How much is a serving??
 

I have been looking on the 'net for healthy, low fat recipes, and since I am calorie counting, I look for how many calories are in a serving. Problem is, most of the recipes don't have a serving size! For example, I made stir-fry last night, which has 312 calories a serving, but how much is a serving?! Ahhhhhrrrg! Sooo stressful!:?:

The way I have worked this out in the past is after I cook the dish, if the recipe says "serves 6" I divide the dish up into 6 using plastic bowls or by actually dividing it up in the pan (only really works if you are cooking in a large wide pan).

Some sources say a serving is the size of your fist, some say it is 1 cup. I generally go by dividing the dish up into the number of servings the recipe says. It can be messy especially if the recipe says "serves 12" or something silly like that.

That's just stupid when a recipe doesn't tell you what a serving size is. I hate that too. It would definitely help by taking the guesswork out. But like Lynne said, just divide it up into how many servings the recipe says it makes and there ya go. Pain in the butt sometimes, but there's not much else we can do.

Another thing I do is if I make, say, a big pot of homemade vegetable soup is I count the calories for every ingredient I add. Like the calories for 1 cup of sliced carrot, the calories for 2 or 3 ribs of celery, etc. I write it all down on a piece of paper as I add the ingredients. Then I add it all up when I'm finished putting the soup together and it gives me the amount of calories that are in the entire pot. Then when the soup is done, I get a large bowl and 1-cup measure and dip into the pot of soup, counting how many times it takes me to go through the whole pot. For example, if my entire pot ingredients adds up to 2100 calories and it takes me 12 1-cup dips to go through the whole pot of soup, I then divide 2100 by 12 and that gives me the amount of calories per 1-cup serving.

I agree.. that really bugs me when a recipe tells me how many servings it makes, but neglects to tell me what the serving size is. Have you ever checked out the Joanna Lund cookbooks? Her recipes are all "healthy" and made from ingredients practically anyone can find in their local grocery store. Anyhow, her recipes normally are made in an 8 x 8 baking dish and serve four people. It makes it very easy to just cut (or spoon) the dish in half both ways. (My brain is not working right today so I hope I explained the cutting part right.) LOL

I've been looking for our marriage certificate because I forgot to change my last name on my car's registration. I found a copy on my computer, but not the actual. Thankfully I can get a new one next week for only $9. But where did I put the original??? Then... I leaned forward too far in my desk chair and the dang thing flipped! The next thing I knew, I was on the floor!! :dizzy:

Joanna's website is: www.healthyexchanges.com. All of her recipes contain nutrition information. Most libraries carry at least ONE of her cookbooks. My favorites are "Healthy Cooking for the Man in Mind" and the two she has for crockpot cooking. :)

Kimberly

I also divide up a recipe based on how many servings it says it makes. Most times, I'll halve the recipe from the start so I only make 6 servings (instead of 12) or 4 (instead of 8). Sometimes, if it's something really decadant I'll only make 2 servings so there's no chance for seconds at all!

This is a good site that I reference from time to time, also...

http://maxpages.com/bitseysez/food_servings

I do the same thing! Actually, I enter all the info in nutridiary (as a meal) and let it do all the work of calculating ALL the nutrition info. Once I have determined how many servings I have, I duplicate the first meal, using whatever percentage of the orginal meal each serving is and voila! All the data for each serving is ready to be logged.

Then, if there are any variations the next time I make the recipe, I just duplicate the original meal again and enter my new numbers. Makes keeping track very easy. If I'm not mistaken, creating meals like this isn't possible in fitday (though I may be wrong on that).