Figuring calories and serving sizes...

CorydonCutie

I apologize in advance if this is a repeat post and has already been discussed. I am curious about how to figure calories and serving size when you make a multi ingredient recipe. For instance, I am going to make some white chili using 2 cans of great northern white beans, Williams white chili mix, 1 pound of chicken breasts, chicken broth and a can of corn. How do you figure out the serving size and how many calories are in each serving when everything has a different portion, etc. Can anyone help me out?

melodyg

I put it in the recipe calculator here (guessing on how many portions it makes because I am usually putting it in before cooking it). After I make the recipe, I measure out how many cups it is for soup or something like that. For a casserole I usually just divide into 4-6 servings for an 8x8 pan or 8-12 servings for a 9x13 pan. Measuring out cups tells me how many servings it is (usually banking on 1 cup/serving for soup even if I am eating 1.5 cups or so, and 1/2 cup serving for veggies or side dishes). You can then go back in and edit the recipe for serving sizes.

definitely put how much a serving is in the title somewhere to save yourself having to see how much the recipe makes each time!

ajbeans

I also make it and then measure it out if I need to. I base my serving size on how much *I* am going to eat. For instance, when I made soup the other day, it made 4 of our bowls. The kids only ate a tiny bit, and my husband had a bowl and a half, but I planned for one full bowl, and the recipe made 4 of those, so that's how I logged it.

fitterpam

Depends. If you're going from a recipe, you can generally take the servings from there and pop it into the recipe calculator on here (or other sites). If it is a one dish meal, I would say that between 300-400 calories is good for a dinner. So figure out the entire recipe value and then divide by 300-400 to figure out how many servings it makes.

I.e. my Spaghetti Sauce is usually around 1500 calories per pot (based on the whole ingredients I put in: extra lean ground beef, tomatoes, herbs, red wine, etc.). I know that with the pasta, I want to come in around 400 calories. So I account for the pasta calories (250 calories for my brand) and divide the pot value by 150. That means that I have around 10 servings. It's about 5 cups of sauce, so I measure out each portion at 1/2 cup of sauce and put out just enough for two meals and freeze the rest.....