How to count the carbs when cooking?

[goin2befit]

My DH is Moroccan and they cook alot of dishes with the meat and veggies together, for example: Lamb with onion and tomato... You would use like 2lbs of lamb, 2 big onions, and 3-4 tomatoes... Once it is cooked you end up with meat and a delicious sauce. So how would I know how many carbs to count?

Another example: Just curious how it would affect me... Take 1lb of beef stew meat, 1 onion, green beans, carrots, and potatoes... again it is all cooked together... Now would I be able to eat the meat and green beans and just take out the carrots and potatoes (they are cut in big pieces) or would my green beans have more carbs b/c what they are cooked with?

I still feel my weight loss is going SSSSOOO much slower then it should be... even when I was pregnant and on a 1,800 calorie diet I was loosing quicker! I know it is not about speed but if you can find a better way/alternative and still be on plan, why not?

So I started thinking about what is different from now and when I did "atkins" before. It seems the veggies is the only thing different. I ate meat, fat, and cheese, and occasionally green beans (without onions) and that is really all.... Now I'm eating veggies all the time and the meat and fat, but still seem to be feeling it going so slow, plus I'm not feel the "energy" that I should be feeling.

I've thought about going with a real basic menu for some time and seeing if that changes things, like not eating the meat cooked with the veggies or avoiding onion and tomatoes for some time... My percentages are good...

Any Food for Thought?
Thanks in advance,
Amanda

[not2late]

Re: How to count the carbs when cooking?

My DH is Moroccan and they cook alot of dishes with the meat and veggies together, for example: Lamb with onion and tomato... You would use like 2lbs of lamb, 2 big onions, and 3-4 tomatoes... Once it is cooked you end up with meat and a delicious sauce. So how would I know how many carbs to count?

Another example: Just curious how it would affect me... Take 1lb of beef stew meat, 1 onion, green beans, carrots, and potatoes... again it is all cooked together... Now would I be able to eat the meat and green beans and just take out the carrots and potatoes (they are cut in big pieces) or would my green beans have more carbs b/c what they are cooked with?

I still feel my weight loss is going SSSSOOO much slower then it should be... even when I was pregnant and on a 1,800 calorie diet I was loosing quicker! I know it is not about speed but if you can find a better way/alternative and still be on plan, why not?

So I started thinking about what is different from now and when I did "atkins" before. It seems the veggies is the only thing different. I ate meat, fat, and cheese, and occasionally green beans (without onions) and that is really all.... Now I'm eating veggies all the time and the meat and fat, but still seem to be feeling it going so slow, plus I'm not feel the "energy" that I should be feeling.

I've thought about going with a real basic menu for some time and seeing if that changes things, like not eating the meat cooked with the veggies or avoiding onion and tomatoes for some time... My percentages are good...

Any Food for Thought?
Thanks in advance,
Amanda

I moved this to the Food-Chat Forum because you'll get more responses from the Foodies on ADBB.

To figure out carbs for a dish, you calculate how many carbs are in each of the ingredients you use. For example,

If the entire recipe has 1 cup of onion, 1 cup of tomato, 2 pounds lamb, 2 tablespoons mint leaves, 4 garlic cloves. You need to find the net carbs for each of these ingredients. Add them together. That will be the total net carbs for the entire recipe. Then you have to figure out how much the recipe made. For example, if the recipe makes 4 cups of stew and each serving is 1 cup, divide the total net carb amount by 4. That will give you the net carb per serving.

I cook similar to you: I use 2 tomatoes or 2 onions. But I will either weigh them or I will chop/slice and measure them.

Cooking green beans with potatoes and carrots won't give the green beans more carbs BUT the cooking liquid may have more carbs, especially if the potatoes begin to disintegrate into the cooking liquid.

As for your weight loss, review your menu. Re-measure everything and see exactly how much/many carbs you have been eating.

Veggies are good for you, but some veggies negatively affect weight loss in people. For example, I can't eat any dish that combines eggplant and tomatoes because that combination gives me cravings, which makes me eat more, which screws up my weight. However, I can eat eggplant and tomatoes by themselves or in combination with other veggies, just fine.

So review your menues.

[goin2befit]

Re: How to count the carbs when cooking?

Thanks so much Megs... so it isn't just in my head, there is so many different combinations of things that can cause cravings... and yes I believe the eggplant and tomatoes maybe one of mine... also there is a baked chicken recipe that you use chicken legs/thighs and cut up 1-2 onions and 2-3 tomatoes and bake it in the oven with a few spices, nothing else, it comes out like a BBQ chicken type dish with a thick BBQ sauce. I have noticed every time I eat this I always still feel "hungry"! Obviously after eating a leg and thigh and salad one should not be hungry. Even if I don't eat the sauce and just take the chicken (the flavor) it seems makes it that way.

I really do think I need to kinda go basic and then start cooking it all together and see what is really going on, for sure there must be some little things like this that is making it harder.

O and thanks for moving this tread, I had totally forgot about the cooking section.

[mizski]

Re: How to count the carbs when cooking?

I find it difficult to be precise when making recipes. Sometimes I use Megs method and sometimes I'll put all the raw ingredients into FitDay and make a custom food.

I've also noticed that some recipes leave me less satisfied (full) than if I had just the meat and separate veggies. I wonder if, in some cases, it is the added spices? It's something I keep watching.

Oh, another thing I've noticed is that with certain recipes (soups for instance)...say the recipe makes 4 servings...I'm probably not getting EXACTLY 1/4 of all those ingredients so my carb counts are not that precise. That's why I try to leave a little wiggle room carb-wise with my menu planning.

[goin2befit]

Re: How to count the carbs when cooking?

I've also noticed that some recipes leave me less satisfied (full) than if I had just the meat and separate veggies. I wonder if, in some cases, it is the added spices? It's something I keep watching.

Hmm That is another good point. Last time to this time I eat so much spices... A typical dish has atleast 3-4 spices and as many as 9 or more I guess. Basic would be salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika... could also be more like salt, pepper, cumin, ginger, oregano, paprika, and some garlic and herb seasoning... so I'm very flavorable! We also us smin which is like a soured butter as far as I understand I can only get it from Morocco.

I really think next week I'm going to simplify my menu and see what happens. Maybe make up some spinach omelet and a cauliflower dish, and a squash dish, a pot of green beans, and then freeze them for me in individual containers... then just fry, bake, or grill my meat aside and see what happens, it can't hurt at this point. Then I can also just make up my salads each day.

[liv]

Re: How to count the carbs when cooking?

I think for me making sure I have the fat when I eat the veggies is important - protein just does not do the trick. Tomatoes are borderline for me - they are so sweet but combined with I do fine with them.

[KatieFrank]

Re: How to count the carbs when cooking?

I find it difficult to be precise when making recipes. Sometimes I use Megs method and sometimes I'll put all the raw ingredients into FitDay and make a custom food.

I've also noticed that some recipes leave me less satisfied (full) than if I had just the meat and separate veggies. I wonder if, in some cases, it is the added spices? It's something I keep watching.

Oh, another thing I've noticed is that with certain recipes (soups for instance)...say the recipe makes 4 servings...I'm probably not getting EXACTLY 1/4 of all those ingredients so my carb counts are not that precise. That's why I try to leave a little wiggle room carb-wise with my menu planning.

I like to use recipes that have the calories and carbs spelled out for me. I have worked with Pampered Chef and they have a pretty large recipe database. The BEST part is that most of their recipes have this nutritional information written out for you. I could spend hours carousing this database. Here is an example:

Egg Salad : The Pampered Chef, Ltd.