Logging homemade foods?

makinemjellis
makinemjellis Posts: 91 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi all. I've gotten really into making my own sourdough and yogurt and various other foods but I'm not sure how to log them? Should I find something comparable or do I need to create a recipe for each thing I'm making? If I create a recipe, how do I log the starter for the sourdough and yogurt?

I've stopped tracking my food as often because of this and while I'm not super concerned, every now and again I like to track my intake to see where I'm at. Any help is appreciated :)

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    I create a recipe for everything I prepare at home. If it's something I'm not sure how to track, I'll sometimes each online to see how other people are doing it or make my best estimate as to calories (for starter, I think most of your calories are going to come from the flour involved, so I would base my estimate on that).
  • ltlemermaid
    ltlemermaid Posts: 637 Member
    If you enter a recipe in for the starter--track the total amount made you will have the starter total calories. then when you use the starter add that amount-all or portion into the recipe of what you are making , but I agree iwth the post above for bread most of the calories are going to come from the flour
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,069 Member
    As @janejellyroll says, I create a recipe for most of the complex-content stuff I make at home (e.g., more than a few trackable ingredients).

    For my breads, I don't track yeast typically (right now, I'm using a case of instant yeast packets I was able to scrounge in the March 2020 Great Grocery Buying Panic, LOL, and they are labelled "0" calories). I just checked, quickly, before responding, and see estimates of 18-30 calories of dry yeast quantities as used in baking. Now, when I do my bread recipes for MFP, I declare 22 portions (slices) per recipe. So, we're looking at 1 or 2 cals per slice, from dry yeast (and yes, I know it multiplies for rising, and therefore there's more than when you started, but, really, how can you measure, LOL?). As to sourdough, much the same applies, I suppose, except the feed amounts you put in, which have conceivable amounts of calories. So, if you start with "n" cups or grams, feed it by "x" per week, use it 1/3-1/2 of content per loaf, you'd be able to do some math approximations. Or just pick a figure out of the air that is a reasonable average based on this type of exercise. Again, I did a quick online check, and the top two google results for "how many calories in sourdough starter?" were 432 per cup and 227.5 per cup, or about 10-20 per slice. As they say, "your results may vary." Thanks for the interesting question.

    Here's one of my bread MFP "recipes" for a 100% whole wheat (no AP or bread flour), molasses and whey-augmented loaf. I was asked elsewhere the other evening how much my slices weigh: I average about 8-10mm/slice and weighed one out at 30g (and I think that's heavy-ish as I am experimenting with 100% WW [which until recently was much more avail than breadflour] and working on the moisture content variables).

    915h61hn7slw.png
  • AlannaWulf
    AlannaWulf Posts: 25 Member
    I make recipes for everything I make and label it like "spaghetti 5-29-20". Then I'll make the servings the total amount of grams the finished dish is. That way I can easily determine how many calories for my portion.

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