Weighing my chili

SarahStarr86

Hi everyone! Last week someone made a post about how to weigh and measure out their bulk chili recipe. I learned from that post that I was definitely doing it wrong and learned how to now do it right. I just made my chicken taco chili in the crockpot. I followed the instructions from that post...I put all of the ingredients in the recipe, weighed my crockpot, set it back to 0, and then weighed my chili. It came up to 2555 grams. When I put that weight into my recipe builder it now shows that each serving is 1 calorie...is that right? So when I make a bowl for lunch and it weighs 286 grams, I set my servings as 286 servings? Just want to make sure because with me setting it as 286 servings, it's saying my serving is 244 calories. Does that sound right? Thanks for any help!

Spliner1969

2555/286 = 8.9 servings.. or roughly 9 servings. What I'd do is make each serving 255 grams, that way it would be 10 servings total in the recipe.

So when I enter recipes now, I'll put the serving size in the description. So the name of my recipe would be something like "Slow Cooker Taco Chili - 255g serving size". Then make sure the next time I make it I weigh accurately everything I put in and make it the same way and I won't have to weigh the whole thing again. It'd still be 10 servings at 255g/serving. I've been making pots of soup/chili/stew this way for almost two years with MFP, works great.

kommodevaran

SarahStarr86 wrote: »

Hi everyone! Last week someone made a post about how to weigh and measure out their bulk chili recipe. I learned from that post that I was definitely doing it wrong and learned how to now do it right. I just made my chicken taco chili in the crockpot. I followed the instructions from that post...I put all of the ingredients in the recipe, weighed my crockpot, set it back to 0, and then weighed my chili. It came up to 2555 grams. When I put that weight into my recipe builder it now shows that each serving is 1 calorie...is that right? So when I make a bowl for lunch and it weighs 286 grams, I set my servings as 286 servings? Just want to make sure because with me setting it as 286 servings, it's saying my serving is 244 calories. Does that sound right? Thanks for any help!

It's probably correct. You can double check by setting those 2555 grams to 1 serving and see what calories you get. You are eating 286/2555 of the chili so you should also have 286/2555 of the calories.

Technically, your portion is 286 servings of 1 gram.

StaciMarie1974

That is right. I am guessing that the total recipe is not 2555 calories, and that it rounds up to 1 calorie per gram. When you put in 286 'servings' or 286 grams it gives a more precise value. Sounds like the entire pot is ~2180 calories.

SarahStarr86 wrote: »

Hi everyone! Last week someone made a post about how to weigh and measure out their bulk chili recipe. I learned from that post that I was definitely doing it wrong and learned how to now do it right. I just made my chicken taco chili in the crockpot. I followed the instructions from that post...I put all of the ingredients in the recipe, weighed my crockpot, set it back to 0, and then weighed my chili. It came up to 2555 grams. When I put that weight into my recipe builder it now shows that each serving is 1 calorie...is that right? So when I make a bowl for lunch and it weighs 286 grams, I set my servings as 286 servings? Just want to make sure because with me setting it as 286 servings, it's saying my serving is 244 calories. Does that sound right? Thanks for any help!

vikinglander

I usually weigh my batch cooking by the gram, then divide by 28.3, to get a calorie value per ounce.

Example: I just made a batch of Chicken Enchilada Stew (http://paleomg.com/enchilada-chicken-stew/) and weighed it at 3960 grams. Divide that by 28.3, and it equals 139.92. I rounded to 140. I set the servings on the recipe in MFP to 140, and it calculates 23 calories per serving. Now when I eat it, I measure it out by the ounce, and log that many servings.

SarahStarr86

Ok, gotcha! Thank you for all of the suggestions!

GauchoMark

The way I do it... set the servings to 2555 servings. Then 1 serving = 1 gram, so you weigh the chili and enter 286 servings (aka grams).

No need to do math when the site will do it for you.

SarahStarr86

GauchoMark wrote: »

The way I do it... set the servings to 2555 servings. Then 1 serving = 1 gram, so you weigh the chili and enter 286 servings (aka grams).

No need to do math when the site will do it for you.

That's exactly what I just did! Enjoying my chili now. I'm so happy that I learned this accurate way of putting in my recipes! Thanks

lightenup2016

My question is, do you weigh it cooked and hot? It would melt my scale! Or if it's weighed before cooking, which would be difficult considering how I cook chili, then wouldn't water loss during cooking affect the volume/weight/calories per gram? So far, I'm just approximating how many cups I'm making of chili by how full my 8 qt pot is, and then I measure out my portion by the cup. I'm sure it's not the most accurate, but I just haven't figured out weighing the entire dish.

GauchoMark

you have to weigh it cooked. Otherwise the weight is wrong. If you are worried about your scale, put a potholder on it first. Although, I seriously doubt you are going to melt anything - water boils at 212*F which is not hot enough to melt most plastics. Mine has a glass top anyways.

seska422

lightenup2016 wrote: »

My question is, do you weigh it cooked and hot? It would melt my scale! Or if it's weighed before cooking, which would be difficult considering how I cook chili, then wouldn't water loss during cooking affect the volume/weight/calories per gram? So far, I'm just approximating how many cups I'm making of chili by how full my 8 qt pot is, and then I measure out my portion by the cup. I'm sure it's not the most accurate, but I just haven't figured out weighing the entire dish.

I weigh hot things by putting an empty bowl on the scale as a buffer and then putting the hot pot or plate on top of the bowl.

You are right about water loss and that's why the recipe as a whole should be weighed after cooking.

srk369

lightenup2016 wrote: »

My question is, do you weigh it cooked and hot? It would melt my scale! Or if it's weighed before cooking, which would be difficult considering how I cook chili, then wouldn't water loss during cooking affect the volume/weight/calories per gram? So far, I'm just approximating how many cups I'm making of chili by how full my 8 qt pot is, and then I measure out my portion by the cup. I'm sure it's not the most accurate, but I just haven't figured out weighing the entire dish.

If I have a large pot I will just put a kitchen towel across my scale where I can just see the numbers, zero it out and then place the pot. It is usually just there for a few seconds and the towel is enough protection for the large pot.

OhMsDiva

Im glad I do not make chili or any other dish that I have to enter ingredients and weigh them before and after. I know it is not, but its too complicated for me. If I want chili I go to Wendys and buy some. Then again, I rarely eat chili.