- Who Can Create a Recipe Extension Template?
- What to Know Before Creating a Recipe Extension Template
- Getting Started on Creating a Recipe Extension Template
- Completing the Info Section
- Entering Cooking and Temperature Info in the Template
- Adding Ingredients to the Template
- Adding Preparation Steps to the Template
- Click Save
- Tutorial Video - Creating a Recipe Extension Template (4:49)
Who Can Create a Recipe Extension Template?
A recipe extension template can be created by corporate accounts users and above. Facility account users do not have the ability to create extension templates.
What to Know Before Creating a Recipe Extension Template
How is a Recipe Extension Template Applied to a Substitute Recipe?
Creating a substitute recipe from a recipe extension template will create that substitute recipe with a yield of 1, and will have as its ingredient the regular recipe. All other fields in the substitute recipe are populated from the template, such as cooking and temperature info, additional ingredients and preparation steps that are required to create the substitute recipe.
Recipe Categories
When creating a recipe extension template, you will need to associate it with a recipe category (i.e., entrée, soup, vegetable, etc.). A recipe extension template will only be available for selection from a recipe extension grid, menu item extension grid, or fluid extension grid if the recipe and the recipe extension template share the same recipe category. For example, if the recipe is associated with the "starch" category, and the recipe extension template is associated with the "starch" category, then the recipe extension template will be available in the extension grid for that recipe.
Having extension templates for different recipe categories offers the flexibility needed by the MealSuite system to meet different recipe details (e.g., preparation steps, amount of liquid, etc.) for the various texture type/recipe category combinations or fluid type/recipe category combinations.
Getting Started on Creating a Recipe Extension Template
If you are a corporate account user or above, you have the ability to create a recipe extension template. To get started, complete the following steps:
- Select Tools & Setup > Recipe Tools. The Recipe Tools screen appears with its various tabs.
- Select the Extension Templates tab. The Extensions Templates screen appears, listing any existing templates.
- Click Add New button. The New Recipe Extension Template slide-out panel appears.
- In the Name field, enter an identifiable name for the template that contains the texture type or fluid type abbreviation and the recipe category. Some example names are shown in the screenshot below.
- If the template is for a texture type, select Texture. If the template is for a fluid type, select Fluid.
- Proceed to Completing the Info Section below.
Completing the Info Section
- In the Info section, enter or selection the following:
- Texture Type (available if Template Type is Texture) - select the texture type the extension template is associated with.
- Fluid Type (available if Template Type is Fluid) - select the fluid type the extension template is associated with.
- Recipe Box - select the appropriate therapeutic label for the recipe (e.g., Texture Puree). Note that if a facility account uses this extension template to create a substitute recipe, the label for Recipe Box will automatically change to the My Recipes label (see What is a "My Recipes" Recipe? for information about the My Recipes label). If a system or corporate account uses this extension template to create a substitute recipe, the label for Recipe Box remains as to what is in the template.
- Prefix (optional) - enter the texture type or fluid type abbreviation (e.g., Chp/SB6). When a user creates a substitute recipe from the template, the prefix will automatically be entered in front of the substitute recipe name.
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Categories - select the recipe category that the extension template is associated with. As noted above, a recipe extension template will be available for selection from a recipe extension grid, menu item extension grid, or fluid extension grid if the recipe and the recipe extension template share the same recipe category (i.e., entrée, soup, vegetable, etc.).
Note: The system will not allow a duplicate recipe extension template to be created. If another recipe extension template exists for the same texture type or fluid type selected above and is currently published, then the recipe category from that existing recipe extension template will not be available for selection from the Categories field for a new recipe extension template. - Tags (optional) - select apply IDDSI tags, diet order tags, and custom tags to be applied to a recipe created from this template.
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Portion size - enter the portion size to be served for the recipe based on your facility standards. For example, for a soup recipe, the portion size could be 180 ml or 6 fluid ounces. The portion size accepts numbers up to two decimal points and fractions.
Note: If a standard unit of measure is not applicable for the recipe, then you can create a special unit of measure (SUoM), such as “each” or “slice”. See Entering Special Unit of Measure (SUoM) for Portion Size for specific instructions. - Portion Size Description (optional) - enter a description of what the portion size consists of, which can be useful in a production kitchen.
- Serving Utensil (optional) - if there is a serving utensil required for the recipe, then select it from the Serving Utensil field.
- Proceed to Entering Cooking and Temperature Info to the Template below.
Entering Cooking and Temperature Info to the Template
As noted above, when a substitute recipe is created from a recipe extension template, the substitute recipe will contain the regular recipe as its ingredient. The regular recipe contains its own cooking and temperature info. Additional cooking and temperature info to make it a substitute recipe are populated from the template. To add cooking and temperature info to the template, complete the following steps:
Adding Ingredients to the Template
As noted above, when a substitute recipe is created from a recipe extension template, the substitute recipe will contain the regular recipe as its ingredient. Additional ingredients to make it a substitute recipe are populated from the template. To add ingredients to the template, complete the following steps:
- In the Add Standards Ingredients section, click the Add Ingredient button. The Add Recipe Ingredients window appears (screenshot below).
- Select the Food & Non-Food Items option and use its associated filters as needed:
- Food Type - filter by foods (i.e., ingredients), prepared foods, recipes.
- Recipe Box - (available only if Recipe is selected from Food Type) - filter by a recipe box label, such as My Recipes.
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Categories - filter by food categories (if searching for prepared foods) and recipe categories (if searching for recipes). Note that if searching for both recipes and prepared foods, food categories are listed first in the drop-down, followed by recipe categories.
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Tags - filter by tags applied to recipes and prepared foods.
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As another search option, the Vendor Products option is a means to select a food item associated with a vendor product. From the vendor products that are returned from the search results, you then select one, which in turns adds the food item the vendor product is linked with (i.e., vendor product is verified for the food item). In other words, the food item the vendor product is linked with is added, and not the vendor product itself.
- In the Search field, enter the description or ID of the item or product you are searching for and click Go. The search results are returned.
- If an item is an ingredient, then by clicking the eye icon (
) of the item, a separate window appears with the following tabs:
- Details - displays the details and the Nutrition Facts label of the food item.
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Where used (screenshot below) - lists the recipes the food item is assigned to as an ingredient.
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Procurement - displays the verified vendor products the food item is linked to.
- If an item is a prepared food, then by clicking the eye icon (
- Details - displays the details and the Nutrition Facts label of the prepared food.
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Where used (screenshot below) - displays the following sections:
- Recipes - lists the recipes the prepared food is assigned to as an ingredient, and lists any recipes the prepared food is assigned to as a therapeutic substitute (i.e., an extended recipe).
- Menus - lists the menus the prepared food is assigned to.
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Personal Menus - lists the people profiles who have the prepared food item added as a personal item to their personal menu.
Note: The Recipes section is displayed first; therefore if you do not see the Menus and Personal Menus sections, then you can either collapse the Recipes section (by clicking the Recipes header bar) or scroll down the window to see the Menus and Personal Menus sections. Also, the Menus and Personal Menus sections will need to be expanded by clicking their respective header bars.
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Procurement - displays the verified vendor products the prepared food is linked to.
- If an item is a recipe, then by clicking the eye icon (
- Details - displays the recipe details.
- Nutrition Facts - displays the Nutrition Facts label.
-
Where used (screenshot below) - displays the following sections:
- Recipes - lists any recipes the item is assigned to as an ingredient (i.e., a recipe can be an ingredient itself in a recipe), and lists any recipes the item is assigned to as a therapeutic substitute (i.e., an extended recipe).
- Menus - lists the menus the recipe is assigned to.
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Personal Menus - lists the people profiles who have the recipe added as a personal item to their personal menu.
Note: The Recipes section is displayed first; therefore if you do not see the Menus and Personal Menus sections, then you can either collapse the Recipes section (by clicking the Recipes header bar) or scroll down the window to see the Menus and Personal Menus sections. Also, the Menus and Personal Menus sections will need to be expanded by clicking their respective header bars.
- To add an item to the recipe, click its + icon. The item appears in the Food To Add section (screenshot below).
- For an added item, enter or select the the following values:
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Amount and Measure - you can enter the amount and associated unit of measure for the item, or leave the default amounts to have the recipe creator scale the recipe by yield to have the amounts adjusted automatically.
Note 1: If attempting to select a volume unit of measure (e.g., ml, l, oz, cup, etc), and the volume unit of measure is not available, it most likely indicates that the food item is not set with a density value (see Density Value of a Food Item for more information). Please reach out to MealSuite Support to have the density value added.
Note 2: If a standard unit of measure is not applicable for the item, then you can create a special unit of measure (SUoM), such as “each”. To do so:- Select Other from the Measure drop-down. The Special Unit of Measure pop-up appears.
- In the Unit of Measure field, enter your special unit of measure. For example, Each.
- In the Amount field, enter the approximate weight or volume of the unit of measure. In the adjacent measurement field, enter appropriate unit of measure (e.g., grams, ounces, tsp, ml, fl. oz, etc.)
- Click Save.
- Pull (if applicable) - a pull value is the number of days an ingredient is pulled from a freezer for thawing before being used in the recipe, or the days beforehand that an ingredient is first cooked before being served.
- Prep (i.e., pre prep) - select the preparation action associated with the item. For example, drained, diced, grated, mashed, etc.
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Step # - preparation step number in the recipe in which the item is used. By default, the system selects step 1. You can leave as is for now and change the step later when after you add the preparation steps to the recipe.
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Amount and Measure - you can enter the amount and associated unit of measure for the item, or leave the default amounts to have the recipe creator scale the recipe by yield to have the amounts adjusted automatically.
- Repeat steps 2 to 6 to add other ingredients.
- Click the Add Ingredients button to add your ingredients and close Add Recipe Ingredients window. The added items are listed in the Ingredients section of the slide-out panel.
Sorting Ingredients
Ingredients will be sorted in the Ingredients section according to their assigned step. When multiple ingredients are in the same step, you can sub-sort the order within that same set of steps by clicking and holding the = icon of an ingredient and dragging it to its desired position within the same set of steps.
Note that if you drag an ingredient to a different set of steps than what the ingredient is assigned, the system will ignore that positioning and instead place the ingredient at the bottom of the set of steps to which the ingredient belongs. For example, dragging an ingredient of step 1 to the step 3 set will be ignored, and instead the system will place that ingredient at the bottom of the step 1 set.
Adding Preparation Steps to the Template
As noted above, when a substitute recipe is created from a recipe extension template, the substitute recipe will contain the regular recipe as its ingredient. The regular recipe contains its own preparation steps. Additional preparation steps to make it a substitute recipe are populated from the template. To add preparation steps in the template, complete the following steps:
There are two types of preparation steps that can be used in a recipe:
- Standard Step - A standard step is one with a common trend you see within recipes (e.g., “WASH HANDS before beginning…”, “Chop prepared food item to desired consistency”) along with HACCP steps. It is recommended to use these standard steps in your recipe. The content of a standard step is sourced from the MealSuite system; therefore if the step is updated by MealSuite nutrition services team according to standards, then that step is “globally updated” in all uses by MealSuite clients.
- Custom Step - a custom step is one where you can write the step instructions as you deem fit.
Adding a Standard Step
- Click the Use Standard Step button. The Add Standard Step window appears.
- Locate the standard step you want to add and click its + icon. Note that you can use the Search field and Type filter to aid in your search.
- Locate and click the + icons of other standard steps you want to add.
- Click Add Standard Step(s) button to add the steps to the recipe and close the Add Standard Step window.
- The added steps are listed in the Preparation Steps section; they are listed in the order in which the + icons were clicked. You can adjust the step order by clicking and holding the = icon of a step and dragging the step to its desired position.
- If you want to edit the content of a standard step, you can do so by clicking its edit icon (
). Before editing, you will have to confirm you wish to do so via a message that appears stating that converting a standard step to a customizable step will break any global updates applied by MealSuite.
Adding a Custom Step
To add a custom step, complete the following steps:
- Click the Add Step button. An appropriately-numbered steps with an empty Description field is added to the Preparation Step section. If there are existing steps, the new step is added to the bottom of the list.
- Click within the Description field to enter the step instructions. The character limit is 500. You can also enter line breaks between the text by pressing the Enter key on the keyboard. These line breaks will appear on any reports in which the preparation steps are listed.
- You can adjust the step order by clicking and holding the = icon of a step and dragging it to its desired position.
Click Save
With all of the above template steps completed, click the Save button at the top right of the slide-out panel (screenshot below) to save the template.