How should I log this? (Ingredients in recipe used but not eaten.)

ciphering
ciphering Posts: 22 Member
edited November 25 in Food and Nutrition
Hey MFP!

I was hoping for a bit of help figuring out how to log this recipe, which I made today (would recommend, by the way, it was great!).

Right now I have it as the full ingredients under the MFP recipe builder thing, but that doesn't seem right, since the majority of the liquid ingredients that I used (soy sauce, honey, ketchup, oil) weren't eaten at all, and are actually going to be discarded; they were basically only there to cook the chicken.

Any advice on how to log this? Should I just include the calories for all the liquid components even if they aren't consumed to be 'safe'?

Replies

  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    I guess it depends on how many of the total calories are in the liquid.

    The "best" way to do this would be to weigh all the liquid before adding the chicken, weigh the liquid being discarded, and adjust down the measurements of all liquid ingredients proportionally. That said, I tend to just treat marinades as though they were all consumed because I'm too lazy to figure out what portion I actually ate and the calorie difference isn't that high.
  • ciphering
    ciphering Posts: 22 Member
    @rankinsect, Thank you for the input! Unfortunately I didn't weigh the liquid ingredients since I was using a measuring cup, but after pouring it back into the measuring cup it doesn't look like the overall liquid amount went down much, if at all, so I think I will just not log the calories and just stay a little under for the day to account for the liquid.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I'd weigh my serving and log it as cooked chicken and would add 1 serving of honey, soy sauce, and ketchup. Sometimes it's just not worth dealing with the recipe builder. I hate that thing.
  • jenmsu83
    jenmsu83 Posts: 185 Member
    That recipe looks amazing! I have everything for it, I think I might make it today. :) Does the liquid not thicken up at all? I would just enter everything into the recipe builder and track the liquids, but I usually estimate on the high side rather than the low side with recipes. That's just me though.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    Perhaps I misread the recipe, where does it say to discard the liquid? after shredding the chicken you put it back in the liquid. My guess is that it's meant to be served with the liquid (which is one of the reasons it's shown served over rice). You could add a little corn starch after shredding to thicken it up too.
  • ciphering
    ciphering Posts: 22 Member
    @Francl27, Ooh adding one serving of the liquids instead of discounting it entirely is a great idea, I'll add that in. Thanks!
  • ciphering
    ciphering Posts: 22 Member
    @jenmsu83, it's awesome, I would definitely recommend it! No, the liquid didn't thicken up for me, and the chicken tasted so good anyway that I wasn't worried about needing more sauce. I really like someone else's idea about logging one serving of each of the liquid ingredients, so I went with that. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy if you end up making it!
  • ciphering
    ciphering Posts: 22 Member
    @auddii, you didn't misread! I did put the shredded chicken back in, but I ended up not serving it with any excess sauce (for myself, anyway, since it was a little strong for me and I wasn't eating it with rice).

    I think I got a decent idea of logging it this time, but I'll keep the cornstarch idea in mind for next time :)
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