[Lilbaby]

I found this recipe for Oatmeal Cookies online, I've made them a few time and I'm sure they are ALOT of calories is there anywhere online where I can find out how many calories are in this recipe?

This site I got the recipe from if you google "Best-ever Cowboy Cookies" it will be the first link "areyouseriousrecipes" is in the address (blog spot)


I follow everything on the recipe except I don't add anything to it they are just plain oatmeal cookies.

Thanks

[kaplods]

There are many online calorie counters. Calorie King is one, but there are others.

Calculating the calories in a recipe is fairly easy, requiring only the basic math skills you used in junior high - addition, multiplication, division and fractions.

What I do is calculate the calories for each ingredient for the amount listed (sometimes this requires a bit of math).

For example say the recipe calls for 3/4 of a cup of sugar. I just googled "calories sugar" and found that sugar has 774 calories per cup. 3/4 of sugar therefore has 580 calories (774 x 3/4). I write that down and go on to the next ingredient.

I add all the calories of each ingredient, so I have the calories for the whole recipe. Then I divide the total calories by how many servings I make from the recipe (in this recipe, the number of cookies you make from the batch).

It's time consuming, but it's the only way to do it.

[kaplods]

I found a recipe calorie calculator that looks like it will do the calculations for you

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp

[Priscatip]

I got 307 calories per cookie if you get 2 dozen cookies out of the recipe. You could definitely cut down on butter (2 sticks!) to make it a healthier recipe. I put it into http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php to see the calorie count.

[FaithBW]

I have a related question. How do you figure out a serving size? Some recipes say "servings 4" etc. but then don't tell you how much a serving is.

[FaithBW]

I tried both of the links and I get vastly different calorie counts for the same recipes.

[BlueToBlue]

Originally Posted by FaithBW

I have a related question. How do you figure out a serving size? Some recipes say "servings 4" etc. but then don't tell you how much a serving is.

It depends on what it is. If it's a casserole-type dish, I just cut it into four equal pieces. If it's something I've made in my large skillet (e.g., a stir fry or some other mish mash of ingredients), I sort of spread it out evenly in the pan, then draw a line through the middle and another line through the middle that is perpendicular to the first line. Viola--four equal servings.

If it is soup, and we're only eating two servings now and saving two for another night, I just eyeball it, erring a little on the conservative side the first night. I figure that so long as our two servings are equal the first night and equal the second night (in other words, so long as I don't give myself a huge serving and my SO a tiny serving), the calories will average out to the right amount, even if one night's serving is a little larger than the next night's. If, I want to be a nut about it (and, don't get me wrong, sometimes I am nutty enough to do this), I'll get out two single serve tupperware containers and measure out equal portions of soup into our two bowls and the two tupperware containers. If I'm really being a nut, I'll use four tupperware containers that are exactly the same and actually weigh each one (in grams even).