Logging Soups, Stews, Chili, Etc.

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Matiara
Matiara Posts: 377 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Wow. This board has changed. I haven't been around for a while.

I apologize if this question has been answered, but I couldn't think of how to search for this particular query.

How does one go about logging one pot meals with multiple ingredients? I cook from scratch for the most part and weigh each ingredient, but obviously, food doesn't weigh the same once it's cooked. And since it's mixed together, there's no possible way that there's an equitable amount of each ingredient per bowl.

There are only two in my household, so I usually make 2-4 servings of these types of food and I only make four servings if we're having the meal over two days. What I have been doing is just logging the calories for one serving and calling it a day. I'm not obsessed with the accuracy and it doesn't keep me up at night, but I find it interesting and am just curious as to how others handle it.

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  • softblondechick
    softblondechick Posts: 1,276 Member
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    I usually make stir fry with veggies, chicken, and log the chicken, veggies and yes, it is split four ways, so 1 pound of chicken equals four ounces. I don't bother with cooked/uncooked weight...

    It works for me. I am not OCD about tracking it perfectly.
  • AsISmile
    AsISmile Posts: 1,004 Member
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    For soups I add the recipe, so that I can say one pot has 6 servings and I ate one.
    For normal dinners I weigh everything before cooking and assume I eat half the food. (Which I don't, but since I overestimate every day it still works for me.)
  • maroonmango211
    maroonmango211 Posts: 908 Member
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    I know that 24 of my 1 cup ladle fulls fit in my crock pot, and 32 fit in my giant stock pot. I measure my servings by ladle full (technically 1 fluid cup). It may not be perfect and there is some room for error but like you said since the ingredients change density and there's no way I'm going to separate them once cooked it's the easiest way I could think of. If you want to take it a step further you could weigh out the whole content of your soup/chili and give it the total calorie value for the ingredients, divide to find out how many calories per gram and then weigh every serving and multiply by calorie per gram. Again though there is relative room for error since each serving will have slightly different amounts of each ingredient.
  • Queenmunchy
    Queenmunchy Posts: 3,380 Member
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    If I'm cooking and dividing everything in equal portions to freeze, I don't worry about it - it will equal out in the end.
    If I'm making a one pot dish I do the same as maroonmango - weigh the contents minus the weight of your pot or dish, and set the recipe builder to that number of 1 gram servings. When you take out your bowl, you know exactly how many grams you're eating.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Use the recipe builder and then you have 2 choices - 1)you say you make 4 servings so just eyeball it out into 4 servings or 2) weigh the entire finished product - divide that weight by 4 and weigh out your servings.
  • madhatter2013
    madhatter2013 Posts: 1,547 Member
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    Ready2Rock206 wrote: »
    Use the recipe builder and then you have 2 choices - 1)you say you make 4 servings so just eyeball it out into 4 servings or 2) weigh the entire finished product - divide that weight by 4 and weigh out your servings.

    This!!!
  • acheben
    acheben Posts: 476 Member
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    Ready2Rock206 wrote: »
    Use the recipe builder and then you have 2 choices - 1)you say you make 4 servings so just eyeball it out into 4 servings or 2) weigh the entire finished product - divide that weight by 4 and weigh out your servings.

    You could also enter the entire weight of the finished dish in grams as the servings. For example, the entire cooked chili recipe weighs 572g (572 servings) and you log 215 servings for your 215g portion of chili.
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
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    I add everything in the recipe builder as "one" serving. Then after I decide how many servings I will make it into, depending on the calories and size of the servings. Say it's 5 servings... When I eat one I would log "1/5" serving.
  • SarahxApple
    SarahxApple Posts: 166 Member
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    Just to jump in with this, I don't know if anyone else does this but if you want to just add a little bit to a meal how do you log it, e.g. I made curry last night, I eat the same curry tonight except my boyfriend is coming over, he's bigger than me and eats more therefore I will be adding more passata, chickpeas and pepper to it, how do other people log that? I am just estimating a lot. I worry less about the veg and try and be accurate with the more calorie dense food but, any tips?
  • Queenmunchy
    Queenmunchy Posts: 3,380 Member
    edited July 2015
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    SarahxApple wrote: »
    Just to jump in with this, I don't know if anyone else does this but if you want to just add a little bit to a meal how do you log it, e.g. I made curry last night, I eat the same curry tonight except my boyfriend is coming over, he's bigger than me and eats more therefore I will be adding more passata, chickpeas and pepper to it, how do other people log that? I am just estimating a lot. I worry less about the veg and try and be accurate with the more calorie dense food but, any tips?

    Weigh the entire meal minus the weight of the dish and set your portions to the total number of grams. That way when you scoop it into your bowl, you log that number of 1g portions.

    For example, your entire meal is 900g. Put that it makes 900 portions, then when you scoop it into your bowl or plate to eat, just log that number of portions, ie 250 portions (250g).

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