How to calculate homemade dishes

KaylaKilgore
KaylaKilgore Posts: 160 Member
edited December 2024 in Recipes
I have been sticking with small simple stuff, quite a bit of processed. Because I don't know how to calculate dishes..
For instance a crockpot vegetable soup I only use three ingredients.. beef stew tips, tomato juice and mixed vegetables. I've tried to enter it on MFP for recipe but I don't know how many servings per dish, how much is a serving or how the calories are then calculated.
Can someone please help?

Same thing for say hamburger helper or homemade chicken Alfredo

Replies

  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,206 Member
    Use the Recipe builder in MFP. Name of the ingredients, weight, number of portions, give a name to the recipe and the system will calculate the calories and macros based on the number of servings that you posted.
  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
    Gisel2015 wrote: »
    Use the Recipe builder in MFP. Name of the ingredients, weight, number of portions, give a name to the recipe and the system will calculate the calories and macros based on the number of servings that you posted.

    Yep, this. Sometimes if it's a simple dish I just do the math myself and enter the ingredients in my diary, but it sounds like the recipe builder is the best tool in this case.
  • KaylaKilgore
    KaylaKilgore Posts: 160 Member
    It asks how many people it serves and I don't know how to figure out how many it serves nor serving size to figure out how many it would serve
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    I just decide the portion size based on the number of calories I want each portion to be, and then freeze the remaining in containers into the same portion size. It works because I am the only one eating it.

    If it is something like a pasta sauce, or if you are sharing with family members, what I do is to weigh the completed recipe and then use that number as my serving number. That way, when I take my portion, I weigh it, and use that number as my number of servings (each serving = 1g). It works really well (assuming I have explained it clearly enough). Does that make sense?
  • KaylaKilgore
    KaylaKilgore Posts: 160 Member
    edited October 2016
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    I just decide the portion size based on the number of calories I want each portion to be, and then freeze the remaining in containers into the same portion size. It works because I am the only one eating it.

    If it is something like a pasta sauce, or if you are sharing with family members, what I do is to weigh the completed recipe and then use that number as my serving number. That way, when I take my portion, I weigh it, and use that number as my number of servings (each serving = 1g). It works really well (assuming I have explained it clearly enough). Does that make sense?

    I thought I understood but after I looked into it from what I thought, no I don't:/
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    edited October 2016
    Once I have the recipe complete, I will weight the entire thing, so if it weighs 980g, I will enter 980 servings, so that when I eat it, I can weigh however much I am taking. So if I take 230g of it, I will enter that I had 230 servings of that particular recipe. I think you need to use the old recipe calculator (use your laptop/desktop, I'm not sure it it's available on the app). If I remember correctly, the new one won't let you enter that many servings.

    Let me know, if it's still not clear.

    Edited for spelling.
  • KaylaKilgore
    KaylaKilgore Posts: 160 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    Once I have the recipe complete, I will weight the entire thing, so if it weighs 980g, I will enter 980 servings, so that when I eat it, I can weigh however much I am taking. So if I take 230g of it, I will enter that I had 230 servings of that particular recipe. I think you need to use the old recipe calculator (use your laptop/desktop, I'm not sure it it's available on the app). If I remember correctly, the new one won't let you enter that many servings.

    Let me know, if it's still not clear.

    Edited for spelling.

    Gotcha!! That seems easy enough, thank you!
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    You're welcome! I love doing the recipes that I'm not sure about splitting in that manner.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,368 Member
    It asks how many people it serves and I don't know how to figure out how many it serves nor serving size to figure out how many it would serve

    I weigh it cooked and enter that as the number of servings. That way if I have 200g... I just log 200 servings. So much easier than figuring out a serving size.
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