Measuring Vegetables

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dreamer0219
dreamer0219 Posts: 16 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How do you measure your vegetables? Do you use a scale and go by ounces or do you use measuring cups? One of the major ones I'm trying to figure out is romaine lettuce. There's a really big difference in cramming lettuce into a measuring cup versus weighing 8 ounces on the scale. So how do you know which is right? What about broccoli?

Any information would be appreciated.

Cynthia
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Replies

  • samrybarczyk
    samrybarczyk Posts: 32 Member
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    I use my scale and I also do water displacement. With water displacement, you would fill up a liquid measuring cup to lets say 1 cup, then put your fruits or veggies in until it reaches your desired amount, so if it's a 1/2 cup you would go up to 1 1/2 cups. Obviously this works better on denser fruits and veggies. :smile:
  • Longtobeslim
    Longtobeslim Posts: 67 Member
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    I measure by the cup. When I buy romaine lettuce in a bag it always usually says so many calories for so many cups of lettuce.

    I measure the majority of my veggies that way. Once in a while I weigh them, but mostly its by the cup.

    Erin
  • s1lence
    s1lence Posts: 493
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    Personally I go by measuring cup. I don't have a scale. I'll start with whatever I'm working with, like a carrot- cut it up and put it in the cup. When I go to log it I select the whole item and select chopped however much it was.
  • thilyer
    thilyer Posts: 32 Member
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    Usually for lettuce I use my food scale.
  • cheshirequeen
    cheshirequeen Posts: 1,324 Member
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    most veggies i dont use. my bag of broccoli has 150 calories for the whole thing so the calories wont make or break if im off some.
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
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    I use the scale for everything :]
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
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    I use the scale for everything :]

    ^ This.
  • scoob1983
    scoob1983 Posts: 18 Member
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    I use a scale. With leafy vegetables the calories are so low, and I am trying to get macro nutrients up. Without the scale, I would measure less for leafy vegetables. Also without the scale I'd measure more for foods that I like to eat.
  • Elizabeth_C34
    Elizabeth_C34 Posts: 6,376 Member
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    Use the scale. Volume-to-weight measurements can be off depending how much you stuff into the cup.
  • SmartAlec03211988
    SmartAlec03211988 Posts: 1,896 Member
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    I weigh everything.
  • Josephina57
    Josephina57 Posts: 170 Member
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    I use the scale for everything :]

    ditto, much more accurate.
  • Nopedotjpeg
    Nopedotjpeg Posts: 1,806 Member
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    A cup is only 8 oz. for liquids.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    I use a scale and measure almost everything in grams. The grams are almost always listed on the nutritional content labels for everything alongside the volumetric measurement (cups).
  • Nopedotjpeg
    Nopedotjpeg Posts: 1,806 Member
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    And usually for lettuce, idgaf. I just estimate a salad is 1.5-3 cups.
  • mbajrami
    mbajrami Posts: 636 Member
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    Scale. Even if it gives serving sized by cup, I find it almost always gives it in grams also, so I set the scale for grams and weigh that way.
  • Laces_0ut
    Laces_0ut Posts: 3,750 Member
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    weigh everything in grams.
  • hbm616
    hbm616 Posts: 377 Member
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    I've begun trying to weigh everything. I use to eye-ball my lettuce but after weighing I realized how far I was off!
  • 77tes
    77tes Posts: 7,979 Member
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    I love my cool scale, so I weigh almost everything. It's really a postal scale, but it weigh in ounces or grams with just the push of a buttton. I also like playing with it a lot.
  • CharlieBarleyMom
    CharlieBarleyMom Posts: 727 Member
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    scale on everything. Even so far as taking someone else's recipe, filling a Tbsp. of something and weighing that amount in grams so that I can accurately log it. If you just say "1 cup" of raisins, maybe that is a loose cup or a really packed down cup... but this way I know exactly... and I know for the next time I make the recipe EXACTLY how much I used. This is great for baking.
  • AZKristi
    AZKristi Posts: 1,801 Member
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    I estimate based on weight by dividing the total weight purchased by the number of units purchased. So if 4 apples weighs 2 lbs, each apple weighs 8 ounces.

    For spinach, I buy a tub that contains four 2cup servings. I separate this into 4 containers at the beginning of the week so that I know each salad has approx 2 cups of spinach.

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