Measuring Stir-fry type dishes

Tiabi
Tiabi Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone, I was hoping for some tips on how you handle measuring dishes with multiple items and no recipe. I make a lot of dishes out of a skillet of whatever random vegetables happen to be in my fridge at the time. We seldom finish off the whole skillet – there are usually leftovers for the next day.

I know I could weigh each vegetable in advance, but since I don’t eat the whole skillet I end up guessing as to how much of it I’m actually eating. It’s epically difficult if there are a couple rounds of leftovers. I currently just eyeball and guesstimate on how much I’m eating.

How do you all handle this? Thanks!

Replies

  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    Well, how precise are you with the rest of your food?

    When I'm trying to lose, I weigh things like this as precisely as I can. I put all the ingredients in a "recipe" using the website's tools. Then if I divide the recipe into three portions, one for dinner, then two lunches later, I already have the recipe saved, and can go back and add another serving on the day I eat the leftover.

    Then the next time I make a big stir fry, I edit the recipe to reflect the vegies I put in that new big batch. Or if I added nuts or something to this one.
  • lattarulol
    lattarulol Posts: 123 Member
    Either you estimate (as you are doing) or actually use your food scale. I weigh everything that goes into the dish, use the recipie section here to add it all in (including oils, sauces, etc) and then weigh how much comes out. I usually split it into 4 servings so I know, for example, 1 serving = 150g or whatever it turns out to be. Then I log how much I eat based on weight. No other way to really know unfortunately and even this is an estimate because of the different things in there - meat vs veggies but I figure it is close enough.
  • ActuarialChef
    ActuarialChef Posts: 1,413 Member
    Either you estimate (as you are doing) or actually use your food scale. I weigh everything that goes into the dish, use the recipie section here to add it all in (including oils, sauces, etc) and then weigh how much comes out. I usually split it into 4 servings so I know, for example, 1 serving = 150g or whatever it turns out to be. Then I log how much I eat based on weight. No other way to really know unfortunately and even this is an estimate because of the different things in there - meat vs veggies but I figure it is close enough.

    I figure, if I make something that I am going to eat the entire dish of (or half of it), the estimate you get by dividing all ingredients into number of servings is perfectly fine.

    i.e. if I make a stir fry of 8 oz meat and 8 oz veggies (plus sauce) and divide it into 4 servings, I may not get 2 oz meat and 2 oz veggies in EACH serving, but I'll get close enough to that.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    The best way is to enter everything before cooking, then weigh the whole thing after it's cooked, then weigh your portion to know how much you're eating. Obviously it will be a guess, but it will still be more accurate than eyeballing.
  • Tiabi
    Tiabi Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks for the tips, I really appreciate it. :smile: I guess I’ll weigh everything that goes into the pan and save it as a recipe, and then weigh portions as I eat them later. I like the idea of having a generic skillet recipe that I just tweak based on what I’m using that evening.
  • action_man
    action_man Posts: 21 Member
    My wife and I do a lot of stir fry type dishes too. I either use the recipe function, or just add it all up and use the dreaded quick add function. What's helped us a lot though is immediately when we serve the dish, we'll also divide it up into single servings in tupperware or whatever. It makes dealing with estimating calories in the leftovers way easier, especially if you're like me and sometimes eat from the big bowl of leftovers.

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