Tracking home recipes is the most stressful thing in the world

alondrakar
alondrakar Posts: 67 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Do you guys have any tips on how to do it properly? I feel like once I get to the portion sizes I get completely lost.
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Replies

  • WholeFoods4Lyfe
    WholeFoods4Lyfe Posts: 1,518 Member
    I'm not sure I totally understand the question, but am going to pretend that I do LOL

    Do you mean that you are entering a recipe in to the recipe builder and then get confused when determining serving sizes? I just always do weight. So I enter all of my ingredients into the recipe builder. When it's complete, I weight the entire thing and then pick the serving size. So if I make a casserole that weighs 16oz and there are 4 of us eating it, I'll divide that 160z in to 4-4oz servings, weigh them out individually, and voila!

    If that's not what you mean, can you please clarify? Thanks!
  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    I have a lot of things that I regularly make, so like a previous poster suggested, I'll scan everything the first time I make it and save it as a meal (or a recipe if it's from an online recipe which can be imported). I'll measure/weigh everything as I cook to ensure it matches what I already entered and if I do anything different (new ingredient, new side, etc.) I'll modify after the fact. It's a little work up front, but it saves a lot of time down the road.
  • jessiedawn8400
    jessiedawn8400 Posts: 37 Member
    Use the recipe builder. Log all the ingredients as you prepare it, weigh the finished product and use that weight in grams as the servings. When you portion it out to eat, weigh that and log the number of grams as the servings you eat. Ex - The total weigh of finished meal is 1000 grams... you use 100... log 100 servings in your daily diary.
  • Carneyje3
    Carneyje3 Posts: 48 Member
    What I've been doing is weighing the finished product and putting that as the amount of servings. Then I just measure it out when I'm grabbing some. So in other words, if I make chili I weigh the chili at the very end. If the Chili weighs 2000 grams, I put 2000 servings. It makes the process much easier for me.
  • Dreamwa1ker
    Dreamwa1ker Posts: 196 Member
    edited June 2019
    If I'm making something liquid like a soup or pasta sauce, I'll measure it as I put it into a storage container so I know how many cups it makes (I like freezer safe mason jars because I freeze a lot of stuff when I meal prep). Then, when I save the recipe in the recipe builder, I'll edit the title to include the serving size (e.g. "Arrabiatta sauce (1/2 cup serving)" ) so that next time I eat it or when I pull it out of the freezer, I know what to measure out for a serving.

    You could do the same thing with weight (put the serving size in gms in the title)
  • anthonyg185
    anthonyg185 Posts: 7 Member
    edited June 2019
    I'm glad you asked this actually! For the longest time I have meant to post about this. I am usually in like 1 of 3 modes....1, I could care less what I'm eating, I'm being BAD, 2, I'm behaving OK, watching what I eat and exercising ok, but I have other priorities at the moment, and 3, I'm serious. I have a race coming up, and/or I have been bad, and feel myself getting flabby, and nutrition and exercise are kind of the 1st thing I think of and I am kind of anal about it. Well, in that 3rd mode, it has always drove me crazy that when creating a recipe, or even when using a pre-existing one, the serving sizes were always like guesses.

    As many other users have pointed out here, by weighing/dividing, you can get a pretty good sense of portion sizes. About a year ago (since I AM anal, and like things easy) I made a spreadsheet that I have been using, that works great. Probably overkill--BUT, everyone deviates, at least if you are deviating from a known starting point--well, not so bad.

    Basically-the spreadsheet just allows you to log net weight of total recipe (minus, pan, bowl, etc) divided by an assumed # of servings, to get the serving size. Setting your # of servings in your MFP recipe to the same as your spreadsheet, then gives you proper nutrition value for a known portion size (as displayed in spreadsheet)

    Every time you make that recipe afterwards, as long as you keep all ingredients/quantities the same, you do not have to weigh anything, as it will already be calculated for you in the spreadsheet.

    Not sure if link works, but I will post it here. Please feel free to try it out (looks like a lot, but very easy, and will take guesswork out of recipe portion sizes)

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZJH6KkjRIYOhxcmlQjNnBGUSKkSuxp8d/view?usp=sharing
  • CTcutie
    CTcutie Posts: 649 Member
    Yes, it's a total pain. I try to write all the weights down and figure out the serving size (as in how many calories do I WANT each serving to be; not always based on what the recipe calls for) before I put it in Recipe Builder.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZJH6KkjRIYOhxcmlQjNnBGUSKkSuxp8d/view?usp=sharing

    That is a very fancy-pants spreadsheet! I don't think even I want to tackle that! Thanks for sharing it, though. :)
  • anthonyg185
    anthonyg185 Posts: 7 Member
    Noo....haha. It is simple I promise. Disregard the details. You are just entering 1. Name of recipe, 2. Weight, and 3. Pick any # of servings, and vary it until you get a reasonable portion size (ounces or grams) then...wah-lah, you know the size of 1 serving whenever you make that recipe
  • alondrakar
    alondrakar Posts: 67 Member
    Ok, so in an effort of not getting lost I'm going to repeat the process back to you guys. I'm on my work computer, so normally I'd have some screenshots but I can't do that here.

    Step 1: I go to "recipes" in the food tab
    Step 2: Click on "Enter new recipe"
    Step 3: Enter recipe name (Homemade Cake)
    Step 4: Add ingredients and their amounts (Eggs, flour, milk, etc.)
    Step 5: Weigh all ingredients

    Question: Do I weight before cooking/baking or after??

    Step 6: Enter total grams of meal where it says "number of servings"
    Step 7: Save Recipe
    Step 8: Go to food diary and add meal to breakfast/lunch/dinner

    Question: Do I enter the total grams of my piece of the meal where it says "quantity"? Because it says "1 serving(s)" in the drop down box and gives me no other options..


    You guys are so great btw. I seriously was losing my mind trying to figure it out on my own and the videos on YT really overwhelmed me.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Jruzer wrote: »
    I eyeball it. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

    Yup
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    jessiedawn8400 wrote: »
    Use the recipe builder. Log all the ingredients as you prepare it, weigh the finished product and use that weight in grams as the servings. When you portion it out to eat, weigh that and log the number of grams as the servings you eat. Ex - The total weigh of finished meal is 1000 grams... you use 100... log 100 servings in your daily diary.

    Yup, this is what I do. So much easier than traditional servings.
  • genellenp
    genellenp Posts: 5 Member
    Anthony - Thanks for the spreadsheet. It will help a lot.
  • whmscll
    whmscll Posts: 2,254 Member
    edited June 2019
    I hate that recipe builder demands that you enter the number of servings at the beginning. If you aren’t following a recipe (like when I make tuna salad), or if you are modifying a recipe or just throwing something together you have to guess at the number of servings. I wish the number of servings could be entered at the end, after you have the whole recipe and can weigh and divide. A lot of my recipes are guesstimates, I can’t be bothered to do math when I’m cooking.
  • whmscll
    whmscll Posts: 2,254 Member
    I also hate that recipe builder doesn’t save as you go. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve meticulously weighed and logged a long list of ingredients and then hit a wrong button and everything disappears and I have to enter everything all over again.
  • nooboots
    nooboots Posts: 480 Member
    whmscll wrote: »
    I hate that recipe builder demands that you enter the number of servings at the beginning. If you aren’t following a recipe (like when I make tuna salad), or if you are modifying a recipe or just throwing something together you have to guess at the number of servings. I wish the number of servings could be entered at the end, after you have the whole recipe and can weigh and divide. A lot of my recipes are guesstimates, I can’t be bothered to do math when I’m cooking.

    I thought that the other day but once Id cooked it I realised it woujld divide into 15 portions (yes Im going to be sick of this dish, its all in th freezer now in separate pots) rather than the 12 I initially said it would but it let me change it (and hence the calories per portion went down)
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    whmscll wrote: »
    I hate that recipe builder demands that you enter the number of servings at the beginning. If you aren’t following a recipe (like when I make tuna salad), or if you are modifying a recipe or just throwing something together you have to guess at the number of servings. I wish the number of servings could be entered at the end, after you have the whole recipe and can weigh and divide. A lot of my recipes are guesstimates, I can’t be bothered to do math when I’m cooking.

    while you do stick in a serving number at the beginning, it comes up again at the end and can be changed any time. even after the fact.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    whmscll wrote: »
    I hate that recipe builder demands that you enter the number of servings at the beginning. If you aren’t following a recipe (like when I make tuna salad), or if you are modifying a recipe or just throwing something together you have to guess at the number of servings. I wish the number of servings could be entered at the end, after you have the whole recipe and can weigh and divide. A lot of my recipes are guesstimates, I can’t be bothered to do math when I’m cooking.

    It asks, but I don't think it "demands." At least the legacy recipe builder doesn't. I'm sure I have just typed in a recipe name, then entered all the ingredients, then gone back and done the number of servings and edited the name of the recipe to include the weight of a serving size (or very infrequently I might just say something like "one roll" because I weighed the dough as I was dividing it before cooking). The only problem with waiting is that if you're putting the individual ingredients in ahead of time, I've occasionally had the app collapse on me without saving while I was waiting for dish to finish cooking. You do have to enter a number of servings before you can save. Sometimes I'll put a placeholder number of servings in, and come back after the dish is done to add a real number of servings and serving weight.

    A lot of the time, I'll just jot down the amounts on a piece of paper as I'm cooking (feels quicker to me than having to verify the database entry for each ingredient, plus I'm not getting my screen dirty. Then after the dish is done, or while it's cooking, I go into MFP recipe builder and enter the ingredients, and by then I'll likely know the finished weight.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    Panini911 wrote: »
    alondrakar wrote: »
    Ok, so in an effort of not getting lost I'm going to repeat the process back to you guys. I'm on my work computer, so normally I'd have some screenshots but I can't do that here.

    Step 1: I go to "recipes" in the food tab
    Step 2: Click on "Enter new recipe"
    Step 3: Enter recipe name (Homemade Cake)
    Step 4: Add ingredients and their amounts (Eggs, flour, milk, etc.)
    Step 5: Weigh all ingredients

    Question: Do I weight before cooking/baking or after??

    Step 6: Enter total grams of meal where it says "number of servings"
    Step 7: Save Recipe
    Step 8: Go to food diary and add meal to breakfast/lunch/dinner

    Question: Do I enter the total grams of my piece of the meal where it says "quantity"? Because it says "1 serving(s)" in the drop down box and gives me no other options..


    You guys are so great btw. I seriously was losing my mind trying to figure it out on my own and the videos on YT really overwhelmed me.

    Step 5: weight of RAW ingredients with RAW entries.

    Step 6: total weight of cooked food (which is what you will portion out to your own bowl/plate). let's say it's 800 grams total, you would put 800 servings.

    Step 8: to log your plate of say 200grams, your servings would be 200.
    servings = 200

    Just to add, for Step 6, if possible, wait to weigh the cooked food until it has cooled down (it's a real eye opener to put something fresh off the stove or out of the oven on the scale and watch the grams fall as the steam escapes).

    Also, it's really helpful to keep a list (I write mine on paper and secure it to the front of the fridge with a magnet) of the weights of the empty pots, pans, casserole dishes, large serving bowls, etc., that you prepare food in. It's really annoying to get to step 6 and realize you don't know the weight of the pan so you can subtract it from the total.

    Oh, yes, do write down the weights of your main pots, pans, etc!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    whmscll wrote: »
    I hate that recipe builder demands that you enter the number of servings at the beginning. If you aren’t following a recipe (like when I make tuna salad), or if you are modifying a recipe or just throwing something together you have to guess at the number of servings. I wish the number of servings could be entered at the end, after you have the whole recipe and can weigh and divide. A lot of my recipes are guesstimates, I can’t be bothered to do math when I’m cooking.

    I use the old recipe builder and the number of servings can be entered any time: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    Jruzer wrote: »
    I eyeball it. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.


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  • TayaCurragh
    TayaCurragh Posts: 709 Member
    I use the add meal option rather than the recipe builder. I add all of my ingredients by scanning and weighing. I usually make 4 portions at a time, so when I add this to my diary I set the portion size to 0.25. It is a bit of a pain for new meals but when you make it again it will all be saved and you can just tweak ingredient sizes if necessary

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