Using the recipe calculator

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bluerose9483
bluerose9483 Posts: 686 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hubby and I weren't sure where to post this, so he posted in the recipes forum and I posted here, hoping to get answers....

I was going to check out that recipe calculator and was wondering, how do you know how many people your recipes serves and the serving size....for instance, whenever I made homemade tuna noodle casserole, I would use the little square baking dish, I believe its the 8x8....and I know its overboard but when I serve my husband and me, I give him 1/2 and I take 1/2......I never measured it. And I'd like to change that habit so that I can make it again but in healthier portions....can someone help me?

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  • hope1993
    hope1993 Posts: 10
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    ill usually just adjust the amount of servings to the amount of calories i want for that meal..so i usually eat 400 for breakfast lunch and dinner if i want only the food i made i change the servings amount to make the portion that amount of calories..if i want a piece of fruit or bread or something i will make the amount of servings more to lower the calories..i hope this helps!! just kind of play around with it make it fit to you!!
  • kimmiebear70
    kimmiebear70 Posts: 384 Member
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    I use 1 cup servings for everything. So, for examples, say your recipe is for soup and it calls for 4 cups of broth, and 2 cups of vegetables, I say it serves 6. By keeping all of my servings at 1 cup, it standardizes everything and I don't have to remember what the serving size is. I do have a couple of recipes that are high in calories so I will note next to the recipe name (1/2 c serving) as a reminder. I hope this helps.
  • spitfire1962
    spitfire1962 Posts: 347 Member
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    From what I've read, a serving is usually the size of your palm. So you probably are eating about 2-3 servings each, I may be wrong.
  • teddyann
    teddyann Posts: 60 Member
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    I usually actually go measure it. Even if it is soup...I use my big measuring cup and transfer it 2 cups at a time into something else. I makes another dirty dish..but then I know for sure what I am getting. I figure at this point I have spent years "under" guessing...made me feel better at the time...but of course if I am underguessing then that might explain why I couldn't lose weight. Just my thought. Good luck!
    P.S. sometimes depending on what it is or how much there is when I measure it out...right then I split it up into my 1 or 2 cup containers for my lunches...clean up is partially done that way and I know I have something ready for work the next day.
  • bluerose9483
    bluerose9483 Posts: 686 Member
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    Thanks everyone for your help =)
  • kbefit
    kbefit Posts: 116
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    This is such a good question and it confuses me too. I was reading a low fat cookbook yesterday and it would say for example, "Serivng size 8-10 servings, 210 calories per serving." But was IS as serving? A cup? Two cups? And then there's my own recipes which confuses me more. When I was a WW member they said that I determined the serving size when calculating a recipe so I need to add everthing up and divide it by the amount of servings I wanted it to be. Maybe I need to just stick to grilled chicken! :laugh:
  • egbkid
    egbkid Posts: 164 Member
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    i just eyeball it, like a dish i made yesterday, and say ok, that will probably be 3 servings. I know how much i eat, so i eyeball it, or take the spoon (in yesterday's case) and divide it into what i would think was a serving. I made a rice dish yesterday, i divided it into 4 and it did not look like enough, so i 'erased' the lines i made and divided it into 3; which was the perfect sized serving. This is what i put into the recipe counter.
    When i make an 8x13 dish of lasagna, i know i can easily divide this into 6 or 8 pieces and still be full with each slice, so that is what i put in.

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