logging calories with home cooked meals

bigplantnerd

I cook at home for my family every night and often use what would be considered complex recipes with a lot of ingredients. For example, yesterdays dinner was BBQ bean sliders with celery seed slaw from the thug kitchen cookbook and a side of raw carrots, celery, and cukes dressed with mustard vinaigrette. So this meal had, in varying portions-
Black beans
Olive oil
Bread crumbs
Zuccinni
Onion
Garlic
Carrots
Salt, pepper,cumin,hot sauce, celery seed
BBQ sauce
Cabbage
Celery
Whole wheat roll
Vinegar
Cucumber

How on earth would you begin to log portions or track calories with this? I have tried to math it down and it can take longer than actually cooking the meal!

I know it is easier to eat super clean and log "poached chicken, 4oz, lettuce salad with lemon juice 1 cup, xcalories" but I really do enjoy cooking and eating, and its a nice thing my family does together.

Any advice?

kazminchu

Use the recipe builder, you can add each ingredient and it will total them up for you.

It works especially well for things you make often - you can go back and tweak amounts every time you make it, without having to add everything all over again.

Edit: In terms of portions, I just add the total weight of the ingredients and then set the servings to however many I think there will be.

CurlyCockney

Use the recipe builder http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator and weigh each ingredient as you add it. Weigh the whole (cooked) meal - it's easier to do this if you weigh your pot before filling it so that you can deduct that weight - and put the number of servings as either the number of grammes (e.g if it weighs 150g put 150 servings) or as the number of 100g (e.g if it weighs 150g put 1.5 servings).

When you log it, just log the amount of grammes going on your plate.

vagonbrei

Log everything you are cooking, take the overall weight and then divide by the portion you eat. I will explain. I have been cooking a lot of stews to eat over the week. It is not as complex but it has. Black bean, oil, spices, tomato.... all comes to 1495 cal and the overall weight is 1300g. Now I know how much estimated calories is in the portion I eat when I do eat it.

Timorous_Beastie

I either log the ingredients individually, or create a recipe logging the ingredients if it's something I'm going to make regularly (or a couple recipes: one for the bean sliders, one for the slaw, etc).

It takes a long time at first, but as you log more regularly, you have all the foods you use a lot in your diary, so it's just a matter of checking them off.

jgaffney86

When I make a new recipe I have never done before, I lay EVERYTHING i used out on the counter. From my cookbook or whatever I used to make the recipe, I begin going down the list and scanning each item with the App. I find this WAY easier as sometimes the recipe builder will pull in the wrong item and Ill have to go looking thru the database..... So scan each item, then record what the serving size is. Hopefully your cooking information will tell you your serving size or and many servings the recipe yields.

CurlyCockney

jgaffney86 wrote: »

When I make a new recipe I have never done before, I lay EVERYTHING i used out on the counter. From my cookbook or whatever I used to make the recipe, I begin going down the list and scanning each item with the App. I find this WAY easier as sometimes the recipe builder will pull in the wrong item and Ill have to go looking thru the database..... So scan each item, then record what the serving size is. Hopefully your cooking information will tell you your serving size or and many servings the recipe yields.

I'm not sure if you know this, but when you scan items it uses the same (often inaccurate) database as searching does, so always double-check against the pack or another source.

ren3liz

I find this challenging as well. Work days I eat very similar things and it's very easy to pre-log. I use the recipe builder and do my best (cheese, proteins, oils, etc I measure) and also follow recipes from blogs like skinnytaste that have servings and calories calculated. I think it's a fine line between counting calories to lose weight and becoming so obsessed with weighing everything that you no longer enjoy preparing meals, which would be a shame IMO.

reddeament

I use the recipe builder. Also, started using a food scale - that REALLY helps, before then I had been underestimating how much food I was eating

CurlyCockney

ren3liz wrote: »

I think it's a fine line between counting calories to lose weight and becoming so obsessed with weighing everything that you no longer enjoy preparing meals, which would be a shame IMO.

That may be a fine line for you, but for people without obsessive personalities it seems an odd leap to make. OP didn't suggest that she has a problem with obsessing, she just asked how to use the tools on the site.

earlnabby

I use the recipe builder too. I weigh each ingredient and decide how many servings. When it is time to serve, I weigh the whole recipe (helps that I have a scale that goes up to 22 lb so I can weigh it dish and all) so I know how much a serving weighs and dish up my portion. I have a recipe card that I keep in the kitchen with the weight of different pans/casseroles so I can automatically subtract them from the total without having to remember weighing them before I start cooking.

GsKiki

I use recipe builder for all meals. If you already have recipes ready just write them all in when you have time, and you will have them in the app for next time you prepare the meal. It works great for me!

jeepinshawn

Don't forget if the recipe is online you can import it through the recipe builder tool. Wife and I make our own dinners every night. I do as suggest and weigh everything then use each gram or ounce as a serving.