Does it ever surprise you how much or little calories a dish has?

Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »

hgycta wrote: »

Honestly, I expected cotton candy to be AWFUL for you since it's pure sugar but you can eat a pretty large bag of the stuff for around 100 calories! Yeah it's not the healthiest thing out there but it's definitely not even close to the worst!

Are you kidding me? I was at a hockey game last night and bypassed the cotton candy because I thought it was calorie bomb. Thank you for this!!

The thing is that it's really mostly air, with a small amount of spun sugar. Not that I recommend doing this, but if you put it in a bowl and sprinkled water on it so it would melt down from its "spun" state, you'd be shocked at what a small amount of sugar you were looking at.

gmstevens37 wrote: »

I am making lasagne for dinner, it is always so delicious and I thought it must have million calories. So I did the nutritional break down for my recipe, and discovered it only has 198- 253 calaories per serving. Depending if I use 1/2 cup or 1 cup of cheese on top.

Ha, my lasagne is not 250 calories a serving. No ma'am.

I am always in denial about any and all indulgent desserts. As I pick up and put back about 20 before giving up because none of them are suddenly not going to be 200 calories a serving instead 400.

VintageFeline wrote: »

gmstevens37 wrote: »

I am making lasagne for dinner, it is always so delicious and I thought it must have million calories. So I did the nutritional break down for my recipe, and discovered it only has 198- 253 calaories per serving. Depending if I use 1/2 cup or 1 cup of cheese on top.

Ha, my lasagne is not 250 calories a serving. No ma'am.

I am always in denial about any and all indulgent desserts. As I pick up and put back about 20 before giving up because none of them are suddenly not going to be 200 calories a serving instead 400.

Haha yeahno. Unless of course it's a ridiculously small serving. I make my lasagna with 93% turkey and I am usually satisfied around 350-400 calories. I strongly suggest you weigh everything instead of using cups...

Desserts are insane. I made millionaire shortbread a while back and entered it as a recipe in MFP for kicks... 400 calories for a 1x2 inch serving. Extremely sad.

One of our go-to meals is egg tacos, which I figured would be pretty decent on calories. It's veg and eggs with cheese and ketchup in a tortilla, pretty basic right? Did the math and three of them set me back almost 1000 cal - ack! So depressed.

I make them now with corn tortillas and half the amount of ketchup and cheese, but they just aren't the same ;-;

CassondraKennedy wrote: »

I made a chocolate souffle a couple weeks ago. Thought it would be a better alternative to some of the store bought desserts since souffles are typically "airy". Nope, 450 calories in a tiny little 5oz ramekin! Very disappointing as it was quite a technical and time-consuming bake for an amateur like me...

There's a company that makes ready to bake from the supermarket fridge here. They are delicious. Actually haven't had one in ages. May have to very soon! And workout like a beast on the day to make it fit, heh.

It feels great once you realize it's not necessarily the food you eat but how much of it we consume in one sitting.

perkymommy wrote: »

It feels great once you realize it's not necessarily the food you eat but how much of it we consume in one sitting.

I totally agree with you on this. Before I got on MFP, I decided I wasn't going to eat pasta and rice anymore but now, I allow it so long as it is in moderation.

I was actually surprised how much popcorn one can eat for so few calories. And how choosing the right ingredients means you can have a ridiculous sized meal for a small amount of calories

RedfootDaddy wrote: »

One of our go-to meals is egg tacos, which I figured would be pretty decent on calories. It's veg and eggs with cheese and ketchup in a tortilla, pretty basic right? Did the math and three of them set me back almost 1000 cal - ack! So depressed.

I make them now with corn tortillas and half the amount of ketchup and cheese, but they just aren't the same ;-;

I've got a version I make for breakfast about once a week for about 350 calories for 2 tacos:

2 Scrambled Eggs
1/4 Cup Light Cabot Cheddar Cheese or 2 Lowfat Cheese Sticks
Salsa...2 tbs but really as much as you want
Mission Extra Thin Corn Tortillas

Peanut butter, ice cream, and beer. I suppose it makes sense that they are some of my favorite things; they are calorie-dense as hayell!

I have three granita recipes in my favorite cookbook (basically scraped ice desserts), orange juice, lemon-lime, and green tea. They're all variations of 'boil equal parts sugar and water together to make a simple syrup, add what you're using for flavors, freeze, and stir every hour until set.

I'd assumed that the orange granita would be the lowest in calories because it had the least amount of sugar in the simple syrup. BUT I forgot that the orange juice wasn't exactly calorie-free. The orange may be the most nutrient-dense (which isn't saying whole heck of a lot), but despite the green tea version having more sugar, it's still... well... 4 cups of cooled green tea, as opposed to 4 cups of OJ. Lowest-calorie option. (The lemon-lime has way more sugar to balance the tartness and is the highest-calorie option of the three.)

It took me a long time to realize all foods aren't created equal. The calorie differences between a dish you make at home vs the same dish at a restaurant vs the same dish made at another restaurant are often astronomical.

I also was surprised when I realized I can usually substitute or make reductions in most recipes to lower the calories and don't miss the taste. Desserts are one of the only things I've found you can't really do that with, but with entrees yes. There's always a work around and apparently my taste buds aren't so sophisticated that I can tell the difference.