How to figure out a homemade pasta sauce?

TheRealKingTony
TheRealKingTony Posts: 19 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone! My mom is making pasta tonight. Sauce is being made from scratch... we know the ingredients but I'm not sure how to calculate serving size, etc. Any help is appreciated!

Replies

  • Forty6and2
    Forty6and2 Posts: 2,492 Member
    You can add it to your recipes and measure out how much you use. A suggestion would be to start with a cup, see if the calories fit into your day. If you have more room in your calories, add more. Although, I don't know many people who eat more than a cup of pasta sauce, unless you're really into it.
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
    If you know the ingredients just take the whole sauce and divide it by the number of servings you get from it. If in doubt just err on a slightly larger portion size than you actually had to allow a little margin for error.

    With most pasta sauces (assuming it's something like a tomato based sauce and not a lot of oil is used) the cut and quantity of the meat will be the biggest source of calories so if you can get that close to correct you're fine.

    Oh and don't forget to measure your pasta! Remember to look for an entry that's either cooked or dry, depending on when you measure it out (that makes a big difference).
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Recipe calculator--look under recipes where you go to put in your food. I use the old one, since I can't get the other one to work. Just put in the ingredients and amounts and then when finished weigh the total and decide what you want the serving size to be based on that (plus total calories). You can save the recipe and then when making it again just adjust the amounts.

    Admittedly I often don't mess with the weighing, like when I'm splitting 4 ways and think I can estimate well enough--I just call it 4 servings. But that's less precise.
  • thirteeninches
    thirteeninches Posts: 61 Member
    If you know the total amount made-say it is in a 2 quart pan (8 cups), then measure out 1/2 cup (which is the usual serving size) and weigh it. One serving 1/2 cup, and after weighing you will know how many grams that is. the whole recipe would have 16 servings.

    Another way I do it is I weigh the entire pan with sauce in it, then remove sauce to serving dish and weigh pan again, then I subtract the weight of the pan from the original total. (Called weighing by difference)

    I just made meaty spaghetti sauce (deer meat) and a half cup serving came to 76 calories. I think that is fairly typical.
  • chocolateandbutterscotch
    chocolateandbutterscotch Posts: 99 Member
    Often I will look up the calorie count on the internet; for example spaghetti sauce 1/2 cup serving. I will get the count from 5 different sites, then I average it and use that calorie count.
  • TheRealKingTony
    TheRealKingTony Posts: 19 Member
    thanks everyone!
  • rm33064
    rm33064 Posts: 270 Member
    I do it by weight. I calculate all the calories that went into the pot and just divide that by how many ounces it weighs. It helps have the weights of your pots and pans somewhere for reference so you can tare off the weight of the pot it's in.
  • rkmeyer41
    rkmeyer41 Posts: 58 Member
    Hey Tony,

    I just started using the "import a recipe" feature here. I really like it. You can adjust it as well to remove or add additional ingredients. Maybe you can find something close and just edit it. I just imported a recipe from allrecipes.com and switched it up all over the place.

    Good luck! I know if you ask my boys they'd tell you I make the best red sauce (gravy) ever! Bet you say the same about your moms!

    Hope this helps, Robin
  • kpk54
    kpk54 Posts: 4,474 Member
    Once the sauce is made and you've entered all the ingredients into your recipes on MFP, measure how much it made (4 cups as an example) then determine what you want as a serving size (1/2 cup as an example). Given that scenario the recipe has 8 servings.
  • tracydr
    tracydr Posts: 528 Member
    I'm really going to start doing this. I've not been losing and I cook most of our food from scratch. A meat serving and plain veggies is easy but I never measure anything when I make soup, pasta sauce or casseroles.

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