How do you record

jhuntley15

So I have been on MFP for a little while and have lost 16 pounds so far, but I am still struggling with recipe recording. We eat at home and I cook every day, it is very seldom that we eat out, but we are a family of 6 so the quantity of a meal is very large. I create a meal in my recipes and scan every ingredient and how much I put in, but where I get stuck is servings. It is not feasible to measure out every bit of a huge pot of chili for instance so what I have been doing is making everything 6 servings which I know is not the case so I am misstating my calories often. Sometimes I will measure things as I serve them and go back and adjust the servings, but if I am not the one serving or if it is something that is very difficult to measure then I leave it at 6. How do you guys make your home cooked meals accurate?

Oh and I need to add that I am the only one in the family overweight and trying to lose weight and the others are not very receptive to using low calorie recipes.

kommodevaran

For soups and pot dishes that make more than two servings, I divide the whole thing (net - subtract weight of container) into grams and make 1 gram = 1 serving. (I learned it here on MFP.)

Francl27

Same, I weigh and 1g is one serving.

CyberTone

This is how I do it. There is a little learning curve, but it gets easy once you have done it a few times.

Choose a medium size pot for weighing/serving/keeping the meal warm. The medium pot is a different one than the large (cooking) pot in which you cook the meal. Record the tare weight of the medium (serving) pot using a kitchen scale. Tip: Keep a list of the tare weights of pots, pans, bowls, cooking utensils, and measuring cups/spoons on your refrigerator or in a kitchen drawer.

Decide a standard serving size, such as 1 cup / 8 oz. / 230g, and use a ladle or measuring cup as a scoop. Tip: Although 8 oz. = 226.796g, it is easier to round up to 230g so that you can halve, double, or triple that in your head.

When the meal in the large pot is ready, place the medium pot on the scale, tare the scale, then scoop X number of cups/servings into the medium pot. Record the net weight and place on the stove to keep warm. Alternately, if you already have recorded the tare weight of the medium pot, scoop the food into the medium pot, tare the scale, weigh the medium pot plus contents, then subtract the medium pot tare weight from the total weight.

Instruct family to serve only from the medium pot. Tip: If the medium pot is empty and someone wants more, just put the medium pot on the scale, tare the scale, scoop out additional servings into the medium pot, and record that net weight.

If there are any leftovers, repeat the taring, scooping, weighing, and recording until it is finished.

At the end of the meal, add up all of the separate net weights and use the total weight for the meal to record in the Recipe Importer or Old Recipe Calculator.

PaytraB

I also cook most of my meals.
I used to do it this way: I'd look at the pot of chili, stew, soup, etc and try to estimate how many "me-sized" servings it would make (ie: if I were eating that whole pot by myself, how many servings would I get out of it if eating to be satisfied). I'd then put that many servings into the recipe. That gives a (hopefully) close approximation of what one of your servings would be. After awhile, you'll get really good at estimating the serving sizes.
It worked well in the sense that I lost the weight at a steady, healthy rate, so I think it's a close enough estimate. If my calories that day were high, I'd have half a portion and a salad to make the calorie limits fit. Or I'd fit the rest of the day's calories around the soup, stew, chili, etc if I logged early in the day.

PS: I was also the only person losing weight in my household.
I would take my portion of the main, higher calorie meal (adjusting it down, if I needed to that day) and have a lot of steamed veggies on the side. You can eat a lot of veggies for very few calories and you won't leave the table hungry or feeling deprived as long as you've had a decent amount of the main meal with it.
The biggest lesson I learned from MFP was to be aware of what went on your plate in relation to what your body needed. Learning to live with people and the world while eating to satisfaction is tricky at times.

ljashley1952

What I do is create a recipe; like say a big pot of vegetable soup. I actually measure how many cups are in the pot of finished soup. Then I figure on one serving being 2 cups (or you can do 1 cup) and then divide the number of servings in the pot and I get how many calories are in a serving. From then on, I assume that I can eat 1 cup and log it as 0.5 servings or eat 2 cups and log it as 1 serving. It may not be 100% accurate at all times, but it comes close.

Dawmelvan

Good question! I've been wondering this myself and appreciate everyone's responses.

JoRocka

kommodevaran wrote: »

For soups and pot dishes that make more than two servings, I divide the whole thing (net - subtract weight of container) into grams and make 1 gram = 1 serving. (I learned it here on MFP.)

I haven't heard/tried this- so just so I'm clear (Because I usually just ball park it in terms of serving sizes.

so take the entire weight of the recipe all cooked
(tare the crock pot/casserole dish whatever- so final food only)

Okay- let's say my apple sauce weighs 500 grams. (for math)

and then you make it 500 serving sizes in the recipe builder...

so then when you plug it in you just weigh out how much actually consume?

I'd measure out- say 100 grams of applesauce I'll enter in 100 servings and that's going to get me accurate representation of what I ate?

Did I lay that out in my head right??

Because that's genius and way better than how I normally do it.... which is along the lines of- yeah I'll eat 10 or 15 of those- sure servings size = 15 then Ball park- and or pre-portion into mason jars and just count how many then deal with it in servings size after.

Francl27

I weigh my dish empty. Then put the food in and cook it. Then weigh the whole thing, subtract the weight of the dish, and put that as the number of servings. So if I have 300 grams of soup, I'll log it as 300 servings.

It kinda sucks when the finished product is too heavy though, once I made something that was too heavy for my scale with the dish and not easy to transfer (lasagna, I think), so I just had to guesstimate, but it's relatively easy when it's something that can be cut in 6 or 8 or something. Otherwise I just use a big bowl, tare that, and transfer there to weigh it.

I've done the cup thing... I counted my recipe as 10 cups or something. Then I finished the dish by myself, added everything, and I ended up with 8 servings. Too easy to screw it up I guess.

JoRocka

okay- so I was right- got it. the weight of the whole food dish (without the serving/cooking dish) is the servings- then you just log the weight as you eat it.

Got it.
Makes sense.

Interesting- I'm honestly not sure my scale goes that high though!!!!!

acheben

JoRocka wrote: »

okay- so I was right- got it. the weight of the whole food dish (without the serving/cooking dish) is the servings- then you just log the weight as you eat it.

Got it.
Makes sense.

Interesting- I'm honestly not sure my scale goes that high though!!!!!

When my scale doesn't go that high, I'll weigh each serving as I dish it out and make note of it. Then when I put the leftovers away, I'll weigh those. It's a little more cumbersome, but it works.

nicsflyingcircus

Francl27 wrote: »

I weigh my dish empty. Then put the food in and cook it. Then weigh the whole thing, subtract the weight of the dish, and put that as the number of servings. So if I have 300 grams of soup, I'll log it as 300 servings.

It kinda sucks when the finished product is too heavy though, once I made something that was too heavy for my scale with the dish and not easy to transfer (lasagna, I think), so I just had to guesstimate, but it's relatively easy when it's something that can be cut in 6 or 8 or something. Otherwise I just use a big bowl, tare that, and transfer there to weigh it.

I've done the cup thing... I counted my recipe as 10 cups or something. Then I finished the dish by myself, added everything, and I ended up with 8 servings. Too easy to screw it up I guess.

This is why I bought a new scale. My old one was plastic and only went up to like 5lbs. My current one is stainless steel and goes to 11lbs (5kg). Much nicer for putting a hot pot on top (that I pre-weighed) to get the total size of the meal.

JoRocka

acheben wrote: »

JoRocka wrote: »

okay- so I was right- got it. the weight of the whole food dish (without the serving/cooking dish) is the servings- then you just log the weight as you eat it.

Got it.
Makes sense.

Interesting- I'm honestly not sure my scale goes that high though!!!!!

When my scale doesn't go that high, I'll weigh each serving as I dish it out and make note of it. Then when I put the leftovers away, I'll weigh those. It's a little more cumbersome, but it works.

Normally if I'm doing stuff I CAN pre-portion as a whole- that's how I do it. Because yeah crock pot + my tiny scale =/= end well

But i've been utilizing my crock pot excessively lately- and it winds up being a lot- and sometimes I can't fit it all into my tupperware/mason jars.

NK1112

I purchased a mail type scale ... it goes up to 25 pounds and measures in grams or ounces and has a Tare feature. It cost less than $30 when I bought it on line.

For my homemade recipes, I measure/weigh items as I put them into the recipe. For soups, stews, chowders ... I use a pot that I know how many cups it holds at a certain level within the pot. I use the measured/weighed items in the ingredients list and enter how much I used, then in the servings side I enter how many 1-cup servings the pot yielded. It's easier for me that way than having to weigh out the food when I serve with my one-cup measure serving scoop.

For sold cooked foods like casseroles, it's pretty much the same idea except I know how many servings I will divide that dish into and use that.

For other sold cooked foods ... like a roast .... I go by the weight of the meat before it is cooked and use that as my servings guide.

And so on. .... but I do like the idea of knowing the weight of each of my pots idea.

Lounmoun

I know a lot of recipes that claim to to be 6 to 8 servings are really more like 8 to 12 servings for my family- particularly for a soup or stew.
The methods of weighing that other people posted are probably going to be the most helpful.