Family meals

amummystale

This might sound like a stupid question but how do you sort out counting calories when you cook for the whole family? Do you cook your portion separately, weigh it out after it's cooked or what? Say you're having a spaghetti bol for example

yirara

I was quite successful in estimating how much of a bowl I took. Thus I counted all ingredients, made a recipe out of it if it was a single bowl dish, and then made sure I served the other person so that serving spoon sizes were about the same. Then log 2/5 of the dish or so. However, that was just one person, and I guess I was lucky. Other people weigh the food after cooking, put food on their plate and weigh out how much food they have (also weight of pot and plate needed).

SERmom3

I weigh all the ingredients and make a recipe out of it. Once it’s done cooking, I weigh the entire dish and calculate the total number of ounces and set that number to be a serving. That way, when I’m taking my portion of the meal I weigh how many ounces I took and then I log it as servings.

For example, last night I had pulled pork. I weighed the raw pork and the ingredients for the sauce. Once it was done cooking, I had an empty bowl on the food scale and set it to measure fluid ounces (that way it won’t convert to pounds and add more math!). I put in the pork and sauce. If the total ounces was 45, then in my recipe I indicate that it makes 45 servings. I also name the recipe something like “Pulled Pork SS -1oz”.

When I’m taking my portion of the meal, I weigh it out on my plate and enter in the total ounces as a serving. If I had 8 ounces, then it’s 8 servings.

I used to eyeball servings, but this is much more accurate. I know it sounds like a tedious process, but soon you’ll have most of your usual dishes in your recipe section and you won’t have to go through the process every time.