how do i work out measurements for meals?

Maree_

Say if i am doing a cottage pie for the family for dinner how do i weigh the mashed potato, meat, veg, gravy etc? Thanks :-)

LosingTheWeight2014

I invested in a small scale from Wal-Mart...I think it was $7 dollars and I weigh all my food. 4 oz of meat, 2 oz of potatos, 4 oz of spinach or other vegetables, etc.

Then I enter everything individually into MFP.

Or if you are making something and cutting into pieces, make sure you measure everything you are putting in and then create a recipe on MFP and put how many servings it will make, then when your pie is done, cut it into that many servings and account for your servings on MFP.

Chemmy

I do in an OCD way. :embarassed:

I have a small scale and everything fresh or part of whole is weighed. I understand with a family it won't be as easy but I cook and eat for just myself. :frown:

TTHdred

Got my scale from target $6. Very cheap, plastic. But it works.
The good thing, after using a scale for about a month, you get really good at “guessing” and estimating. Makes such a difference.

dls06

I would say a cup of the mixture would be a serving and make some extra veggies on the side, also a salad.
If you put the recipe in your create a recipe folder, in yor foods, you can see how many calories are in a serving. Dependiing on how many servings you decide per/ recipe. If the calories are too much. Cut your serving down. Only add a little gravy to yours.

JCPruitt

I use the recipe function. Add everything in. Figure out how many servings, and it calculates things for you. Now the trick is to only have that serving.

Another trick is to make individual pies--in this case. If you want 8 servings, use 8 bowls/ramekins to divvy it up and then cook it. You will have to watch it a bit closer--time may be less than if in 1 vessel. That gives you instant portion control.

momcindy

When I'm trying to figure out the numbers for a serving from one of my recipes, I go to the next day on my food diary here and put in all the separate ingredients used in the recipe. For example, 4 tortillas, 1 can refried beans, 8 oz. cheese, 1 15 oz jar salsa, 1 lb. ground beef, etc. for a tortilla lasagne I recently made. I write down the total numbers for calories, fats, etc., then delete the items from the diary. Then I divide each of the numbers by the serving size. In the case of the tortilla lasagne, one serving was 1/8 of the casserole so I divided everything by 8. Those are the numbers I put in when I created the food item for my journal and was an accurate picture of what I was getting in a serving.

MrBrown72

As part of a whole.
Say you make a pie
After weighing everything and calculating it It has 1000 calories.
Say one pie post cooked weighs 16oz
You eat (scale) 8oz or half a pie
that would be 500 calories.

Maree_

Ha thanks everyone i feel like i need to have some maths lessons!!