How do you log your homemade food?

DianaGabriela2013
DianaGabriela2013 Posts: 108 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
For example beef stews or recipes with lots of ingredients? How do you log it?
I used to look for the name on MFP site, and if it said homemade I thought it was better (because restaurants Im sure have all these added fats and sugars and fry everything to make things yummier) But I recently read not to trust the "homemade" ones.
I can easily log a salad because i will make my own portion and measure everything as I go. But when it comes to things like lentil soup, pork riblets in salsa, mole sauce, etc. Things that require you to throw in lots of ingredients together, how do you log it for maximum accuracy?
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Replies

  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
    Create your own recipe in the database and use that.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    Create your own recipe in the database and use that.

    this...I have 4 pages of recipes.
  • Nice2BFitAgain
    Nice2BFitAgain Posts: 319 Member
    Create your own recipe in the database and use that.

    ^^^ This
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    You can enter the ingredients & quantities as a recipe. And figure out the serving size. Such as if total weight is 1200 grams and you eat 300 grams then it would be 1/4 of the whole.

    The downside to homemade entries in the database is that they're only valid for the person who entered it, unless you follow the same recipe. Your actual results would be much different.
  • naomigee161
    naomigee161 Posts: 41 Member
    I create a recipe with all the ingredients in it (we batch cook meals and freeze portions so I know how many portions each recipe makes for us, my OH has 1.0 portion and I have a smaller portion so I put 0.75 of 1 portion for me in my diary)
  • kathyk519
    kathyk519 Posts: 197 Member
    I use the recipe builder a lot. I even have recipes with slightly different names depending what I have thrown into something. I tend to make a lot of soups for lunches with whatever I have on hand, so this has become my saving grace. Since I don't share my recipes on the MFP ether, I don't name them "homemade..." just what I decide to call them. This week I made Creamy Green Soup for example with Broccoli, Asparagus and Spinach.
  • atiral
    atiral Posts: 43 Member
    This is also difficult for me. I have tried using the recipe builder, but if you don't know how big or how many potions are in it what do you do? For example, if you see a recipe and it doesn't say how many servings it is, what do you do? If it is soup and you want the serving size to be one cup, how do you know how many cups are in the whole recipe?
  • DianaGabriela2013
    DianaGabriela2013 Posts: 108 Member
    Yup! exactly my problem. Okay if I make a spinach and mushroom frittata, I can slice it in 8 pieces and that makes 1/8 of my whole recipe. But What about soups, am I supposed to get 6 bowls and divide it in to 6 equal portions to know what my serving was?
    My servings are not equal. My husbands serving is a lot bigger than mine, and my two kids serving is smaller than mine.
    And left overs are husbands lunch, kids lunch, and then mine IF there is any left.
  • DianaGabriela2013
    DianaGabriela2013 Posts: 108 Member
    "If it is soup and you want the serving size to be one cup, how do you know how many cups are in the whole recipe?
    [/quote]

    The only thing I can think of is get my measuing cup. And take cup by cup, while i dump my soup in another pot, until I figure out how many cups where in there. I dont want to do that.
  • ellybeann
    ellybeann Posts: 122 Member
    I use the reciept builder, guesstimating will always be agaisnt you.
  • ellybeann
    ellybeann Posts: 122 Member
    Thats what I do, I measure to my dinner plates and the rest into whatever Im going to store the leftovers in. If you figure out a better way let me know..:smile:
  • naomigee161
    naomigee161 Posts: 41 Member
    Yup! exactly my problem. Okay if I make a spinach and mushroom frittata, I can slice it in 8 pieces and that makes 1/8 of my whole recipe. But What about soups, am I supposed to get 6 bowls and divide it in to 6 equal portions to know what my serving was?
    My servings are not equal. My husbands serving is a lot bigger than mine, and my two kids serving is smaller than mine.
    And left overs are husbands lunch, kids lunch, and then mine IF there is any left.

    I create a recipe with all the ingredients in it (we batch cook meals and freeze portions n tupperware all in one go so I know how many portions each recipe makes for us, my OH has 1.0 portion and I have a smaller portion so I put 0.75 of 1 portion for me in my diary)
  • poesch77
    poesch77 Posts: 1,005 Member
    For soups, I have a HUGE Pampered Chef Measuring container....usually soups are 8-12 cups......so if you don't have one of these go with 10 cups per serving.
  • DianaGabriela2013
    DianaGabriela2013 Posts: 108 Member
    I think I have, I will take my recipe and measure EVRYTHING once, write it down. Figure out the serving sizes, and from now on I will follow recipe exactly. So I only have to do this one time for every meal. Bad thing is I never eally followed exact measurements, and I usually improvised recipes as I went as well. But things have to change otherwise all this logging could be for nothing.
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
    This is also difficult for me. I have tried using the recipe builder, but if you don't know how big or how many potions are in it what do you do? For example, if you see a recipe and it doesn't say how many servings it is, what do you do? If it is soup and you want the serving size to be one cup, how do you know how many cups are in the whole recipe?

    When you've made it measure or weigh it - then work out how many of the portion sizes you would treat as one serving. eg 1.2 l of soup would give you 6 portions of 200ml or 4 portions of 300ml. You know the cals for the whole so you can then work out the cals for one portion.

    Once you've done it for one recipe it gets easier. Put something in the recipe title which indicates it's yours so you can look it up on the database - alternatively it will save in your recipes and you can add it from there.

    I do this with recipes I get from cook books etc too- regardless of how many servings they say it gives.

    Trusting other people's recipes can be risky - better to set up your own.
  • Ashaleet
    Ashaleet Posts: 59
    I made a batch of homemade taco soup last night. This is going to sound super tedious, but this is what I did. I got a giant bowl, and started scooping the soup out of the pot and into the bowl with a 1 cup measuring cup, counting as I went. Turns out the whole soup had 8 cups, so I divided my recipe into 4 servings, at 2 cups a serving. Tedious I know but.....gotta do what you gotta do!
  • clover5
    clover5 Posts: 1,640 Member
    I used to put in recipes on MFP, but it's time consuming, and they are a pain to edit. But now I have Living Cookbook software. It's easy to capture recipes from anywhere on the web, and editing is easy too. LC will calculate the calories for me, and then I just enter a food item in MFP.

    http://www.livingcookbook.com/?gclid=CJ2apYW55b0CFbQWMgodriUAwA
  • poesch77
    poesch77 Posts: 1,005 Member
    I usually leave a recipe in the recipe builder if I make it a lot. Then change the ingredients if different each time. Yes, annoying BUT knowing the exact amount makes me feel better! ;)

    And the recipe builder is updated now where you can cut and paste a recipe from the internet and then pick and choose the brand of products....super quick and easy!
  • DianaGabriela2013
    DianaGabriela2013 Posts: 108 Member
    I made a batch of homemade taco soup last night. This is going to sound super tedious, but this is what I did. I got a giant bowl, and started scooping the soup out of the pot and into the bowl with a 1 cup measuring cup, counting as I went. Turns out the whole soup had 8 cups, so I divided my recipe into 4 servings, at 2 cups a serving. Tedious I know but.....gotta do what you gotta do!
    Yup, I think that will be my best option. After about 3 weeks of doing this I will probably have most of my go to recipes done.
  • ichigomaybridge
    ichigomaybridge Posts: 22 Member
    An alternative (which I have considered but haven't got round to doing) is to weigh each of your cooking pots and note down to the weights (or even Sharpie them onto the bottom).
    Then, when you've finished cooking your dish, weigh it all including the pot and then subtract the weight of the pot.
    You can then weigh your portion and work it out as a proportion of the whole.

    Does that make any sense?!

    (edited for spelling)
  • quirkysterks
    quirkysterks Posts: 21
    This is also difficult for me. I have tried using the recipe builder, but if you don't know how big or how many potions are in it what do you do? For example, if you see a recipe and it doesn't say how many servings it is, what do you do? If it is soup and you want the serving size to be one cup, how do you know how many cups are in the whole recipe?

    Make your recipe and portion it out... then make those portions the servings for the recipe.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    This is what I do:

    Step 1: Open up the "create recipe" option on MFP
    Step 2: Log all ingredients that are going into the recipe along with the amount
    Step 3: Cook it all up
    Step 4: Weigh the complete cooked food. Look at the total calories for the cooked food based on ingredients. Divide the total calories by a number that gets me ~500 calories in a serving. Divide the weight of the cooked food by that same number to get weight per serving.
    Step 5: Use my food scale to divvy it up into portions based on weight to put one serving into different tupperwares
    Step 6: Pull a "serving" from the fridge and eat it, then use the recipe to log "1 serving" into MFP.
  • Ashaleet
    Ashaleet Posts: 59
    An alternative (which I have considered but haven't got round to doing) is to weigh each of your cooking pots and note down to the weights (or even Sharpie them onto the bottom).
    Then, when you've finished cooking your dish, weigh it all including the pot and then subtract the weight of the pot.
    You can then weigh your portion and work it out as a proportion of the whole.

    Does that make any sense?!

    (edited for spelling)

    It totally makes sense, problem is I cook soups and chilis in such large batches that it's too heavy for my food scale and maxes out. hahahhah.
  • knra_grl
    knra_grl Posts: 1,566 Member
    you have to weigh or measure the entire pot of whatever you made to determine the portions - a lot of times I base my portion numbers on the calorie counts, if it's a casserole for instance (I use rectangular pans) if the cals are low I can make it 4-6 portions if the cals are high then I make it 6-8 portions. Soups, stews, chili, anything like that I use my 2 cup measuring cup and measure it into the container I intend to use to keep it in the fridge, and I decide whether or not the serving sizes are by the calories again. Soups can be very low cal and you can have a 2 cup portion and still be under 400 cals.
  • FraggleRockerFitnessLover
    FraggleRockerFitnessLover Posts: 307
    A NKOTB would sing....Step By Step, Ooooo Baby....
  • KeepGoingKylene
    KeepGoingKylene Posts: 432 Member
    I made a batch of homemade taco soup last night. This is going to sound super tedious, but this is what I did. I got a giant bowl, and started scooping the soup out of the pot and into the bowl with a 1 cup measuring cup, counting as I went. Turns out the whole soup had 8 cups, so I divided my recipe into 4 servings, at 2 cups a serving. Tedious I know but.....gotta do what you gotta do!

    This is exactly what i do as well, tedious yes, horrible no, worth it yes. If you arent logging exactly what you are eating it can throw your calorie goal off without you knowing it.
  • hmaddpear
    hmaddpear Posts: 610 Member
    An alternative (which I have considered but haven't got round to doing) is to weigh each of your cooking pots and note down to the weights (or even Sharpie them onto the bottom).
    Then, when you've finished cooking your dish, weigh it all including the pot and then subtract the weight of the pot.
    You can then weigh your portion and work it out as a proportion of the whole.

    Does that make any sense?!

    (edited for spelling)
    It totally makes sense, problem is I cook soups and chilis in such large batches that it's too heavy for my food scale and maxes out. hahahhah.

    It's awesome advice, but yeah - I've got the same problem as you! My big cookpot weighs in excess of 3lb empty - easily maxes out even my "big" food scale. Not sure of the solution yet, so in for ideas.

    At the moment I eyeball. Which is terrible of me, I know. I do a lot of homecooking (most week nights and at least once on the weekend). I have nine pages of recipes, and I tweak each one every time I cook it to make sure the total recipe is correct. And I still have to guess how much of the whole pot is my serving. I'm almost ashamed to call myself a consistent logger!
  • ichigomaybridge
    ichigomaybridge Posts: 22 Member
    An alternative (which I have considered but haven't got round to doing) is to weigh each of your cooking pots and note down to the weights (or even Sharpie them onto the bottom).
    Then, when you've finished cooking your dish, weigh it all including the pot and then subtract the weight of the pot.
    You can then weigh your portion and work it out as a proportion of the whole.

    Does that make any sense?!

    (edited for spelling)
    It totally makes sense, problem is I cook soups and chilis in such large batches that it's too heavy for my food scale and maxes out. hahahhah.

    It's awesome advice, but yeah - I've got the same problem as you! My big cookpot weighs in excess of 3lb empty - easily maxes out even my "big" food scale. Not sure of the solution yet, so in for ideas.

    At the moment I eyeball. Which is terrible of me, I know. I do a lot of homecooking (most week nights and at least once on the weekend). I have nine pages of recipes, and I tweak each one every time I cook it to make sure the total recipe is correct. And I still have to guess how much of the whole pot is my serving. I'm almost ashamed to call myself a consistent logger!

    Hmm, well, it wouldn't be nearly as accurate but would be better than eyeballing... Could you weigh the whole pot on a people/bathroom scale? Mine is accurate to with 1/4lb (or at least says it is) - that wouldn't too bad to get an overall estimate or would at least be a start? :flowerforyou:
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
    If you're batch cooking divide the total amount cooked into smaller one or two portion dishes - eg I made Chilli - when done I divided it up equally into what I considered one portion dishes to freeze - however many pots I ended up with (6 in that case) i divide into the total calories for the dish - giving cals per portion. If you weigh what you consider to be a portion you will never have to do it again as you will know how much to weigh out. My freezer is full of one or two portion margerine tubs of stews, soups, bolognaise and chilli - each tub marked with what a portion weight should be (usually 200g) eg - beef stew 200g=1

    EAT it sounds a faff but you only have to do it the first time you cook it - from then on you can add that recipe to your diary easily and accurately
  • arabianhorselover
    arabianhorselover Posts: 1,488 Member
    This is also difficult for me. I have tried using the recipe builder, but if you don't know how big or how many potions are in it what do you do? For example, if you see a recipe and it doesn't say how many servings it is, what do you do? If it is soup and you want the serving size to be one cup, how do you know how many cups are in the whole recipe?

    I agree. The hard part is figuring out how many serving there are.

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