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Please help me with my MEALS

cjwolfjen
cjwolfjen Posts: 323 Member
edited September 2024 in Food and Nutrition
I can track my calories and eat right all day long when its just breakfast lunch and a snack. But I cook dinner for myself, my kid and my husband. My husband is a supportive man but he isn't going to like it if I change the meals I cook (too much). Also we are on a budget so I have to buy certain foods/meals and make them for dinner each week to save money and time. I usually cook things like Meatloaf, Rigatoni, Chili, Rice, Tacos, Fajitas, Potatoes, Chicken (lots of chicken, usually baked.) Also, I make a TON of casseroles just random chicken casseroles from family cook books we have.

My problem with cooking these types of dinners, I don't have the SLIGHTEST clue how to count the calories I put in them and even at times when I try and count everything in the meal, it still gets confusing. Let me explain. I cook a meal with ground beef in it. Well the nutrition guide says X amount calories per 3 oz. of meat. If I put 6 oz. of meat in the meal I can track that... BUT I don't eat the whole meal, I eat a small portion of it. How do I know how much of the overall calories in the meal are making it into my MOUTH... Does this make sense?

Please help.

Thanks :)

Replies

  • alexmommy
    alexmommy Posts: 76 Member
    Put everything into the recipe calculator! :)
  • princessmedic
    princessmedic Posts: 92
    I use the recipe calculator on here a lot...almost everything I make is in there. Then I play with the recipe to see where I can make small changes to cut calories without changing the recipe too much! Then you decide how much of a portion you ate when you put it in your diary. Its not ever going to be perfect...but as long as you get close I think that's what counts.
  • cat3nv
    cat3nv Posts: 389 Member
    There is a recipe calculator. Under the food tab click on recipe. you can enter your recipe ingredients adn how many it will serve and it will tell you how many calories is in it.

    I love this part of MFP, I make just about everything from scratch. We are on a budget as well.

    Good luck!
  • kacarter1017
    kacarter1017 Posts: 651 Member
    Put everything into the recipe calculator! :)

    Yep. Works great!
  • seleck05
    seleck05 Posts: 74 Member
    Yes, my boyfriend and I make meals we use the recipe calculator and then just divide it up into servings and it tells you how many cals per serving.
  • princess4mimi
    princess4mimi Posts: 192
    I don't know if this answers your question or not but there is a section where you can add your own recipes when your logging your food in.....it allows you to indicate how many people the recipe will feed. Sooooo if you can feed 3 (yourself, your husband and your kid) and don't have any leftovers then it feeds 3 but if you have leftovers guess-ti-mate (guess) about how many more meals that equals. For example for your husband to take to work tomorrow=4 total (this includes all 3 of you eating it initially) enough for you and your husband to take to work the next day =5....enough for all 3 of you to have for a meal tomorrow then=6...etc.

    Good luck, hope this helps:-)
  • andrea10191
    andrea10191 Posts: 24 Member
    Use the recipe calculator. Create a new recipe, put in the number of servings it makes and all the ingredients. You can add your portion to your diary and the nutrition information will adjust based on the serving size you actually eat. You can save the recipes for future tracking too.
  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 Member
    Make liberal use of the recipe function on here. Add ALL the ingredients, you'll see the total calories for the entire meal. Now you can portion it out as usual and see how many servings that makes and enter the number of servings your recipe gives you OR you can play with the number of servings to get a calorie count / macro nutrient count you like and then cut dinner into that many pieces / bowls and enjoy.
    I use it for my pretzels which I know now are 2400 calories for the whole recipe, it makes 12 so they're 200 calories each.
    Just made a batch of 24 muffins, works out to 163 calories per muffin.
    Then for my goulash that is just a big pot of ingredients I had to play around and found out that my typical batch of it I had to have 250grams as a serving size to get a reasonable calorie count, made me realize how much I was overeating when I ate this previously..
  • SheilaSisco
    SheilaSisco Posts: 722 Member
    Yeah, the recipe calculator is my suggestion too... sometimes it's hard to figure out how many 'servings'. I cook for 4 (me, my bf, and my two young sons) so I will (often) say the recipe makes 4 'servings'. I'll separate everything into 4 after it's cooked and take 1/4 of it. My sons usually split one 'serving' which leaves more than enough for the BF. If it's enchiladas, I make sure I always use the same amounts of EVERYTHING and am careful to make sure it's all done evenly so that when I eat my one or two enchiladas, the numbers are at least close. Also, you could possibly cut down on some calories and fat by using turkey instead of beef. Most of the time you can't tell the difference (like in spaghetti or tacos), so you're family should eat it fine (theoretically) and you'll get a slightly healthier meal. I wish you much luck!
  • kkuhly
    kkuhly Posts: 80 Member
    Use the receipe calculator. Also, if you need help planning cheap, healthy, yummy dinners...go to E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families. Or www.e-mealz.com It is an amazing website!!!
  • eveunderground
    eveunderground Posts: 236 Member
    I always do the calculations manually, I calculate the total calories for the entire dish based on all the ingredients and then figure out how many servings the entire dish is and then divide by that. It can be a pain when there are many ingredients, but I don't care...I'm used to doing it now. Today I made a cajun mealoaf, I calculated it comes out to 1125 calories for the entire thing, if I only eat a quarter of it that's 280ish cals, if I eat a third it will be 375cals. :)
  • cjwolfjen
    cjwolfjen Posts: 323 Member
    OK here's another one for you guys.

    I shop at Wal Mart for my groceries. So many recipes call for foods like: fresh rosemary sprig, zucchini, chopped, bay leaves, fresh basil.

    Where on earth do I find these kinds of foods? Does Wal Mart have them? I'm very new to this way of eating and cooking and I'm also very busy mom of 2 babies and a college student. I don't have a lot of time which is why I shop at Wal Mart, I can get everything I need in one stop. Do I need to start shopping at other food chains in order to get these items? Or am I simply walking right by them at Wal Mart?

    This is all very new to me.

    Thanks.
  • kimberlyAjohnson
    kimberlyAjohnson Posts: 136 Member
    OK here's another one for you guys.

    I shop at Wal Mart for my groceries. So many recipes call for foods like: fresh rosemary sprig, zucchini, chopped, bay leaves, fresh basil.

    Where on earth do I find these kinds of foods? Does Wal Mart have them? I'm very new to this way of eating and cooking and I'm also very busy mom of 2 babies and a college student. I don't have a lot of time which is why I shop at Wal Mart, I can get everything I need in one stop. Do I need to start shopping at other food chains in order to get these items? Or am I simply walking right by them at Wal Mart?

    This is all very new to me.

    Thanks.

    You're walking by them :) Zucchini is a green squash that's probably somewhere near the broccoli. As for the herbs, they'll also be in the coolers in the produce, likely around the salads/lettuce. They're hard to find sometimes, and Walmart is out of stock pretty frequently here. You could always use dried herbs if you can't find fresh. Just be careful of any added ingredients.
  • cat3nv
    cat3nv Posts: 389 Member
    I shop for most of my stuff at Wally word too. They have most of the items I am looking for, not all, but most. They have rosemary and other fresh herbs in the veggie section.

    One day when you can take the time to explore Walmart on your own take a long tour so you can see where everything is.

    I am a busy mom too. I am a full time student, I am married, and I have 3 kiddos. I live 35 miles from the nearest walmart and that makes it hard when I am cooking and I discover I am missing an ingredient.

    Now that it is almost summer if you can try to plant your own herbs. Rosemary is basically a weed. It grows all year depending on your climate, or it will come back as soon as the winter is over.

    Hope I was of some help =]]
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