Homemade soup

MrsLong1980

I make my own soup from scratch. When I make a veggie soup logging is easy (add ingredients, serving etc) but when I make chicken soup I use a whole chicken to make the broth and add veggies etc. When I use the recipe maker one serving comes out at over 500 calories ... that can't be right ... can it?! Today I'm using a whole chicken at 1.4kgs, MFP says it's over 2,000 cals which I expect to be accurate but I'm not eating a serving ratio of the whole chicken when I have a serving of soup so ... argh!! LOL HELP!

carrie_epp

When ever I make homemade things, I try to search for similar items on the food search. If you are making your own broth and skimming the fat, you should be able to compare that to a relatively low fat broth option on the recipe builder (ie: add the components, and not the whole chicken since you are removing some of it). Also, give yourself a bit of a break - making homemade soup is WAY Better for you than pre-made or canned, so if you are +/- a few calories in the calculation of it all, I think in the long term it won't matter and you will be healthier for it.

Need2Exerc1se

How are you cooking the whole chicken? Do you keep skin and bones intact for the broth, then remove for the soup? It would be hard to get an accurate calorie count if so because a lot of the fat would be in the broth, whereas much of the fat would be removed if you roasted the whole chicken and then removed the skin and bones before eating.

How are you weighing / logging the whole chicken? Are you logging the skin and bones, which is usually removed for soup? Are you weighing / logging the white and dark meat separately?

MrsLong1980

Thank you ... I think I am over thinking it somewhat LOL I've logged it as my homemade veggie soup, which I make with olive oil and then have weighed and measured the meat I've had in my portion.
I cook the chicken soup as a one pot affair, I have two kids (5 and 2) so need things to be simple - everything goes in the pot cover with water and leave to boil for a couple of hours. I then remove the carcass from the broth, blitz the veg and stock and then add a measured amount of chicken to my bowl before adding a serving of meat.

gaelowyn_pt_duex

Not sure if this is best way to do it- I cook whole chicken(or bone in pieces) in water to make broth. pull out meat, toss skin and bones. shred meat. weigh it. record it. chill broth, defat it. measure it, record it. record any veggies you add. figure out how many servings you want to make from the batch. recipe builder should then be pretty accurate. My chicken noodle soup comes in at about 230 cal per pretty good size serving. only has enough noodles to be "satisfying" and tons of carrots, celery, mushrooms,onions, etc. I also add fresh spinach once it's reheated. YUM!