Thanks for the clarification. It's got me pointed in the right direction with Periodic Inventory. I've referenced several of your posts on this forum, and they have been very helpful for a knucklehead like me.

As advised, I made a separate PURCHASES account and listed it as an Other Current Assets Type and Detail Type. I'll use it to record ingredients purchases as they occur. I won't use the Inventory Asset account.

Originally, I had each menu item listed in the Products and Services page as a non-inventory type because I thought that it would work with "Sync with Square POS" app. But, after seeing the terrible reviews from that app, and what you said I removed all menu items from Products & Services. Instead, I'll manually record Total Daily Sales. This method seems simpler.

My plan now:

At the end of each day- Manually record Total Daily Sales as referenced: Total Daily Sales.

At the end of each week/month- Value the ingredients on hand, deduce COGS, then adjust COGS/PURCHASES accounts with a journal entry, as you commented: Periodic Inventory 

I'm learning that it's easier to account using Total daily sales/cogs/purchases instead of Itemized values (for individual menu items). I was getting "wrapped around the axle" trying to do that. I have itemized data in the POS and spreadsheets that I can use for profit analysis, but it seems that I should keep things as simple as possible by using Totals for the bookkeeping/accounting.

I feel like I know have a grasp of how to account for purchases/sales. Please let me know if I'm off. Thanks for the help!