How exactly do you calculate the calories in a serving of a meal you've cooked? It's probably a simple equation, but I'm not sure how to go about figuring this up.
For example, I am going to make some chili for supper tonight, and I was wondering how many calories would be in a 1 cup serving. Here is what I'm putting in my chili: 1 can of light red kindey beans (385 cal for the whole can); 1 can of petite diced tomatoes (175 for whole can); 20 oz ground turkey (220 cals per 4 oz); 1 can of diced tomatoes with mild green chilies (105 cals for whole can).
How many calories would be in a 1 cup serving of this? I didn't realize this at the store, but that turkey seems like it's kind of high in calories. Should I cut back on that, and maybe only put 1/2 - 3/4 of a pound?
Oops..forgot to add the ounces of those cans. The kidney beans are in a 15 oz can, the petite diced tomatoes are in a 28 oz can, and the diced tomatoes with green chilies are in a 14.5 oz can.
It gets tricky doesn't it?! Well, the whole recipe totals 1765 calories, and if you are like me, I try to keep my meals around 500 calories. So you get 3.5 servings out of that 1765 and I would just measure it that way. Hope that helped a little. (basically what i would do, is divide the meal in 3 equal parts with a half left over, if that makes sense. )
I do the same thing as guamvixen.
Your turkey does seem high in calories...you might double check the numbers. We eat extralean ground beef (96/4) instead of turkey and 4 oz of that only has 140 calories so 220 seems really high.
Hey you can also try bulking your recipe with vegetables. That way, you can eat more! I might try to bulk with onions--that would be easy. You could try dicing lots of fresh tomatoes into too--or going heavier on the chilis. But I have been known to put all kinds of things in my chili.
Thanks everyone! Now I will know how to do this in the future =)
And oh my gosh, I completely forgot about vegetables! I wanted to add celery, bell pepper, and onions as well. Can't believe I forgot about that!
I may go back to the store and get some lean ground beef. I'm a little disappointed with the turkey, I just assumed that since it was turkey, it would be low in calories. Oh well!
Okay, so here's what I did: I cut the turkey in half, so I only used 10 oz (~550 cals), 1 med vidalia onion, 1 green bell pepper, 4 stalks of celery, the kidney beans, the two cans of tomatoes, ~1 tsp of chili powder, ~1 tsp of cumin, a little salt, and some fresh ground pepper. I also added a can of water, because I like mine a little "wet." I've never had ground turkey, so I hope this is good!
For things like soups, since I make soup A LOT and often freeze it and I prefer to measure volume so I dont have to eat some precise amount each time.
I've taken my stock pot and using water figured out how many cups come up to certain points in the pot (I have a dedicated kitchen ruler and I know X inches deep = X cups) Fortunately it is a non flared pot so once you get past the curve at the bottom it is linear.
Wait to measure the volume until it is completely done cooking since some water may cook off.
Next time make sure you get extra lean turkey. That is only 120 calories for 4 oz. With the turkey you have you can trim some calories by draining it REALLY well after you brown it. It's just hard to measure how many calories you remove.
How do you calculate calories in a serving?
