How to Build a Recipe Database & Write User-Friendly Recipes Using Meal Garden
How to Build a Recipe Database & Write User-Friendly Recipes Using Meal Garden
As experts, we understand that there’s nothing worse than the overwhelming feelings of confusion and anxiety that our clients will experience as they get into a nutrition routine and try or test out new recipes.
We also understand that many healthy, whole-food-based recipes call for multiple ingredients and often fall in the intermediate category for prepping.
But, your clients may not be prepared for this and it can be daunting to prepare meals with instructions that are overly complicated with multiple ingredients, leading to giving up on new healthier recipes altogether.
For those who are adjusting to the concept of ‘healthy & whole-food based’, straightforward, concise, and easy-to-prepare is better than overly complicated and incredibly healthy.
Client Success Starts with Clarity Around Nutrition & Recipes
If you’ve tried a poorly written recipe before you know exactly what we’re talking about!
We all want our clients to be successful in managing or enhancing their health through food, so how can we support them through clear, concise, easy-to-use recipes that look delicious?
Here are our 8 steps to follow so that your clients get user-friendly recipes from you that are easy to integrate into their eating plans:
Use a descriptive title so they know what to expect to see in the dish, i.e. veggie salad rolls with peanut sauce vs. salad rolls.
Include a recipe description: 1-2 sentences to peak the interest of your client. This can be a personal description of the recipe and why they should try it, suggestions for pairings, or highlighting recipe versatility and unique flavors.
List ingredients in the order they are used in the directions and group ingredients together:
Group salad dressing or marinade ingredients together
Avoid ‘divided’ ingredients
i.e. try 1 tbsp olive oil (for pan) and 1 tbsp olive oil (for dressing) instead of 2 tbsp olive oil (divided)
Don’t forget to include details about each ingredient (e.g. carrots, peeled and chopped)
Always list preparation and cooking time: When we lead a busy life, we all want to know how quickly a meal can come together! Preparation time is the time needed to prepare ingredients like chopping vegetables, soaking cashews, etc. Anything that is not active cooking time. Cooking time refers to the total amount of time needed to heat or actively cook the recipe.
List serving sizes: This is crucial information everyone needs to help meal plan for their week! Determine how much the recipe makes by measuring out portions for the meal. An additional notes section can include details on the serving sizes like 1 serving is 1 cup or 1 serving is 1 bar if needed.
List recipe directions in order and keep them short and to the point.
Use numbers to separate each step.
Do not add personal commentary, this can add clutter and confusion to the user.
Write in the second person (you, your, yours) or implied second person (i.e. [you] Preheat the oven to…)
Maintain language consistency (i.e. if a frying pan is used, don’t switch to calling it a skillet, pot, etc.).
Specify doneness (e.g. internal temperature rather than ‘cook until done’, tender when pierced with a fork, al dente, etc.)
Use a quality photo of the recipe that is clear and with a good resolution. After all, we eat with our eyes first!
Crowdsourced recipes can sometimes lead to blurry photos that don’t pique your interest. They are also subject to copyright laws. Try Pexels, Unsplash or Pixabay to find almost identical images to the recipe, and for free!
For higher-quality content, you can sign up for Canva Premium and access their photos, or Envato Elements for a low monthly fee
If you’re trying your hand at food photography and are using Meal Garden to create recipes, be sure to upload an image with a size of at least 3000px x 1500px.
Notes section
Add substitutions or additional notes here to help your client make adjustments to recipes.
Offer storage suggestions
Get Custom Branded Dietitian-reviewed Recipes
Meal Garden’s dietitian-reviewed recipes include all the key information needed for a user-friendly recipe so they are done for you and ready to go!
You can rest assured that our reviewed recipes can be shared directly with your client under your brand without any additional work. If you want to edit recipes with any additional notes or customize the reviewed recipe, it can be copied and edited to your liking. Quick, easy, functional, and flexible! Try Meal Garden today.
Imported and Branded Recipes
We all have a few favorite recipes from various food bloggers that we’d love to compile into one place to share. We aim to make importing your favorite recipes and adding your own branding easy for you. We’ve broken down the key information needed for user-friendly recipes on our ‘create your recipe’ page so that you don’t forget to include important details like serving size or preparation and cooking times.
You’ll also get a detailed nutrition breakdown for recipes. This is great if you’re looking to create recipe ebooks that include nutrition facts or if your clients are interested in the nutrition content of recipes to stay on track towards their goals.
Importing recipes makes adding and customizing recipes a breeze. A few things to look out for when importing recipes seamlessly are:
Look for recipe cards: These make importing recipes easier because they separate the title, description, ingredients, directions, etc. while recipes written in plain text on a website make this more difficult.
Review the recipe using our user-friendly recipe recommendations. Many bloggers tend to add their personal suggestions throughout the directions or use inconsistent language, so pay attention to these factors when reviewing recipes.
Reference the recipe, and provide credit where it’s due! If you’re looking to make a recipe your own, you must write directions in your own words and have at least a few substantial changes to the recipe.
Change the photo: Remember recipe photos are subject to copyright laws so be sure to replace them with your own photo or a stock photo of an almost identical recipe.
Try Pexels, Unsplash, or Pixabay to get photos for free!
If you’re taking your own photos, be sure to upload an image with a size of at least 3000px x 1500px.
Tag the recipe so it’s easy to find: As your favorite recipes accumulate over time, use tags like vegetarian, kid-friendly, family-friendly, gluten-free, paleo, etc. to help you find recipes within your personal collection more quickly.
Remember that recipe writing is a skill!
Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from your community on what they thought about the recipes you’ve provided. This will give you insights on areas to improve. If you want to save yourself some time, try out Meal Garden’s dietitian-reviewed recipes for your nutrition or health business!
