Love to cook.... how do I count it?

ChangeIsADecision
ChangeIsADecision Posts: 709 Member
edited October 2024 in Introduce Yourself
I need some advice! My husband and I love to cook.... and eat of course. So when we try a new recipe.... which in a typical week we try at least 1 sometimes 2. Short of noting everything that goes in - all the pinches, dashes, "that looks good" - how do I count those meals? Should I look on the food dairy list and see what is close to what we fixed and just go off of that? Or should I literally go into the recipe analyzer and check every one? :noway: Just wanting to get some advice from other fellow - chefs - as to how they still love to cook but stay on track too? Any advice would be appreciated. :smile:

Replies

  • dmoses
    dmoses Posts: 786 Member
    There's a very helpful website called Calorie Count:

    http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

    You enter the recipe, and it calculates the nutritional information.

    Hope this is of some use for you!
  • hedwardsb
    hedwardsb Posts: 201 Member
    If I like the recipe & think I'll make it again, I enter it as my own recipe. The fun part is if I tweak the recipe to make it healthier, (applesauce instead of oil in muffins), I tweak it on MFP, too, and I can see exactly how many calories are saved.
    Other times I just try to find an equivalent.
  • Nursebeachnut
    Nursebeachnut Posts: 83
    I would go with knowing the exact amount. Guessing could leave an error upwards of 100 calories or more.
  • Jorra
    Jorra Posts: 3,338 Member
    I use MFP's recipe builder every time! It's very easy to use. Just enter all the ingredients and their amounts and voila!

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/box
  • LindseyDD
    LindseyDD Posts: 160 Member
    Everytime I make a recipe I put it in the recipe maker on here! I have found that a lot of cook books say one thing but when I plug it in shows something else (calorie wise) so I track everything on here before I even make it - that way I know exactly what I am putting into my body! It is time consuming but totally worth it!! Like tonight we are trying a new eggplant parm recipe - I plugged it in before I even started making it!
  • Monica_has_a_goal
    Monica_has_a_goal Posts: 694 Member
    I love to cook and I list every individual calorie from every ingredient but I'm ANAL like that ! hahaha!
  • kr3851
    kr3851 Posts: 994 Member
    Yeah - the recipe tab is my best friend! I like that you can edit them too... so next time i make it I can just tweak what i've tweaked and it's all good.
  • Cella30
    Cella30 Posts: 539 Member
    There's a very helpful website called Calorie Count:

    http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

    You enter the recipe, and it calculates the nutritional information.

    Hope this is of some use for you!

    Holy crap you have been holding out on me!!! :tongue: All this time I've been doing the recipe builder on here that takes FOREVER. This site is AWESOME!!!! Thanks for sharing this, you rock!
  • rf1170
    rf1170 Posts: 180 Member
    I like the MFP recipe tool for all the reasons already listed - in addition to the fact that (hopefully) we'll be able to share recipes with other users at some point. You don't have to do much beyond adding the individual ingredients to get an idea of the nutritional content, though you can actually write out the recipe too if you'd like.

    And if you like to experiment, you might also find it valuable because it can help you remember how you prepared something that you really liked. I like to work with what I have on hand, so recipes vary when I prepare them, and they turn out different each time. Rather than try to recall from memory what I did two weeks ago, I can look at my recipes on here and find out for sure.
  • rat70
    rat70 Posts: 129 Member
    There's a very helpful website called Calorie Count:

    http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

    You enter the recipe, and it calculates the nutritional information.

    Hope this is of some use for you!

    I have just discovered this on my own - it is awesome! How funny that the OP was just yesterday - I didn't see it! I was about to post about it but decided to search the forum first!

    I use the MyFitnessPal recipe calculator a lot but there are times when I want to know information per gram rather than per serve and this seems to do exactly that for me. Very excited as I cook practically everything from scratch. I have been managing so far but this will be a tremendous help too! :happy: :happy: :happy:
  • CandyR1018
    CandyR1018 Posts: 101 Member
    Bump
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