calculating nutrients

ksaghy

I make most everything myself, including salad dressing. I use balsamic, evoo, water and Italian blend grinder seasoning. Is there an easy way to measure without measuring how many tablespoons it is? I use an old Good Seasons dressing maker jar and I don't really measure. Any advice?

AnvilHead

So how do you measure without measuring?

If you don't measure, you don't know how many calories are in it or what the nutrient content is. You have an estimate which may be reasonably close or fairly far off, depending on how good you are at eyeballing things and/or how lucky you get with the estimate.

It's like driving a car without a speedometer in a 25 mph school zone. You may be under the speed limit, you may be right at the speed limit, or you may be over the speed limit. Take a guess at which one it is and hope there's not a police officer sitting there with a radar gun in case you're wrong.

JeromeBarry1

Use a food scale. Put the jar on the food scale. Press the button on the scale which resets it to 0. Add your balsamic. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your evoo. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your IBGS. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your water. Record the number on the scale.
Take all your recorded numbers to the old recipe tool and create the recipe for your salad dressing. Give it a name that indicates it was created today, because the next time you make it you will have different numbers.
The number of servings in your recipe today is going to be the total number of grams of things you put in the jar.

When you use your salad dressing, you first weigh the jar, resetting the scale to 0 with the jar on the scale. Then dispense your dressing and again weigh the jar. The value will display a negative number, but that number is the number of grams (servings) you log in your food diary.

100_PROOF_

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

Use a food scale. Put the jar on the food scale. Press the button on the scale which resets it to 0. Add your balsamic. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your evoo. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your IBGS. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your water. Record the number on the scale.
Take all your recorded numbers to the old recipe tool and create the recipe for your salad dressing. Give it a name that indicates it was created today, because the next time you make it you will have different numbers.
The number of servings in your recipe today is going to be the total number of grams of things you put in the jar.

When you use your salad dressing, you first weigh the jar, resetting the scale to 0 with the jar on the scale. Then dispense your dressing and again weigh the jar. The value will display a negative number, but that number is the number of grams (servings) you log in your food diary.

This is good information for newcomers that may not understand how to use their scales while creating a recipe.

AnvilHead

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

Use a food scale. Put the jar on the food scale. Press the button on the scale which resets it to 0. Add your balsamic. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your evoo. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your IBGS. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your water. Record the number on the scale.
Take all your recorded numbers to the old recipe tool and create the recipe for your salad dressing. Give it a name that indicates it was created today, because the next time you make it you will have different numbers.
The number of servings in your recipe today is going to be the total number of grams of things you put in the jar.

When you use your salad dressing, you first weigh the jar, resetting the scale to 0 with the jar on the scale. Then dispense your dressing and again weigh the jar. The value will display a negative number, but that number is the number of grams (servings) you log in your food diary.

Only problem there is that liquids are normally measured in fluid ounces/milliliters, which don't necessarily correspond to ounces/grams (used for solids). Different liquids have different densities and 1 gram doesn't always equal 1 milliliter.

I mean, I'm sure there are some entries in the MFP database which measure liquid in grams - after all, I've seen measurements for things like potato chips in ml/fluid ounces - but I don't know that I'd trust them for accuracy.

lynn_glenmont

AnvilHead wrote: »

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

Use a food scale. Put the jar on the food scale. Press the button on the scale which resets it to 0. Add your balsamic. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your evoo. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your IBGS. Record the number on the scale. Reset the scale to 0 again. Add your water. Record the number on the scale.
Take all your recorded numbers to the old recipe tool and create the recipe for your salad dressing. Give it a name that indicates it was created today, because the next time you make it you will have different numbers.
The number of servings in your recipe today is going to be the total number of grams of things you put in the jar.

When you use your salad dressing, you first weigh the jar, resetting the scale to 0 with the jar on the scale. Then dispense your dressing and again weigh the jar. The value will display a negative number, but that number is the number of grams (servings) you log in your food diary.

Only problem there is that liquids are normally measured in fluid ounces/milliliters, which don't necessarily correspond to ounces/grams (used for solids). Different liquids have different densities and 1 gram doesn't always equal 1 milliliter.

I mean, I'm sure there are some entries in the MFP database which measure liquid in grams - after all, I've seen measurements for things like potato chips in ml/fluid ounces - but I don't know that I'd trust them for accuracy.

Would you trust them for accuracy if the data for the entry matched what's in the USDA nutrient database? I usually weigh olive oil and milk of various fat percentages, and I use MFP database entries that match the USDA NDB.