How to measure Calories for a bean soup?

Jenna9797
Jenna9797 Posts: 33 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I guess this one is for you experienced cooks and calorie counters out there. I am making some 15 bean soup. It has the beans, turkey sausage, tomatoes etc in it. My problem is, if I have added a lot of water during cooking, I will have a lot more servings than if I don't add as much.

So when measuring the "servings", do I just guess?

Do I measure out the whole dutch oven and then divide the calorie amount for the whole recipe? (This is what I'm thinking about doing)

What do you guys do?

Thanks!
Jenna

Replies

  • RadioactivePirate
    RadioactivePirate Posts: 212
    That is usually what I do. You have to pack it up to put it away don't you? I usually split my soups up into individual servings just after making them. That way the calorie count is right, plus I have grab-and-go meals.
  • BohemianCoast
    BohemianCoast Posts: 349 Member
    I make big soups all the time (well, every week). I mostly use a stockpot and reckon that's 8 main course servings, and I do indeed tot up the entire stockpot and divide up.

    Then when I eat I guess -- I think about how much I've had and how much it compares to 1/8 of the stockpot. It helps that my ladle is just about exactly 1/2 cup, so I can make a reasonable guess as to the amount I'm actually eating. It also helps that my soups are pretty low in calories anyway. So if I make a mistake it's only going to be 50 calories or so. Not like forgetting to weigh out the cheese and just cutting off a big slab...
  • agataarchangel
    agataarchangel Posts: 292 Member
    Water doesn't count, so only add up and divide the total number of calories from the beans/sausage etc....

    When dividing the servings, just make sure to get equal (or close to) amounts of "stuff" and broth in each serving (ie- two-cup capacity plastic containers), and your total recipe calorie count divided by the number of servings you divide the whole recipe into will make each serving calorie count correct.

    Hope that helps!
  • daisiecpa
    daisiecpa Posts: 103 Member
    when i made chili i put all the ingredients in the reciepe calculater on this site. then after it cooked i measured out how many cups it made. it was a pain in the *kitten*. lol.
  • msjenkalvoda
    msjenkalvoda Posts: 7 Member
    As much of a pain as it seems, I measure out the whole container. I do this when I make a chili or soup, as I never know exactly what there is in there for servings. I also use this time to potion out other servings, either for eating at a later time or freezing for much later. I've never been great at guesstimating amounts and don't trust myself to do so.
  • d_Mode
    d_Mode Posts: 880 Member
    I add everything up...minus the water...then once it's cooked measure everything out so I know exactly how many portions I have. I always seem to wind up with between 10-12...(1 cup portions).
  • anifani4
    anifani4 Posts: 457 Member
    I would find the total volume of my stock pot in cups.....then decide a serving size....2 cups maybe... and go from there to find the calories per serving. And yes, more water would make each serving less cals.

    But I've been lazy and look for something already in the database that is close enough and use that.
  • d_Mode
    d_Mode Posts: 880 Member
    As much of a pain as it seems, I measure out the whole container. I do this when I make a chili or soup, as I never know exactly what there is in there for servings. I also use this time to potion out other servings, either for eating at a later time or freezing for much later. I've never been great at guesstimating amounts and don't trust myself to do so.

    Yep...just like how she does it...it is a pain, but for someone like me it would drive me nuts just taking a wild guess. :D Good luck.
  • rmhand
    rmhand Posts: 1,067 Member
    If you have access to a scale - weigh it. Be sure to subtract the weight of the container so you may need to transfer it to something else, temporarily. If you are using the recipe calculator on here make 1 serving 1 gram and then each time you measure out how much you want to eat, just enter the number of grams you ate.
  • imaginaryplaces
    imaginaryplaces Posts: 123 Member
    "Do I measure out the whole dutch oven and then divide the calorie amount for the whole recipe?"

    ^^ That is what I would do - use the recipe builder to calculate the total calories for the whole recipe, then divide by the actual number of servings that it generates.

    When I am cooking something that will produce multiple portions (and I do often because I like to have meals in the freezer), I usually make an initial guesstimate of the number of servings, then record the actual number of servings after the fact. If I modify an existing recipe, or am throwing together something without a recipe, I try to document what I've done for future reference.
  • Dawners98
    Dawners98 Posts: 120 Member
    Whenever I make something in my crock pot - usually soups! - I use mfp to record each item. Full cans of beans, veggies, meats, etc and add it as a meal. I measure (Ok, I eyeball, but measuring is good!) out how I plan to divide it and then count my calories accordingly. Here’s one of my meals that I hope you can follow even though the margins are misaligned!

    Meal details for “Chicken Tortilla Soup”
    Items in this meal Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Fiber
    Oscar Mayer - Deli Fresh- Southwest Chicken, 2.5 container (6 oz.s ea.) 550 0 10 115 2,700 0
    Muir Glen - Whole Peeled Tomatoes (Canned), 1 container (1 1/2 cups ea.) 90 18 0 3 870 3
    Old El Paso - Enchilada Sauce Hot, 1 container (1 1/10 cups ea.) 90 18 0 0 1,620 0
    Ortega - Diced Green Chiles, 1 container (8 tbsp ea.) 20 4 0 4 280 0
    Medium - Yellow Onion, 1 medium 45 15 0 2 6 3
    Fresh - Garlic (1 Clove), 2 medium clove (4g) 10 2 0 0 0 0
    Swanson - 100% Fat Free Chicken Broth, 1 container (2 cups ea.) 30 2 0 6 1,140 0
    Generic - Ground Cumin, 0.5 Tablespoon 11 2 1 1 5 1
    Spices - Chili powder, 1 tsp 8 1 0 0 26 1
    Generic - Table Salt, 1 teaspoon 0 0 0 0 2,325 0
    Spices - Bay Leaf, Whole, 1 leaf 6 1 0 0 0 0
    Spices - Pepper, black, 0.3 tsp 1 0 0 0 0 0
    Veggies: Corn (Frozen) - Frozen Whole Kernel Golden Corn, 1.5 cup 225 47 2 7 0 2
    Beans - Black, cooked, boiled, with salt, 1 cup 227 41 1 15 408 15
    Aa L-Fresh - Cilantro, 0.1 cup 0 0 0 0 0 0
    Total: 1313 151 14 153 9380 25

    So, I take my 1313 cals and divide that by the 5 or 6 servings I get out of the pot. 1313/5 = 263 cals per about 2 cups of soup from a 10 cup pot. If you’ve saved it as a meal on mfp, you can then add it to your diary as a portion of the full meal. You can’t do this on the mobile, though, only online. The mobile app only allows you to add the entire meal.

    I hope that makes sense! If not, feel free to message me!

    --
    Dawn
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    I know how big most of my pots are (3 quart, 6 quart, etc.) so I just eyeball how full it is, divide it out by cups and use 1 cup as the serving. If I eat 2.5 cups, I log 2.5 servings.
  • Jenna9797
    Jenna9797 Posts: 33 Member
    Thanks guys, I have some good ideas now!

    Jenna

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