weighing meats and rice/pasta

thatgrayboi
thatgrayboi Posts: 8 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I want to start cooking in bulk for my meats and rice and since I have a food scale , I am trying to find the best route to take into weighing my food. Ive been looking at youtube videos and forums ,but couldn't exactly come to a conclusion on what should I do ? I know weighing it raw would be accurate ,but I want to cook a lot of food in bulk though. Any tips or opinions on what you guys do ?

Replies

  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    I weigh raw and note the number of portions on my bulk container. Then I just eyeball that part of the whole and log the number of portions I eat. Since I'm the only one eating it, if I slightly miss my estimate it averages out.

    Most pasta isn't a good idea to make in bulk, it doesn't keep well. Rice and quinoa do, though. Pasta cooks fairly quickly so it's not a huge problem to cook as needed.

    If you need to be more precise, you can weigh the whole amount after cooking and figure out how much a cooked portion is relative to a raw portion, since most calorie counts are for uncooked. Put your container on the scale, zero it out, then add the food. Then you can figure out how much a cooked portion weighs.
  • pebble4321
    pebble4321 Posts: 1,132 Member
    If you are weighing cooked food, look for a database entry for “[food] cooked”.
    You can add grilled, steamed, roasted, boiled etc if that’s relevant for your food.
    For rice for example, I search for “white rice cooked”.
    Don’t overthink this! Yes there will be some variation, but every database entry is an estimate, you just have to live with that.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    I weigh the amount I want raw (eg 5 x 150g raw chicken for each work day = 750g)

    Once cooked, I reweigh, divide by 5 and divide in to portions.

    Same with rice, vegies etc - weigh out however many raw portions I need, cook, reweigh and divide
  • thatgrayboi
    thatgrayboi Posts: 8 Member
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    I weigh the amount I want raw (eg 5 x 150g raw chicken for each work day = 750g)

    Once cooked, I reweigh, divide by 5 and divide in to portions.

    Same with rice, vegies etc - weigh out however many raw portions I need, cook, reweigh and divide

    Thanks for explaining that well for me , I think I will follow your route !!
  • pmm3437
    pmm3437 Posts: 529 Member
    edited November 2017
    When bulk/batch cooking, I tend to use whole containers, so I use the measurements on the label when entering a recipe ( ie 2 lb chicken thigh, 1 lb dry beans, etc ). Once I have the whole recipe entered, I adjust the number of servings to match my calorie/macro goals for the item.

    I then weight after cooking and sub-divide/store in individual serving sizes.

    This works just as well if your "recipe" is just a single item, like sticky rice.

    When in doubt, measure the item as it is listed on the packaging, for nutrient and caloric information. Measure after cooking/processing to split portions.

  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    I use the recipe builder, even for simple bulk making of chicken...enter the raw weight of the food; set the serving size to the cooked weight in g or oz, then measure out what you want to eat (this way I can tailor it my calories for a given day)

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