Stupid cooking question

mute
on 9/9/15 3:19 pm
RNY on 03/23/15

I hate cooking in general - my husband has always been the cook. I've been cooking more often and the recipes I've been using don't have the servings on them and to put them into MFP I have to figure out the servings.

I weigh all of my own servings when I eat but I've never had to figure out the actual servings for an entire recipe before and it's driving me insane. How do I do this? My husband says to weigh the food after it's cooked and then divide by the ounces of what I will eat in a serving. That doesn't seem right to me. But I don't know how to do it so...

Melinda

HW: 377 SW: 362 CW:131

TOTAL LOSS: 249 pounds

Cicerogirl, The PhD
Version

on 9/9/15 3:56 pm - OH

Yes, you would need to either do as your husband suggests or -- if it is a casserole type dish where you could cut it into portions -- you could cut it (or partially cut it) into equal portions andthen subdivide one of the portions as necessary to then determine what percentage of the overall calories, etc. you ahev eaten. For example, if it is a casserole, mark the top into 4 (or 6 or 8) segments, and then if you eat half of one of those segments then you know you have eaten 1/8 (or 1/12 or 1/16) of the total.

(I am assuming that you have nutritional stats for the dish as a whole.)

Lora

14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained

You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.

mute
on 9/9/15 4:01 pm
RNY on 03/23/15

No, I don't have the nutritional stats, that's why I need the servings. Because in MFP I have to put in the amount of servings, then the ingredients and the amount of ingredients and then I get the nutritional stats. 

The recipes I'm using are coming from sites like eggface where I've had good luck with all of the recipes, not gotten sick, and been good for WLS so I'm not concerned with that. It's just the servings that I have to figure out to work backwards.

Cicerogirl, The PhD
Version

on 9/9/15 7:47 pm - OH

So you are going to have to do all the individual components of the dish separately to determine the nutritional stats for the entire dish and then determine (via either method) what percentage of it you ate.

This is just one of that reasons that I stuck to simple, 2-3 ingredient meals for the first year post-op... That is way too much freaking work!

14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained

You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.

mute
on 9/10/15 8:51 am
RNY on 03/23/15

It is really freaking complicated and it's making me hate cooking, which I already did so this isn't helping matters.

H.A.L.A B.
on 9/9/15 3:58 pm

"My husband says to weigh the food after it's cooked and then divide by the ounces of what I will eat in a serving. "

that sounds about right.. how I do it anyway.  

I woudl add all - then after it is done I weigh it or measure volume (if it is sauce). 

if the final recipe has 20 oz (weight or volume) then I can go to MFP (on the website - not an app) and edit the recipe - entering  20 servings x 1 oz each.  So the next day or next time I eat that - I record how many oz I ate. 

 

Hala. RNY 5/14/2008; Happy At Goal =HAG

"I can eat or do anything I want to - as long as I am willing to deal with the consequences"

"Failure is not falling down, It is not getting up once you fell... So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again...."

mute
on 9/9/15 4:09 pm
RNY on 03/23/15

Well that makes me feel a bit better because I was sure we were doing it wrong and that my calories/protein were all off for the last month or two.

Plus I didn't even know I could go to MFP on a website lol, I always use the app. That would be much easier for a recipe. Thanks for that!

H.A.L.A B.
on 9/9/15 4:32 pm

I add my stuff in app on my phone- it has barcode - so any items with a barcodo - it is so easy to add.. 

then if I want to modify anything - I log on real website site and modify my recipe. 

The website allows me also to modify my proteins - fat and calorie intakes.. (by %) and allows me to modify how many meals - snacks I count and what is displayed ion my nutritional values (i.e. in my app I show my fiber - and even though I don't discount fiber as empty calories - fiber from nuts and veggies - even my supper carb resistant body can't digest at 100%. 

But not enough fiber - i have a problem.. and too much fiber- and I have a HUGE problem...IYKWIM 

Hala. RNY 5/14/2008; Happy At Goal =HAG

"I can eat or do anything I want to - as long as I am willing to deal with the consequences"

"Failure is not falling down, It is not getting up once you fell... So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again...."

NinaCanDOit
on 9/9/15 4:27 pm
RNY on 06/27/14

This may be the long way around, but there are websites like Sparkpeople that let you enter recipes and then they can give you all of the nutritional information.  I make a lot of things from scratch (like marinara sauce, chili...) and so I entered all of the ingredients, then measured how much each batch made and from that got serving info and all of the nutritional info too.

Once that was done I entered it on MFP under meals, and now it knows them.  So when I go to freeze leftovers of whatever, I just measure it out in the serving size and its easy. 

HW - 392 * CW - 200 * * * Lost - 192, To Goal - 40

"almost there,...keep going,...stay focused,...eyes on the prize" - the guy at my gym

Sarahakers11
on 9/10/15 7:00 am - Culpeper, VA
RNY on 06/04/13 with

Ona  slightly related (just putting it out there) I am quite a bit farther out then you but I was also not much of a cook. Then got some allergies that made it even harder.  I can pretty much eat most normal food now as long as its not what I am allergic to :).  I started using home chef.... I started with Blue apron. would choose my meals and it sent me all the ingredients so I could learn to cook without trying to find more rare ingredients and without the waste (needing only 1 tsp of a sauce and buying the whole jar I would never use for example)  I learned a great deal from blue apron on basic preparation and different types of foods. I now use home chef as I have more options and flexibility with low carb and low calorie and its a little more convenient but I think blue apron was better for those just learning to cook. I am very confident in my cooking ability now! I know I can make a healthy tasty meal out of what ever I have around and I have a huge selection of ideas for seasonal fresh veggies.  Its not inexpensive at 9.95 per serving so one meal is nearly 20.00 as it feeds 2 and they send 3 but it ended up being less then what I was spending on groceries.  Its just me most of the time so I typically ate 1/2 - 1 serving and the rest became lunch the next day.  Plus my BF also cooks them sometimes and he has learned a lot.  They have the calorie amounts on the recipe cards already for both services.    I was more addressing the "I hate to cook"  I did also but turns out I actually really like it. It was my basic confusion that was the issue...this service really helped!

HW - 297  start of Pre-op - 290.2   SW- 279.2   GW - 145    

    The Depressed Hiker Blog

A middle aged over the hump and over what "I'm suppose to do" woman, with the wild spirit and a nasty case of depression and anxiety!

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