Major problems with menu planner

[Kgaponte]

First day. Not impressed with the lack of flexibility in menu planning. Very limited foods. Seriously, egg white not an option? How come the cookbook items aren’t in the meal planner? I can’t really tell what the menus are calculating. Is it daily cal/fat/carb? Or is it combining at each meal or some other calculation? I may be able to substitute if I understood the parameters a bit more. It would be nice to clone a meal. I don’t like breakfast variety, but like dinner variety…but I can’t even substitute to create the breakfast every day. I thought you guys might have something here… I think the ad message was good… But you could use some better IT ideas and functions.

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, Kgaponte, and welcome. The lists take a little getting used to, including where to find certain items. “Egg white” would be under egg substitutes, egg whites (I will, however, propose to the development team to add it as a separate item). When you say the choices are limited, what other items would you like to see?
Feel free to repeat breakfast as much as you like – many people do this.
As for calculations, information will be made available in the very near future. Stay tuned…

[Kgaponte]

Thanks! Okay, so if I do the same breakfast, as say the “Tuesday” breakfast all week, the rest of the days I don’t need to modify any other meals? Also, I submitted a recipe yesterday, but want to clarify a couple things. How can I modify/edit what was submitted? And once that recipe is added, will it be a choice in the menu planner? (It’s what I like for breakfast and think it should meet the trim down club criteria and is great for those who like to cook once, eat many times 😉

[nanny11]

Hi I joined trim down a week ago. I like all foods and want to change how I eat not diet. I have cut out processed foods and junk foods and cut down my portions to what they should be. What I would like to see is where we could type in a list of foods we like and the menu could be made from that. A lot of your foods listed I wouldn’t eat.I would like to see the foods we type in made up into a menu that would give us the carbs, protein and calories we could have. I really like the diet journal and the progress meter. thanks , Nanny 11

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, nanny11, and welcome. You are welcome to request which foods you would like to add (you can list them here), and they may be made available to everyone. In the future, menu planning tools will become available, and you can build your own menus based on the program’s patterns and exchange list.
I just want to note that some of the foods currently in the Menu Planner lists that may be unfamiliar to you were selected especially for their positive metabolic effects and potential to support healthy weight loss. We encourage you to try some of them – it may take some experimentation, but you may find you can eventually incorporate at least some of them.

[debbiewhiting]

Hi I joined yesterday, so far I love the meal planner, I pretty much selected all foods because I don’t know if I don’t like them until I’ve tried them. So my meal planner brings up lots of foods that I haven’t tried which is quite exciting. My only query is that because some of the foods listed are new to me is there a list on the site somewhere that explains what a lot of the foods are for example my menu planner has brought up Cornish Hen – is this literally a chicken from Cornwall (lol) or is it just free range organic chicken. The egg white substitute – lost me completely can I use egg whites or must it be the egg white substitute (what is it and why is it better than just egg white – where do I find it) also what do I do with it, eat it raw, scramble it, omlete? I am looking forward to this learning experience but want to make sure that I am doing it right so that I get the results that I want.

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, Debbie, and welcome! In the Articles section (click above), there are articles on various foods – you can even type in the food in the search box. Other items may just be a difference in language, i.e. swede vs. rutabaga, whole meal vs. whole grain. You can also ask here, as you did. The British term for Cornish hen is Indian game (it indeed originated in Cornwall). We are delighted to see many folks from the UK joining, and are currently working on the terminology bridge.
Regarding white-based egg substitutes, this refers to fluffed up egg whites with some natural coloring to make them yellow, which come in liquid form to be used to make omelettes, add to baking, etc. The version sold in the UK is just unmodified egg whites http://www.eggnation.co.uk/. They are favored over whole eggs for people wishing to avoid the cholesterol and “bad” fats in conventional eggs. HOWEVER, sometimes switching to omega-3 or grass-fed/free-range eggs can do the trick. These are sold in major supermarkets, such as Sainsbury and Tesco.

[frank1blea]

How are new recipes (from the recipes section on the website) added or incorporated in my weekly menu planner so that I can select them to be added to my weekly menu? I have a list of 21 listed recipes that do not appear as options as I refresh my weekly menu. Just a few examples include: GRILLED CHICKEN PASTA, GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD, CLASSIC HOMEMADE BURGER, CLASSIC MASHED POTATOES, RAISIN ALMOND YOGURT, AND MANY MORE. Will these recipes appear later as the weekly menus are refresh, or is there a way to add them manually to the meal planner selection process?

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, frank1blea. Some of the recipes do appear in the Menu Planner. Because the total number of recipes on the site is growing rapidly, we are currently working on a way all of them can be options for the application-built menus.
In the meantime, I suggest any one of two things:
1. You can select similar recipes, then swap them out when it’s time to cook
2. You can swap out similar foods for the recipes (i.e. Classic Homemade Hamburger instead of regular lean beef in the list).

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