Leftovers Help

HeyJudii

Since the MFP website recipe calculator doesn't allow directions or notes, I created 2 "foods":
Recipe, Weight, Total = xxx g
and
Recipe, Weight, Serving = xxx g.
(or ozs or whatever the measure is)

Both have zero calories and macros.
I enter them as ingredients in my recipes so I know how much the whole thing comes to and how much each serving weighs. Since I weigh everything as I create the recipe, it's not too difficult. I do have to change what the weight is on these "foods" each time I add them to a recipe, but I got tired of tossing leftovers because after everyone had some, I didn't know how much was left.

Now, I can just weigh the leftovers and divide them into servings to freeze.

shadow2soul

I just set the amount of servings to 100g Increments. So if the dish ends up weighing 2400g. I put that the recipe serves 24. Then if I eat 300g, I log 3 servings.

Cahgetsfit

shadow2soul wrote: »

I just set the amount of servings to 100g Increments. So if the dish ends up weighing 2400g. I put that the recipe serves 24. Then if I eat 300g, I log 3 servings.

that's what I do too.

lynn_glenmont

I put the weight of a serving in the name of the recipe, e.g., "Sausage-raisin-walnut cornbread stuffing (srvg = 233 g)", which seems much more convenient than your method, OP, if I'm understanding it, since you can see the name of the recipe when you go to log it, but you have to go into edit mode to see the name of the individual ingredients. Plus having to create and edit the placeholder "food" with the info every time is another extra step.

Lillymoo01

shadow2soul wrote: »

I just set the amount of servings to 100g Increments. So if the dish ends up weighing 2400g. I put that the recipe serves 24. Then if I eat 300g, I log 3 servings.

I used to do that but have since changed to 1 gram increments instead. Love having 250+ serves of something!

HeyJudii

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

I put the weight of a serving in the name of the recipe, e.g., "Sausage-raisin-walnut cornbread stuffing (srvg = 233 g)", which seems much more convenient than your method, OP, if I'm understanding it, since you can see the name of the recipe when you go to log it, but you have to go into edit mode to see the name of the individual ingredients. Plus having to create and edit the placeholder "food" with the info every time is another extra step.

Hmm, that is more convenient. I could just put the total weight and serving weight in the recipe title. My concern is that the last time I tried to change the name of a recipe, MFP website wouldn't take the change, so I had to create an entirely new recipe. Reason? Sometimes the brand of ingredient changes, which changes the weight and calories.
I read on another thread to put .001 in the amount, so I don't have to delete that ingredient if I use that brand frequently but not this time.
Also, the total weight might change, the serving amount might change, etc. For instance, I make this dish I call "One Pot Pasta". It's just bottled pasta sauce, ground meat & pasta all cooked together in a Dutch oven. All of the ingredients could change each time I make it. Plain pasta sauce instead of mushroom, penne instead of elbows, turkey instead of ground beef, etc. Therefore the total weight would change, and depending on added or subtracted calories, so could the serving weight.

HeyJudii

shadow2soul wrote: »

I just set the amount of servings to 100g Increments. So if the dish ends up weighing 2400g. I put that the recipe serves 24. Then if I eat 300g, I log 3 servings.

How do you add an alpha character in a numeric field? How would you know what the weight of the total recipe is each time you make it?

lynn_glenmont

HeyJudii wrote: »

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

I put the weight of a serving in the name of the recipe, e.g., "Sausage-raisin-walnut cornbread stuffing (srvg = 233 g)", which seems much more convenient than your method, OP, if I'm understanding it, since you can see the name of the recipe when you go to log it, but you have to go into edit mode to see the name of the individual ingredients. Plus having to create and edit the placeholder "food" with the info every time is another extra step.

Hmm, that is more convenient. I could just put the total weight and serving weight in the recipe title. My concern is that the last time I tried to change the name of a recipe, MFP website wouldn't take the change, so I had to create an entirely new recipe. Reason? Sometimes the brand of ingredient changes, which changes the weight and calories.
I read on another thread to put .001 in the amount, so I don't have to delete that ingredient if I use that brand frequently but not this time.

I have occasionally had a problem with the MFP website not wanting to let me change the name of a recipe if that's the only thing I've gone into change (i.e., I change the name, click save, but the name of the recipe doesn't change). I've found that if I change the name, then change the quantity of an ingredient and change it back (i.e., change from 2 eggs to 1, and then change it back to 2 eggs), the change to the name of recipe does get made when I click save.

Also, the total weight might change, the serving amount might change, etc. For instance, I make this dish I call "One Pot Pasta". It's just bottled pasta sauce, ground meat & pasta all cooked together in a Dutch oven. All of the ingredients could change each time I make it. Plain pasta sauce instead of mushroom, penne instead of elbows, turkey instead of ground beef, etc. Therefore the total weight would change, and depending on added or subtracted calories, so could the serving weight.

Yes, but if you make it with turkey instead of ground beef, aren't you going to edit the recipe anyway? The calories and macros of ground turkey are going to be different from the beef, especially if the fat % of the meats are different. And going in to tweak the weight in the name of the recipe seems like a lot fewer steps than editing (or creating a new) place-holder food with the weight information, then editing the recipe to delete the old version of that place-holder ingredient and adding the new one.

Long story short, if you change the actual recipe you make (the foods and amounts you use), you need to change the MFP stored recipe to reflect that. If you don't change any of the ingredients or amounts, I wouldn't bother worrying about the total weight of the recipe -- there shouldn't be enough difference to matter.

lynn_glenmont

HeyJudii wrote: »

shadow2soul wrote: »

I just set the amount of servings to 100g Increments. So if the dish ends up weighing 2400g. I put that the recipe serves 24. Then if I eat 300g, I log 3 servings.

How do you add an alpha character in a numeric field?

There's no need to use an alpha character. MFP only allows you to edit the number of servings for a recipe. That's a numeral in a numeric field. The serving size for created foods in MFP is always a "serving," and you can edit the numeric field to indicate how many servings you had.

How would you know what the weight of the total recipe is each time you make it?

I don't understand this question. You indicate that you weigh the finished recipe. Other people do the same. Are you worried about variations from one instance of cooking the recipe to the next? If you're using the same ingredients in the same proportion, it doesn't really matter. If you double the recipe and now it weighs 4800 g, you can still log 300 g as 3 servings without bothering to edit the recipe to double all the ingredient amounts and say it serves 48.

Lillymoo01

HeyJudii wrote: »

shadow2soul wrote: »

I just set the amount of servings to 100g Increments. So if the dish ends up weighing 2400g. I put that the recipe serves 24. Then if I eat 300g, I log 3 servings.

How do you add an alpha character in a numeric field? How would you know what the weight of the total recipe is each time you make it?

I weigh the dish empty and write it down. I then weigh the pot full once I have finished cooking. Subtract the weight of the pot from the weight of the food and you can determine your number of servings.

shadow2soul

HeyJudii wrote: »

shadow2soul wrote: »

I just set the amount of servings to 100g Increments. So if the dish ends up weighing 2400g. I put that the recipe serves 24. Then if I eat 300g, I log 3 servings.

How do you add an alpha character in a numeric field?

I don’t. I just divide whatever the dish weighs by 100 to get my serving size.

HeyJudii wrote: »

shadow2soul wrote: »

I just set the amount of servings to 100g Increments. So if the dish ends up weighing 2400g. I put that the recipe serves 24. Then if I eat 300g, I log 3 servings.

How do you add an alpha character in a numeric field? How would you know what the weight of the total recipe is each time you make it?

I weigh it each time. It’s not a big deal to me. I have the weights of all my pots/pans taped to the inside of my cabinet door. So I just put the pot/pan on the scale once it has cooled off (or if in a rush...I will place something on the scale first and 0 it out/this is to keep the heat of the pot from interfering with the reading..) and subtract the weight of the pot.