Cooking for a family, how do you calculate?

zach121989
zach121989 Posts: 44 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Tonight we are making pineapple chicken, I will eat one breast but the recipe calls for garlic clove, pineapple chunks, Dijon mustard, honey, lemon juice and paprika. All ingrodoents are 1 Tablespoon besides for the paprika and pineapple chunks. How do I calculate the calories? I know what one breast is, I know the calories for pineapples, but if the rest is "spread out" throughout all 4 breast how do you know how many calories from it you will get?

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Recipe builder to the rescue.
  • ki4eld
    ki4eld Posts: 1,213 Member
    Use the MFP recipe builder. Measure all ingredients in grams, add it into the recipe builder, and set the number of servings. For instance, if that all weighed 800 grams, then I'd make it 8 100g servings, which makes it easy to do the math and log it if I have 152g of it. That's 1.52 servings.

    However you do the math, the recipe builder is your friend when cooking for families.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    use the recipe builder.

    after a year, nearly everything i make is in it lol
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Sometimes I just kinda guess. I'll weigh the chicken and the pineapples and enter 1/4 of the amount I used for the rest of the ingredients. I use the recipe builder a lot but it's never really accurate in those cases in case you get more pineapple or less chicken in your serving... so it's just easier sometimes.

    I made chicken cordon bleu once and just weighed the ingredients in my piece and placed it differently in the tray so it was easier to log (only time I logged a 'meal' actually... so when I had leftovers I weighed the final piece and entered 1.2 of my previous piece or something).
  • subversive99
    subversive99 Posts: 273 Member
    The way we use the recipe builder is to build the recipe as others have instructed above, then weigh the entire thing, then use that number to figure out how many calories per 100g and set the number of portions that way. Choosing a number of portions without knowing the weight means you are just guessing. So, it would look like the following:

    h8VpxQk.png

    Then you just scoop your portion, weigh it, and enter the appropriate number of portions of the recipe.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    subversive99 wrote: »
    The way we use the recipe builder is to build the recipe as others have instructed above, then weigh the entire thing, then use that number to figure out how many calories per 100g and set the number of portions that way. Choosing a number of portions without knowing the weight means you are just guessing. So, it would look like the following:

    h8VpxQk.png

    Then you just scoop your portion, weigh it, and enter the appropriate number of portions of the recipe.

    You probably want to weigh your ingredients too though... 1.5 cup of potatoes can vary greatly...
  • srecupid
    srecupid Posts: 660 Member
    ki4eld wrote: »
    Use the MFP recipe builder. Measure all ingredients in grams, add it into the recipe builder, and set the number of servings. For instance, if that all weighed 800 grams, then I'd make it 8 100g servings, which makes it easy to do the math and log it if I have 152g of it. That's 1.52 servings.

    However you do the math, the recipe builder is your friend when cooking for families.

    But cooking changes the overall weight because water and stuff evaporates. So you have more condensed food at the end. It would be great if pretty and post weight were the same. Unfortunately what I've had to do was weigh entire end product and divide by servings to find 1 serving. And that usually means extra dishes.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    srecupid wrote: »
    ki4eld wrote: »
    Use the MFP recipe builder. Measure all ingredients in grams, add it into the recipe builder, and set the number of servings. For instance, if that all weighed 800 grams, then I'd make it 8 100g servings, which makes it easy to do the math and log it if I have 152g of it. That's 1.52 servings.

    However you do the math, the recipe builder is your friend when cooking for families.

    But cooking changes the overall weight because water and stuff evaporates. So you have more condensed food at the end. It would be great if pretty and post weight were the same. Unfortunately what I've had to do was weigh entire end product and divide by servings to find 1 serving. And that usually means extra dishes.

    I weigh the end product too but why divide by servings? I'm confused. Just weigh the whole thing and enter the end weight as your numbers of servings (1g = 1 serving). The only time it requires new dishes is if I forgot to weigh the empty dish first, or if the whole thing is too heavy for my scale, then I have to weigh it in batches.
  • ki4eld
    ki4eld Posts: 1,213 Member
    srecupid wrote: »
    ki4eld wrote: »
    Use the MFP recipe builder. Measure all ingredients in grams, add it into the recipe builder, and set the number of servings. For instance, if that all weighed 800 grams, then I'd make it 8 100g servings, which makes it easy to do the math and log it if I have 152g of it. That's 1.52 servings.

    However you do the math, the recipe builder is your friend when cooking for families.

    But cooking changes the overall weight because water and stuff evaporates. So you have more condensed food at the end. It would be great if pretty and post weight were the same. Unfortunately what I've had to do was weigh entire end product and divide by servings to find 1 serving. And that usually means extra dishes.

    I don't have a single recipe where the pre- and post- cook weights are severely different. If that were the case, I'd need to change my math. In the end, nothing will be 100% accurate, but weighing (even if the math is a little off) is always better than guessing.
  • srecupid
    srecupid Posts: 660 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    srecupid wrote: »
    ki4eld wrote: »
    Use the MFP recipe builder. Measure all ingredients in grams, add it into the recipe builder, and set the number of servings. For instance, if that all weighed 800 grams, then I'd make it 8 100g servings, which makes it easy to do the math and log it if I have 152g of it. That's 1.52 servings.

    However you do the math, the recipe builder is your friend when cooking for families.

    But cooking changes the overall weight because water and stuff evaporates. So you have more condensed food at the end. It would be great if pretty and post weight were the same. Unfortunately what I've had to do was weigh entire end product and divide by servings to find 1 serving. And that usually means extra dishes.

    I weigh the end product too but why divide by servings? I'm confused. Just weigh the whole thing and enter the end weight as your numbers of servings (1g = 1 serving). The only time it requires new dishes is if I forgot to weigh the empty dish first, or if the whole thing is too heavy for my scale, then I have to weigh it in batches.

    Because say you tell myfitnesspal that a recipe is 5 servings and the yield is 200g then one serving would be 40g. 1g cooked is not the same as 1g raw. Oh I see what you mean now. You change the number of servings in the recipe to the end yield weight in grams? That would work. But to get the yield weight on something like chili would mean transferring it to another dish. Or I guess I could way the pan first and then subtract that from the cooked weight to get total yield. You know I never would have thought of 1g=1serving by myself if you gave me eternity. Thank you that is a much better solution
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    srecupid wrote: »
    Francl27 wrote: »
    srecupid wrote: »
    ki4eld wrote: »
    Use the MFP recipe builder. Measure all ingredients in grams, add it into the recipe builder, and set the number of servings. For instance, if that all weighed 800 grams, then I'd make it 8 100g servings, which makes it easy to do the math and log it if I have 152g of it. That's 1.52 servings.

    However you do the math, the recipe builder is your friend when cooking for families.

    But cooking changes the overall weight because water and stuff evaporates. So you have more condensed food at the end. It would be great if pretty and post weight were the same. Unfortunately what I've had to do was weigh entire end product and divide by servings to find 1 serving. And that usually means extra dishes.

    I weigh the end product too but why divide by servings? I'm confused. Just weigh the whole thing and enter the end weight as your numbers of servings (1g = 1 serving). The only time it requires new dishes is if I forgot to weigh the empty dish first, or if the whole thing is too heavy for my scale, then I have to weigh it in batches.

    Because say you tell myfitnesspal that a recipe is 5 servings and the yield is 200g then one serving would be 40g. 1g cooked is not the same as 1g raw. Oh I see what you mean now. You change the number of servings in the recipe to the end yield weight in grams? That would work. But to get the yield weight on something like chili would mean transferring it to another dish. Or I guess I could way the pan first and then subtract that from the cooked weight to get total yield. You know I never would have thought of 1g=1serving by myself if you gave me eternity. Thank you that is a much better solution

    Yes you weigh the empty pan first.

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