Tracking - How to Estimate Part of a Large Recipe

LadyCenedra
LadyCenedra Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm a very literal, detail-oriented person so when I'm trying to lose weight and track what I eat, I try to be as exact as possible. That said, I struggle with recipes that produce a large amount that more than just I will be eating because I don't know what constitutes a serving. For example, I just added a slow cooker recipe called "Nonas Umbrian Lentil Soup" (based on a friend's recommendation) that serves 8. According to said friend, the portions are pretty large so I'm guessing it makes a lot of soup. That's fine because my family can eat it too. The problem is that I don't know how much a serving is (the recipe doesn't specify). What do you do in similar situations?

Replies

  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    I like to weigh my final, whole recipe in grams and record the recipe as that many servings.

    For example, if my whole pot of chili weighs 700 grams, I'll say in my recipe that it's 700 servings. That way, when I weigh my portion of chili that weighs, say, 150 grams, I will log it as 150 "servings."

    It may look strange, but it gets the job done and takes away a lot of the guess work.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Member
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »
    I like to weigh my final, whole recipe in grams and record the recipe as that many servings.

    For example, if my whole pot of chili weighs 700 grams, I'll say in my recipe that it's 700 servings. That way, when I weigh my portion of chili that weighs, say, 150 grams, I will log it as 150 "servings."

    It may look strange, but it gets the job done and takes away a lot of the guess work.

    I apparently make and eat more chili than you. :tongue:
  • getfitfaster18
    getfitfaster18 Posts: 62 Member
    First I eat it all ... then I log it as 1/3. Easy.



    really though, sounds like Alyssa above is in the ballpark.
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    kami3006 wrote: »
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »
    I like to weigh my final, whole recipe in grams and record the recipe as that many servings.

    For example, if my whole pot of chili weighs 700 grams, I'll say in my recipe that it's 700 servings. That way, when I weigh my portion of chili that weighs, say, 150 grams, I will log it as 150 "servings."

    It may look strange, but it gets the job done and takes away a lot of the guess work.

    I apparently make and eat more chili than you. :tongue:

    LOL, yes apparently so! But at least our brains are on the same page!

    By the way, when I eat chili it's really closer to like 300-350 grams a bowl. I love myself some chili, especially in the winter!
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Member
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »
    kami3006 wrote: »
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »
    I like to weigh my final, whole recipe in grams and record the recipe as that many servings.

    For example, if my whole pot of chili weighs 700 grams, I'll say in my recipe that it's 700 servings. That way, when I weigh my portion of chili that weighs, say, 150 grams, I will log it as 150 "servings."

    It may look strange, but it gets the job done and takes away a lot of the guess work.

    I apparently make and eat more chili than you. :tongue:

    LOL, yes apparently so! But at least our brains are on the same page!

    By the way, when I eat chili it's really closer to like 300-350 grams a bowl. I love myself some chili, especially in the winter!

    I usually hit about 300 and then add in some Fritos and cheddar. That sure does sound good right now!
  • whathapnd
    whathapnd Posts: 1,311 Member
    Just want to add that it might be useful to write down the weights of your most frequently used pots and keep the info handy. That way if you forget to weigh the pot before you start cooking (guilty), you don't have to empty it out at the end in order to subtract the weight. Because who wants to do more dishes.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    whathapnd wrote: »
    Just want to add that it might be useful to write down the weights of your most frequently used pots and keep the info handy. That way if you forget to weigh the pot before you start cooking (guilty), you don't have to empty it out at the end in order to subtract the weight. Because who wants to do more dishes.

    This! I have a note on my phone which has all the Pan weights
  • AnilAnhirode
    AnilAnhirode Posts: 20 Member
    kami3006 wrote: »
    I usually weigh the final product (minus the dish it's in of course) and use that number as the number of servings.

    So, a pot of chili that is 1500g will have 1500 one gram servings. Then I can just weigh out how much I serve myself and put that number as my serving size. (If I eat 250g then I put 250 servings)

    Wow. Great tip!
  • ChrysalisCove
    ChrysalisCove Posts: 975 Member
    For most recipes, I put everything into my recipe builder then divide by 3 (the number of people in our family). Then I just make sure to go back and tweak meat weights each time if it’s fillets, poultry legs / breasts, etc.

    For bigger recipes, I either halve it from the get-go or divide into a number of servings that is easy for the number of people we have (3,6,9,etc.) & weigh them out as above.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,282 Member
    edited January 2019
    Slow cooker insert ( the big dish thing the food goes in) I wrote its weight on underneath in permanent texta.

    Not sure how that would work for frypans etc which are in direct contact with gas flame/ electric element though.

    @ chrysalis - yes most things I make eg chilli con carne, curry etc, I do that too. I follow same recipe as is saved in recipe builder and they are all saved as Makes 3 serves, 1 mine, 1 my husbands, 1 leftover.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »
    I like to weigh my final, whole recipe in grams and record the recipe as that many servings.

    For example, if my whole pot of chili weighs 700 grams, I'll say in my recipe that it's 700 servings. That way, when I weigh my portion of chili that weighs, say, 150 grams, I will log it as 150 "servings."

    It may look strange, but it gets the job done and takes away a lot of the guess work.

    thats how i do for my 'big' recipes.

    for a normal size dinner i use the recipe builder and set the servings (usually 4-6, depending on what it is) and enter what i eat (.5, 1, whatever)

Categories