipe in this meal plan. The changes you make will not change the original recipe, only the version of this recipe in your meal plan. Once we're done, click on Update Recipe and a green banner will show to confirm the recipe change has happened. You will see the changes reflected in your meal plan. Once you're done, click on the Save Meal Plan button to confirm your changes. Again, please note the original recipe is unchanged and you can find it in "My Recipes" if you have saved it to your collection before. Deleting a Recipe in a Meal Plan To delete a recipe, follow the same steps as above but choose "Delete Recipe" in the "More Options". After that, a confirmation alert will ask you to confirm. Choose "Yes, I am sure" to delete the recipe from this meal plan. After the recipe is deleted, your meal plan will remove the recipe from that day. To confirm your changes, you must click on "Save Meal Plan". Again, we can confirm that the original recipe is not deleted and is still in your collection by going to the Recipes tab and then "My Recipes"

Last updated on Feb 09, 2024

How to Add a Meal Plan PDF to the Client Mobile App

This article explains how to link to the client's meal plan PDF and show it in the mobile app so it is available for your clients whenever they need it. To achieve this, we need to: - Generate a PDF link for the meal plan - Adding the PDF as a Branding Link Let's dive into each step in detail. Generating a Meal Plan PDF Link Go to the desired meal plan and click on More Options then Generate PDF. Then select the start and end dates that you want to generate the PDF for then click the Confirm Dates button. After that, click on Generate Link and wait for the process to complete. Do not leave or refresh this page. Once completed, a blue banner with the PDF link is displayed. Click on it to open the PDF link and access it. Once clicked on, the meal plan PDF will be opened in a new browser tab. Copy the link from the address bar of your browser. We need this special link to add it in the next step. Adding the PDF as a Branding Link Now that we have our meal plan PDF link ready, all we need to do is to add it as a branding link. Let's do that. - Go to the Branding tab and scroll down to the Branding links section. - Click on the "Add branding links..." button Now let's enter the details for this link and click Done. After that, click on the "Save Branding" button. Note: make sure you have added a primary colour and a logo link to be able to save your branding configuration. After the branding is saved, we will be able to see the new branding colour and the meal plan PDF link in the Profile tab of the Mobile App. Here's what it looks like: We can tap on the Weekly Meal Plan PDF card to open it up and see all the meals in the meal plan right within the mobile app. Now your client can access the meal plan PDF at any time right from the mobile app. They are also able to share it via email or save it locally by clicking on the share icon at the top right. Let us know if you have any questions or feedback by clicking on the green chat bubble.

Last updated on Feb 09, 2024

Import a Meal Plan from a Template

Meal Plan Templates allow you to quickly create meal plans for your clients and reuse them for a group of clients. In this article, we will show you how you can import a meal plan from an existing template (either your template or using our template database). Importing from Template Database To import a meal plan from our template database, you need to go to the Meal Plans tab and select a client. After that, click on the "Import From Template" button. Choosing a Template - Select the "Start date". This is the date when the meal plan will start for your client. - Click on the "Template Database" tab to see the available templates that you can choose from. Each meal plan has a name indicating how many calories per day, the number of days this plan is made for, and any food restrictions/requirements. - Choose a template by clicking on it. It will be highlighted in a green color border to indicate that it has been selected. - Click on the "Import Template" button to import the template as a meal plan for this client Now you just need to wait a little bit while we generate the meal plan for your client. Once done, you will be redirected to the meal plan details page. Importing From My Templates If you already have created your templates, you can also import from them by following the same steps above in the "Choosing a Template" section. The only difference is that we will choose the "My Templates" tab instead of "Template Database".

Last updated on Feb 09, 2024

Auto-Generate Grocery Lists

Clients can generate grocery lists from their meal plans. This feature is available to all our customers on any paid plan. Grocery lists are also generated when creating meal plans and templates and in PDFs. Enabling Grocery Lists in the Mobile App For your clients to see their grocery list, first, you need to assign a meal plan to them. If your client already has a meal plan assigned to them, then you don't need to do anything else. The feature will be enabled for them. However, if you don't have a meal plan assigned to them, then you must make one. Please follow this article if you need any help. Once you've assigned a meal plan, your client can then just open the mobile app go to the Diary section, and tap on the "Grocery Shopping List" button as shown below: Grocery List Here are the things you can do on the grocery list screen: - Change the date range (the client can choose any date range they like using our handy calendar) - Change the serving amount for the meals. For example, some meals are created for say 4 people but the client is actually only wanting to shop for 1 person. They can set the serving size to 1 and that will auto calculate all the ingredient amounts accordingly - Select or deselect meals from the grocery list. Clients are able to see the meals they've got in any time period (next week, next 10 days...). When deselecting a meal, the ingredients will be recalculated automatically. - Check/uncheck ingredients from the list (just tap on an ingredient to cross it off the list) Notes - The ingredients are split into categories to make it easier to read and buy - The ingredients' measurements depend on the meal itself. In this example, we are using grams but the meal can use ounces/lbs/cups or any other measurement available. Grocery Lists in Meal Plan PDFs When you print a meal plan, a grocery list will be automatically generated for you. If you wish to disable this, you can do so from the PDF settings view. If you have any questions let us know by clicking on the chat bubble at the bottom right and someone from the team will be happy to assist you. Thank you for using Foodzilla.

Last updated on Feb 09, 2024

Share Recipes and Meal Plans as PDFs

1. Generate a Recipe PDF Go to the "Recipes" tab and select the recipe you would like to generate a PDF for. Then, click on the "More Options" button and select "Generate PDF". The preview screen will look something like this: Finally, click the "Download PDF" button and wait until the PDF is downloaded to your computer! 2. Generate a Meal Plan PDF Go to the desired meal plan and click on "More Options" and then "Generate PDF". Then select the start and end dates that you want to generate the PDF for then click the Confirm Dates button. Then the PDF preview screen will be shown: You can preview all the pages and click "Download PDF" to start generating the PDF of this meal plan. Wait until the PDF is downloaded on your computer. You can also create a PDF web link that you can send to your client. To do that, click on "Generate Link" and wait until the process is completed. After that, a blue banner will be shown with the pdf link. PDF Settings You can configure the PDF content in the PDF by clicking on the Settings button. The available settings are: - Whether to show the recipe author and website or not - Whether to show calorie information or not - Whether to show the grocery list Once you've made your changes, click Done to confirm. That's it. You can now generate PDFs for your meal plans and recipes. If you want to make the meal plan PDF available to your client's mobile app, follow this article to see how. If you have any questions or feedback, talk to us by clicking on the green chat bubble.

Last updated on Feb 09, 2024