[palmettostar]

So I'm having a bit of trouble understanding how to convert homemade recipes into the proper point values. I want to make spaghetti sometime this week using the following ingredients:

- 1lb 95% lean meat, cooked = 18pts
- Hunt’s Spaghetti Sauce, Garlic & Herb = 1pt for 1/2 cup (2pts = 1cup)
- 2 cans diced tomatoes = 0pts
- Whole Wheat Spaghetti Noodles = 4pts for 1 cup
Total = 23pts / 4 servings = 7pts (according to recipe builder)

We use 1lb of meat in order to have it has leftovers for another meal. I used the values I got out of E-Tools. The Hunt's Sauce I scanned using my smartphone and it came up 1pt for 1/2cup serving. The Noodles I also took from E-tools which is 4pts for 1 cup of noodles.

Now here is where I am confused, the servings! If I want to eat 1cup of noodles with 1cup of sauce, is it 7pts? Assuming a serving = 1c sauce & 1c noodles?

Or would you calculate things separately, so for instant the sauce would be 20pts / 4 servings = 5pts (with a serving being 1c) and 1c of noodles = 4 pts, thus making the whole dinner 9pts?

I'm so confused! Hope someone can help! I'm very new!

[mammasita]

Do you subscribe to WW on line? On the website (also an iPad/iPhone app) you can enter your entire recipe. As for the servings, I estimate based on reccomended serving sizes.

For example, you're using 1lb of ground beef, if you use 4oz beef per serving, then I would say you have 4 servings. I think it also depends on if you serve everything separately with everyone constructing their ingriedents on their plates themselves or if you mix everything together like a goulash and then serve.

Personally I like to let everyone put their plate together themselves, that way I can weigh/measure my portions while enjoying the same food others are eating.

[palmettostar]

When I put everything into the Recipe Builder on E-Tools (online), it says 7pts with a serving size of 4. Normally, we mix everything today minus the noodles - the meat, sauce and tomatoes with spices we use goes into together and cooks. Then we spoon the noodles and put the meat on top.

[Munchy]

The easiest way to do it is to weigh the entire meal (don't forget to subtract the weight of your pot/pan) and divide it by number of servings. That way you know exactly how much one serving would be and you can serve just that into your bowl.

Since I do a lot of pre-cooking and freezing of meals, I tend to separate the dish into 4-6 servings (or whatever a number of servings a recipe indicates).

Or if I'm creating my own recipe, I'd calculate the amount needed for an entire dish (ie, 2oz of dried pasta per serving, or 1/2 cup of cooked rice per serving, 3-4oz of meat per serving, etc) and since I like to eat volume, I just make sure that half of my plate is comprised of vegetables. I do this by incorporating vegetables 50:50 into my dishes or just having a few vegetable sides served with my meals.

[Aromyn]

You can go to caloriecounter.com, type in the ingredients and serving sizes, then convert that info into the points plus calculator. Thats what I've been doing. Plus the app says that Spag. is like 12 points or something like that, for not that much, which is depressing to this Italian-American!

[Munchy]

Originally Posted by Aromyn

You can go to caloriecounter.com, type in the ingredients and serving sizes, then convert that info into the points plus calculator. Thats what I've been doing. Plus the app says that Spag. is like 12 points or something like that, for not that much, which is depressing to this Italian-American!

I often make my 2oz of dried pasta, and saute onions, peppers, mushrooms, spinach, and add that to the pasta with sauce. Sometimes I can't even finish it because it's just so much volume.