home cooked meals are hard to log :(

havalinaaa
havalinaaa Posts: 333 Member
edited October 3 in Food and Nutrition
Any tips out there for how to figure out made-from-scratch meals? I make nearly all of my own meals, and often make the individual components (like making gnocchi, bread, etc). I find myself guesstimating and being left really unsure of my actual calorie count, not to mention protein/carb/fat makeup.

Replies

  • choconuts
    choconuts Posts: 208 Member
    Subscribing.

    I'm curious to read suggestions.

    I currently input all ingredients into the recipe builder, and divide by how many portions.
  • radicalreader
    radicalreader Posts: 207 Member
    Under the food tab is a recipe sub-tab.
    You can enter the ingredients of your recipe and then decide how many servings. It does all the math for you.
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
    theres a Recipe section under food - you can enter everything you put into the made from scratch stuff, and it will calculate it :) you can save it and use it when ever.
    i use this feature all the time! the only thing is i have 2 pages of recipes.... i know i added more than that but there seems to be either a limit or a glitch >.>
  • mai_ngo216
    mai_ngo216 Posts: 4 Member
    Do you use the my recipe option? You can create your own recipe and add ingredients which will calculate the calories per serving for you. Hope that helps. :-)
  • sandrabutterfly
    sandrabutterfly Posts: 14
    http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
    Use this website...it is much easier :)
  • Romans624
    Romans624 Posts: 822
    I have this difficulty when something includes a sauce. I'm thinking of getting multiple "serving" containers that I can use to divide the food and sauce if applicable into equal containers - that's one way. I can also total the amounts for ingredients in the sauce, divide the sauce by that # of servings... if you dont eat all the sauce then my bet is you would have to guesstimate (on the conservative side) the caloric difference.)
  • cramernh
    cramernh Posts: 3,335 Member
    Any tips out there for how to figure out made-from-scratch meals? I make nearly all of my own meals, and often make the individual components (like making gnocchi, bread, etc). I find myself guesstimating and being left really unsure of my actual calorie count, not to mention protein/carb/fat makeup.

    Like the others have mentioned, the recipe-section here allows you to enter in your own recipes.. its really very easy...
  • Romans624
    Romans624 Posts: 822
    Well looking at what everyone else said... I'm happy you asked :)
  • EDesq
    EDesq Posts: 1,527 Member
    Any tips out there for how to figure out made-from-scratch meals? I make nearly all of my own meals, and often make the individual components (like making gnocchi, bread, etc). I find myself guesstimating and being left really unsure of my actual calorie count, not to mention protein/carb/fat makeup.

    Use the Recipe Calculator. I actually find that homemade meals are EASY to log because of it.
  • d2footballJRC
    d2footballJRC Posts: 2,684 Member
    recipe builder is the easiest way to be accurate. I use a food scale though for a lot of my stuff as well. If I didn't use recipe builder I just put each item in separately.

    I cook a lot of hungry girl meals now, those give you the calories on the cooking book page.
  • Megan2Project
    Megan2Project Posts: 351 Member
    Recipe option, AND measure all your ingredients :)
  • Real_Cool_Hand
    Real_Cool_Hand Posts: 58
    Yeh just input all your ingredients, its kind of a pain but its worth it. And divide the portions up first and put away leftovers ahead of time.
  • havalinaaa
    havalinaaa Posts: 333 Member
    I feel like a moron, thanks everyone! I will definitely use the recipe builder!
  • Rilke
    Rilke Posts: 1,201 Member
    I feel like a moron, thanks everyone! I will definitely use the recipe builder!

    Haha, don't feel like a moron -- just feel grateful! I love the recipe builder.
  • dryfli
    dryfli Posts: 39 Member
    i use the recipe builder and put in exact amts of the ingredients. to figure out portions, i weight the entire pot of food on a food scale, subtract out the weight of the pot. that tells me how many ounces the food is. then i portion out what i consider to be "one portion". i weigh that, then divide by the total weight to find out how many portions are in the pot. for soups, i portion everything in 1 cup sizes and weigh this, then do the division. tedious yes, but weighing stuff is the easiest way to really figure out the portions of something and be accurate.
  • kr3851
    kr3851 Posts: 994 Member
    I have this difficulty when something includes a sauce. I'm thinking of getting multiple "serving" containers that I can use to divide the food and sauce if applicable into equal containers - that's one way. I can also total the amounts for ingredients in the sauce, divide the sauce by that # of servings... if you dont eat all the sauce then my bet is you would have to guesstimate (on the conservative side) the caloric difference.)

    Something someone else suggested on another thread was to 'build' your sauce as a recipe, then once you have your nutritional info, add it as a food in the database (perhaps as a single serve), and then you can use it as an ingredient in other recipes - seeing as at the moment you can't use one recipe inside another.
  • havalinaaa
    havalinaaa Posts: 333 Member
    now that sounds like a good idea!
    I have this difficulty when something includes a sauce. I'm thinking of getting multiple "serving" containers that I can use to divide the food and sauce if applicable into equal containers - that's one way. I can also total the amounts for ingredients in the sauce, divide the sauce by that # of servings... if you dont eat all the sauce then my bet is you would have to guesstimate (on the conservative side) the caloric difference.)

    Something someone else suggested on another thread was to 'build' your sauce as a recipe, then once you have your nutritional info, add it as a food in the database (perhaps as a single serve), and then you can use it as an ingredient in other recipes - seeing as at the moment you can't use one recipe inside another.
  • havalinaaa
    havalinaaa Posts: 333 Member
    I will never do this. I weigh things when I bake but that's because I need to to get good baked goods. I ENJOY cooking. I don't enjoy spending an extra 30 minutes preparing it due to weighing. Not to knock what you do, but I just know that personally this isn't something I am ever going to do. I'm ok with a little wiggle room in my caloric intake for guesstimation errors.

    i use the recipe builder and put in exact amts of the ingredients. to figure out portions, i weight the entire pot of food on a food scale, subtract out the weight of the pot. that tells me how many ounces the food is. then i portion out what i consider to be "one portion". i weigh that, then divide by the total weight to find out how many portions are in the pot. for soups, i portion everything in 1 cup sizes and weigh this, then do the division. tedious yes, but weighing stuff is the easiest way to really figure out the portions of something and be accurate.
  • mariapuhl
    mariapuhl Posts: 529 Member
    I think home cooked meals are the easiest to log because I know exactly what goes in them. I dread when I go out to eat and don't know if the chef at this restaurant puts a little extra butter or a little extra whatever or makes the portion a little bigger, etc. And at non-chain restaurants, then I have ZERO guide at all for what goes into it.

    Home cooked meals just takes once in the recipe builder and that's it. Fabulous.
  • latysh
    latysh Posts: 29
    Do you log in RAW ingredients ?
    I made meat loaf yesterday and need to figure out how much calories is in it. Its 50/50 ground pork and beef so do I log in RAW pork and RAW beef amounts that I have measured before cooking or go off the already cooked entire thing ?
    PLEASE HELP!
  • caroldot
    caroldot Posts: 388 Member
    Use the recipe builder. For those meals that I cook on a regular basis (like alot of crockpot recipes). I enter all the ingredients which is not a problem becuase most everything is already in the system and then create my own. But I don't share on the community recipe tracker since its my own personal I don't feel the need. So it just saves under my personal recipes and then its there to add whenever I need it.
  • Michele7091
    Michele7091 Posts: 256 Member
    Subscribing.

    I'm curious to read suggestions.

    I currently input all ingredients into the recipe builder, and divide by how many portions.

    I do the same. And then you only have to scan/enter everything once because the next time you make it, its already saved in there. Soup is a pain for me because I have to count the number of ladles (or cups) to determine the serving size but once I make it one time I don't have to worry about it anymore.
  • AFabulous50
    AFabulous50 Posts: 36 Member
    bump
  • 9jenn9
    9jenn9 Posts: 309 Member
    Over the years, I've collected a lot of recipes. Many of them are from my mom or from older cookbooks (before the days when nutritional info was included.) I use a web site called Spark Recipes. It has a recipe calculator that's easy to use. Then I add the info to "My Foods" on mfp and never have to bother with it again.
  • latysh
    latysh Posts: 29
    So anyone knows if i should add RAW serving sizes or cooked please help!!!
  • greeneyes191
    greeneyes191 Posts: 78 Member
    I sometimes use the recipe builder for my whole dinner plate. For example, I had a chicken breast, med sweet potato and 2/3 cup of corn for dinner. I entered it as a recipe and it was then easy to just add to my food diary. Then if I have the same meal again I don't have to try and figure out what each item is individually. Can you tell I'm a creature of habit??
  • nakmom
    nakmom Posts: 6 Member
    http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
    Use this website...it is much easier :)

    That is awesome! Thank you!
  • oKathryno
    oKathryno Posts: 4
    Bump
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
    So anyone knows if i should add RAW serving sizes or cooked please help!!!
    i would use the raw serving sizes - 4 oz of coooked is more than 4 oz raw, and since you arent adding cooked meat to the meatloaf the calories wouldnt be the same if you used the cooked portion size.
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