how to make calories accurate in a new recipe

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LadyTLaine
LadyTLaine Posts: 14 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I LOVE to cook. What I have a very difficult time doing is when making dinner; or creating a new dish how do I know what the correct calorie count is?
For example chicken breast and pasta noodle with diced tomatoes.

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  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    Enter all the ingredients into the Recipe Builder on MFP. Enter # of portions it makes.

    MFP will calculate the data per portion.
  • EmmaFitzwilliam
    EmmaFitzwilliam Posts: 482 Member
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    Are you building a recipe in MFP? It will usually tell you the calories per serving. If I'm not building a recipe in MFP, I take the values for the core ingredients and divide by number of servings. For example, chicken breast with diced tomatoes for two - 12 oz baked chicken; my portion is 6 oz, 219 calories. Diced tomatoes, one can; my portion is 7/8 cup, 52 calories. <sauce ingredients, calories per portion used)
  • LadyTLaine
    LadyTLaine Posts: 14 Member
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    I am thinking the most difficult part for me is to say how many servings it is to make. I am used to cooking for large number of people each whom eat a large portion. (was how we ate ad a kid) now I am having to relearn portion controls
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    edited June 2015
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    I change the number of servings whenever I remake a recipe. For example, if I'm making meatballs, the weight of the beef/pork is always slightly different so I'm going to end up with a different total. I usually mix it all up and then weigh it and then decide how big each meatball will be based on what divides nicely. Generally they end up somewhere between 1.5 and 2 ounces. Each meatball is then one serving.

    If it's something like lasagna, where it's all mixed together and you have to cut it up, I would make each serving 1 ounce (or 100 grams) and then weigh each portion. So one big pan of lasagna might make 40 servings and then if you end up eating 4 ounces of lasagna, you log it as 4 servings.
  • sdraper2014
    sdraper2014 Posts: 81 Member
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    Still enter all the ingredients, divide it by how many portions you are comfortable with the calories coming out to. For example I make burrito mix with 2lbs lean ground beef, 1 can diced tomatoes, one onion, 4 cloves of garlic and spices and it is 10 servings worth. I measure it out into 10 portions and put the portions for yourself aside. So what if my husband eats 3? I still just ate one serving and if you find the recipe is going to not be enough to fill you up you can sub high calorie ingredients for lower, or just eat the smaller amount and divide your portions differently.
  • LadyTLaine
    LadyTLaine Posts: 14 Member
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    Getting the hang of this. I entered two recipes made them according to what should be a healthy portion it means I got more people per recipe. But then I also learned to make as adjustments on halving the recipe for two or three people.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,022 Member
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    Weigh (empty) the container (pan, pot, bowl, etc.) the finished recipe will be in. Make the recipe. Weigh again and subtract weight of empty container. Enter the weight (in grams) as the number of servings. When you serve yourself, weigh your portion and log it as X servings where X = the weight of your portion in grams. Don't worry about the serving sizes of people who aren't tracking their calories.
  • LadyTLaine
    LadyTLaine Posts: 14 Member
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    Does anyone know how a marinade calculates in. So far I just add the total amount of each ingredient and add the total amount of the protein, then divide by the amount of servings for said protein. Am I doing this correctly? Should I do the same for a spice rub? Does anyone know where to get the calorie count for spices and herbs?

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