Big Pot of Chili-How Count Portion?

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MichelleMinus100
MichelleMinus100 Posts: 101
in Food and Nutrition
I just made a new recipe in the crockpot...I had a modest portion, but don't know how to count the calories...what do you do with these kinds of meals?

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  • cwsreddy
    cwsreddy Posts: 998 Member
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    I just made a new recipe in the crockpot...I had a modest portion, but don't know how to count the calories...what do you do with these kinds of meals?

    I put all the ingredients into one meal in the log, and save that as ONE giant meal, then I delete them all from that day's log, go to "add meal" or whatever it is, and then put .25 of one serving of "XYZ meal" if I've split it into 4 portions.

    The important thing though is to know how many portions you're making, whether you buy a bunch of tupperware containers and split it all up immediately or use some other method - but that works best for me.
  • missyjane824
    missyjane824 Posts: 1,199 Member
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    I use the recipe builder. I like making a lot of one pot meals so I'll throw everything together and eyeball how many servings I think it is. Then eat what looks to be a serving and pack up the rest for another meal. If my servings I put in the builder is off I will go back and change it before adding it to my food diary. It's easy this way if I'm the only one eating it because it doesn't matter if I'm a little off with portioning since the difference will be made up later. Soup I'll do a little differently in that I'll portion it out by ladels so if I make a big pot of soup and there are 32 ladels worth of soup my recipe will show 32 servings.
  • 970Mikaela1
    970Mikaela1 Posts: 2,013 Member
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    I use a pot that has litres marked inside then convert to cups.
  • obsidianwings
    obsidianwings Posts: 1,237 Member
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    Or you can weigh all of it, divide the weight by number of servings then weigh out 1 portion
  • katorihanzo
    katorihanzo Posts: 234 Member
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    I use the recipe builder and then once I'm done making the recipe, I move it from the pot into storage in the fridge but in the process, measure it out in one (or two, depending on how big you want a serving to be) cup portions. I don't store it in portions because I don't have enough tupperware but once I know how many portions the recipe makes, I change the "servings" setting in the recipe maker and then eat one serving every time I eat it. I don't use a measuring cup every time I eat it - I just fill it up to the same spot on the bowl every time.
  • cwurch
    cwurch Posts: 1 Member
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    You could put a separate pot onto your scale and calibrate it to 0. Then put all the chill in the new pot and weigh. Take out one portion's worth, weigh that amount and divide that by the total amount of chill. That should give you an accurate portion count for your recipe.
  • averytds
    averytds Posts: 64 Member
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    Or you can weigh all of it, divide the weight by number of servings then weigh out 1 portion

    ^^This^^

    I use the recipe builder. I weigh each ingredient separately and enter. When its done I weigh the entire batch and divide the grams into 6/8/12/20 whatever amount of servings and enter however many servings I have into my diary. You can weigh some of your bowls and pots empty to remove from your total or zero out the scale with a bowl on and transfer the entire pot into it. You can easily change ingredients for recipes that change a little each time, like casseroles made from leftovers.
  • danimalkeys
    danimalkeys Posts: 982 Member
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    I use the recipe builder as well. Weigh everything and then figure out how many portions (even if I make a big pot of soup, I can say "4 servings" and then say I had 1/2 a serving or whatever).
  • MichelleMinus100
    MichelleMinus100 Posts: 101
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    Thank you so much for your responses!
    cwsreddy-thnaks, recipe builder!
    missyjane824-ladles! That could work, thanks!
    obsidianwings-yes, that's probably what I should do, but I didn't want to try to do that with a big hot crockpot
    cwurch-that's it! thanks!

    I think what I'll do next time is jot down all the calories I'm tossing into the crockpot and use the recipe function. Then at some point, I'll have to figure out how many ladles per recipe for my serving size or use cwurch's idea. Thank you all!
  • Amandawith3kids
    Amandawith3kids Posts: 367 Member
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    i was just coming to ask this very question, except it was for my sisters red potatoes. (omg yummy buttery red potato goodness)
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    I just weigh it after it's all done. In the recipe feature on MFP, it asks you how many servings, and I will just use however many oz or grams it is, and then when I spoon some out for myself, I weigh it. If my portion is 10 oz then I will log it as 10 servings.

    Before I got a food scale it was so much more difficult.. I would try measuring it out in cups and it was just ridiculous.. a food scale is only about $20. For such little money, I don't know why it took me so long to get one.

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