Recipe Builder and portions

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zenjen13
zenjen13 Posts: 174 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I just recently discovered the recipe builder, which works really well for recipes that I link from a website. My problem today is that my hubby is making a stew on his own - so I've entered all the ingredients in manually but I'm confused about the portions. I just guessed at how many portions for the recipe since it's in the slow cooker. It could be 6 - it could be 8, who knows? I put it in as 6 but that was just an arbitrary number. Then, to add it into my dinner tonight I have no idea what MFP considers one portion. I hope I'm making myself clear, can anyone help me out? :s I'd like to weigh out my portion but I have no idea how to do this in this situation.

Replies

  • CurlyCockney
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
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    I batch cook using the recipe builder, and make the number of grammes of cooked food the number of servings. For example, if I make 2kg of lasagne I put that it's 2000 servings. Then, when I'm serving I just weigh what I'm going to eat and put that as the amount of servings.
  • BuddhaB0y
    BuddhaB0y Posts: 199 Member
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    Does it not let you chose the full recipie and all calories and then choose the portion amount as a fraction of the full amount? I.e if you eat 1/4 of the stew, put down .25 as the portion size
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
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    Once it's finished, weigh it out and make the number of servings the same as the number of grams in the stew. So, 1g will equal 1 serving. Then you can weigh out your portion and just put that number in as the number of servings.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    You decide how many portions one batch makes. How many calories do you want for one meal? Divide the sum with that, and you get the number of portions.

    Or you can use the 1 gram/ounce = 1 portion method and weigh it out as you serve yourself.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    You could do it the proper way by measuring all the ingredients beforehand, and then measuring the amount you've eaten, but i like to do it the lazy way.

    With my recipes i always make the portion size 1. Then when I log it i select 1/4, etc. depending on how much i ate. This really only works for me because i'm pretty good now at making a normal amount of food for 2 people. I don't make huge giant portions, so obviously the larger the size the less accurate you will be when guessing how much you ate.


    Again, the proper way, or the lazy way. :)
  • zenjen13
    zenjen13 Posts: 174 Member
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    Ahhhh, ok, I think I get it now. (and am particularly dense today) I measure the finished soup, take the weight in grams and edit the recipe with that as my number of portions. The recipe builder will then calculate what I am eating based on how many grams I weigh out for my dinner. That's great! Thank-you, I will try that tonight! :):):)
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
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    If you already logged the ingredients then you should already know the grams of everything so you could just add them up now and use that for servings.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    edited December 2015
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    zenjen13 wrote: »
    Ahhhh, ok, I think I get it now. (and am particularly dense today) I measure the finished soup, take the weight in grams and edit the recipe with that as my number of portions. The recipe builder will then calculate what I am eating based on how many grams I weigh out for my dinner. That's great! Thank-you, I will try that tonight! :):):)

    I would weigh high for soup too were I you. Because of soup's inconsistency when being ladled from pot to bowl, you may end up with 90% noodles and 5% chicken (example), so it's safer to maintain accuracy, with soup and similar mixed ingredient non-solids, to weigh and then maybe add a bit to the measure. Better to overestimate than underestimate...
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    kami3006 wrote: »
    If you already logged the ingredients then you should already know the grams of everything so you could just add them up now and use that for servings.

    That only really works when you don't cook it. When you cook you'll lose a lot of water as steam, so the final weight is less than the weight of the ingredients.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
    edited December 2015
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    rankinsect wrote: »
    kami3006 wrote: »
    If you already logged the ingredients then you should already know the grams of everything so you could just add them up now and use that for servings.

    That only really works when you don't cook it. When you cook you'll lose a lot of water as steam, so the final weight is less than the weight of the ingredients.

    Fair enough. OP will need to change her already logged ingredients to their cooked versions so the cooked weight jibes with the cook ingredient calories and nutrition.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    I log in 100g servings on weight of cooked eg a 2kg casserole will be 20 servings and I might eat 350g or 3.5 servings
  • zenjen13
    zenjen13 Posts: 174 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    I log in 100g servings on weight of cooked eg a 2kg casserole will be 20 servings and I might eat 350g or 3.5 servings

    Thanks Rabbitjb - that was what worked for me. :D
    I didn't make the stew so I had to create the recipe with the ingredients I knew my husband put in which wasn't 100% accurate since he had already added the carrots and onion (but I knew the rest). So, I needed to weigh it after it cooked anyway. I had to change the recipe via the computer as my App wouldn't allow it. Also, an FYI, I had to do the servings in 100g increments as MFP wouldn't take such a large serving if I did it in individual grams.
  • madammags
    madammags Posts: 97 Member
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    I weigh how much I put in my bowl/on my plate, call that 1 serving, then weigh the whole stew as I portion it into containers for later use. Serves eaten now + serves saved = total serves.
    To remember what's on which container, I write the dish, date, and number of serves on the lid of the container. Conveniently, the main containers I use when freezing tend to be full when I reach 4 serves of stew/curry or 3 serves of soup.

    As an aside, I've found that for most of my stews, curries etc, 1 serve is 350-400 grams, soup about 500-600 grams (more water). This fits pretty well with my rule of thumb when cooking, which is aiming for about 100 grams of protein source + 300 grams of raw vegies per serve.
  • joelo_83
    joelo_83 Posts: 218 Member
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    If you don't use the 1 gram = 1 serving technique i suggest you enter in a parenthesis and state how many grams are in one serving as part of the title. That I know there's no way to go back in and check this out, so if you forget later on you're SOL... (speaking from experience lol)
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
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    I'm not a weigher, I measure stuff by volume. So I figure out how many quarts a recipe makes, then make a serving = 1 cup. Works for me really well.

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