How to log meals faster: save meals and recipes

Most of us eat the same handful of breakfasts and lunches on rotation. So typing them out in full every day is wasted effort. The fastest way to log meals is to write them once and reuse them. This guide covers how to save meals, how to turn a recipe into portions, and a few small habits that keep logging down to seconds, whichever tracker you use.

Quick answer

Save any meal you eat more than a couple of times, so you can bring it back in one step. For homemade dishes, list the ingredients once, set how many servings the pot makes, then log a portion each time you eat it. Keep names short and recognisable so you can find things quickly.

Why repeat meals are the best place to save time

Look at your last two weeks of food. Chances are a lot of it repeats: the same oats, the same coffee, the same sandwich. Every one of those is a chance to save a few seconds, and those seconds add up. More importantly, less effort means you're more likely to keep logging at all.

There's another benefit. A saved meal is consistent. If you log your usual breakfast the same way each time, your days are easier to compare.

What counts as a saved meal

A saved meal is just a combination of foods you've already worked out once. Good candidates:

Your usual breakfast, such as porridge with banana and honey
A regular lunch, like chicken wrap with salad
A coffee order with a specific milk and syrup
A post-workout shake
A snack plate you build the same way each time

If you find yourself typing it again, save it.

Saved meals in Ramen: the @ shortcut

In Ramen, you save a meal in one tap, by tapping its total. Or you can accept the offer Ramen makes after you've logged the same meal three times. Later, type @ and your saved meals come back, ready to log.

Ramen keeps its symbols to a minimum. @ brings back a saved meal, and // marks a note to yourself. You can also type same as yesterday to bring back yesterday's version straight from your phone.

Things you've logged before come back instantly, because they're answered on your phone. For new lines, a number usually appears in about 2 seconds.

Recipes: log one pot, eat it four times

Home cooking is where logging gets slow, because one pot of chili has a dozen ingredients and you eat it over several days. The fix is to treat it as a recipe.

The idea is simple, and it works in a notebook or a spreadsheet too:

List the ingredients once. Include the oil, the butter and the cheese on top.
Set the number of servings. How many portions does the pot make?
Log a portion. Each time you eat it, log one serving, or half, or a bit more.

In Ramen, recipes work this way: you list the ingredients once, set servings, and log a portion whenever you eat it. You do the work once on Sunday. The rest of the week takes seconds.

Here is an illustrative recipe. The amounts and numbers are examples only.

Turkey chili (makes 6 servings)
500g turkey mince
1 tin kidney beans
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 onion, 2 tbsp olive oil
spices

Then, in your journal, 1 serving turkey chili or big bowl of turkey chili, about 1.5 servings.

Tips for building a good recipe

Count the oil and butter. They're easy to forget and they add up.
Be honest about servings. If you eat a big bowl, call it 1.5 or 2 portions rather than shrinking the pot into more servings than it holds.
Name it clearly. Sunday chili is easier to find later than recipe 3.
Update it if you change it. A new topping or swapped meat can warrant a new version.

For batch cooking, this matters even more. A big pot divided into the wrong number of portions is the usual reason a recipe's numbers feel off.

Other ways to log faster, with any tracker

You can use these tips with whichever app, or notes page, you use.

Write short lines

2 eggs, toast, coffee takes five seconds. Skip the long descriptions unless something unusual went in.

Copy yesterday

If you have the same breakfast most days, repeat yesterday's entry and change only what's different.

Use your own numbers when you know them

If a label or menu gives the calories, write them in: latte 190. In Ramen, a typed calorie number is used as is.

Batch your logging

If you cook on Sunday, log the recipe on Sunday. Then the weekdays are just portions.

Make it reachable

Logging is fastest when it's one tap from where you already are. Ramen has widgets on the home and lock screen, and Siri "Log food", so you don't have to open the app and hunt around.

When not to save a meal

Not everything deserves a shortcut. A one-off restaurant dish is better as a plain line. Our guide to logging restaurant meals explains how. And if a saved meal starts to feel like a rule you have to follow, remember it's only a way to save time. Change it whenever your meals change.

What stays yours

Saving a meal shouldn't mean your journal turns into a rigid list. Ramen never rewrites or corrects the words you typed, so your entries keep their own voice. And every number, including the ones in a saved meal, comes with a plain-language explanation of how it was worked out. If you want to see why a saved breakfast came out as it did, tap the number and read.

For more ideas on writing short, useful lines, see log food like you write notes. To compare approaches to simple logging, look at our simple calorie counter page.

Save your first meal this week

Pick your most repeated meal and write it down once, with amounts. Next time, copy it. If you make a big pot of something, write the recipe once and log portions for the week. That's the whole system.

Ramen builds this in with @ saved meals and recipes with servings, and it's coming soon to iPhone. Join the waitlist and we'll email you once when it's out.