PillarSoft

The Menu Builder is essentially a holding area for dietary information while you choose ingredients from the FoodListing container that make up a "Full Meal". The "Full Meal" may then be saved to the FoodListing database for point and click data entry into any record.

Parts of the Menu Builder window:

• Calories - Enter the total calories for this meal here.
• Protein - Enter the total Protein for this meal here.
• Carbs - Enter the total carbs for this meal here.
• Fat - Enter the total Fat for this meal here.
• Meal - Enter the description of this meal here. (Try to keep this entry as concise as possible)
• Meal Type - Select the proper category for this meal (BreakFast, Lunch, Dinner or Snack)
• Add to FoodListings - Adds the current meal information to the FoodListing database for later recall from the FoodListing container.
• Add to Data Entry - Adds the current meal information to the Data entry window if it is open replacing any existing information.
• Clear entries - Clears all fields in preparation for a new set of meal ingredients.
• Close window - Closes the Menu Builder.

The system is not perfect but will be much easier to use once you set up common meals in the database to add to the main program. It may be easiest to explain how it all works by going through an actual example.

Let us suppose that I just had 2 eggs, 2 toast and a glass of milk. We will also suppose that this is a meal that will be repeatable and I want to store it as a Full Meal.

Here is the process I would go through to save it for easy access later:

1. Open the FoodList container from the menu by selecting, "Window" --> "FoodList"
2. If the "Bread, Meat and Milk" categories are not loaded I would load them from the "Load" menu item.
3. Click on the + sign along side "Meat"
4. I scroll down to the "Egg" subcategory and click the + sign along side it.
5. Double click "Egg 1 80 6 0 6"
6. The Menu Builder window opens automatically with "egg" in the meal window and the Cal,Pro,Carb,Fat fields are filled with the proper entries.
7. Because I want 2 eggs I will double click the "Egg 1 80 6 0 6" entry again.
8. The Meal window now shows "egg, egg" and the Cal,Pro,Carb,Fat fields have been updated with this increased values needed to total the selections I have made.
9. I now go to the "Bread" category and click the + sign along side it.
10. Scroll down to the "bread" subcategory and click the + sign along side it.
11. I want to add 2 slices of wheat bread so I double click "bread wheat" twice in succession.
12. The Menu Builder now has "egg, egg, bread wheat, bread wheat" in the Meal field and "290 18 28 14" in the Cal,Pro,Carb,Fat fields respectively.
13. Now it is off to the "Milk" category.
14. I open the "Milk" category and the "milk" subcategory by clicking the + sign next to them.
15. I then double click "milk lo fat" to add it to the Menu builder.
16. Now, we switch to the Menu builder window and edit the Meal entry field to give a concise description of our meal. I will change "egg, egg, bread wheat, bread wheat, milk lo fat" to read, "2 eggs, 2 toast, milk"
17. To finish it all off I will select the "BreakFast" radio button on the right hand side of the Menu builder window.
18. To add it to the FoodListing database I will click the "Add to FoodListings" button.
19. If the Data Entry window is open I can also add this meal information to it by clicking the "Add to data entry" button.
20. I may now close the window now or clear the fields and start building another meal.

My new meal has been added to the "fMeals.pfc" file on my hard drive. The next time I load the FoodListing window, it will be part of the "Full Meals" selections.