Homemade Vs bought

[Illbethereinaminute]

I've gone down the route or trying to reduce my UPFs so I'm doing things like making my own ham/pesto/stock/mayonnaise and as of today I'm attempting bread.

For brunch I had lean steak cooked in 2.5ml extra virgin olive oil and 5g real butter, poached eggs, rocket and a teaspoon of homemade pesto.

For dinner I'm making a chicken thigh traybake using homemade chicken stock (and probably one shop bought one) leeks, peas, onion, garlic, homemade ham and shop bought soft cheese and some cheddar.

I have no idea how to track calories for stuff like this though because a lot of it is just "a bit of this" and "a bit of this" I glazed my ham with sugar, honey and mustard but I've no idea how much of each I used, I just added a bit of everything in until it tasted how I wanted it. I did measure my pesto but there are roughly 100 calories in just 10g which means in 100g there are 1000 calories whereas shop bought there are only about 300.

My pesto is literally pine nuts, EVOO, proper parmesan, garlic and basil. Shop bought has way more ingredients like potato flakes and emulsifier.

My bread will no doubt also be highly calorific but it is only a mix of white and wholemeal flour, yeast, evoo, pinch of sugar and water.

I enjoy cooking and baking so I'm always finding new stuff to make but I'm also trying to lose weight! If one teaspoon of homemade mayo/pesto is twice the calories as a teaspoon as shop bought is it actually worth it?!

It might be worth reading Why We Eat (Too Much): The New Science of Appetite, by Andrew Jenkinson, it talks about how weight control isn't really calories in/calories out as the body changes its metabolic rate according to your circumstances and your diet.

I've been doing Zoe and found I lost weight by eating better quality food, loads more vegetables and legumes, less meat and more fish, avoiding processed food, eating more fibre and protein (and fat!) to flatten out glucose spikes and it turned my calorie counting on its head, I'd been avoiding too much olive oil or nuts for example. Eating more of the right things at breakfast and lunch, even though it was more on the calories side meant I wasn't snacking.

By the way, I don't think ham is ever going to be unprocessed, even if you were to cure it yourself!

Perhaps you might use less than if you use shop-bought as the flavour will be stronger for things like the pesto? You could also look for recipes that reduce calorie content too. Pesto is an oil based sauce with nuts and full fat cheese, it really ought to be calorific!

You can calorie track things if you weigh and measure all the ingredients. You should only have to do it once for each recipe even if it's a bit of a pain. You can keep track of what you add even if you are doing it to taste.

cooking From scratch definitely the way forward. Can I ask though do you always hot hot lunch and hot dinner? Think I’d make the bread but just have a sandwich for dinner as you’ve had the steak. Also thighs are super fatty.

Try Emma Fontanella easy Italian no knead recipe for the bread. Has an epic flavour to it. Even better for toast the next day.

good luck with your journey. I’m also on it 😭

I put it all in AI and then it works out the calories for me.

I make most things from scratch and I calorie count using an app called Cronometer, it’s really good for inputting your own recipes. Your pesto for example you can tell it everything going into the whole recipe, then weigh that, then when you have 20g or whatever of it it’ll just log that amount

You have to weigh and measure as you go and then work out the calories. Dont rely on AI to do this as if information is wrong on the internet it will give you the wrong information

I make all my own food and its labour intensive to make sure you work it out and then set out how many servings it does. I find its more expensive.

I also certainly dont eat less of it (or I dont find it prevents me wanting more of it at all, never have with home cooked food)

I keep a notebook when Im making something new, jot down what Im using as I go, then put the whole thing in MFP as a recipe and how many servings it does.

I find I have to triple check calorie amounts across a range of sources, many are american and use 'cups' or 'servings' which are next to useless.

Pesto can be anything from 300 to 600 cals 100g

Just use less oil or bulk it out with spinach/rocket etc.

I use a gammon, soak, boil, roast then slice. Less ingredients than the wafer thin shop bought.

As for the kids...sadly no they will not eat what I eat. I would absolutely love it if they did but they won't touch anything that I've made today. Even the chocolate cake I made yesterday is a no go. My husband won't eat it either so I am literally making everything for me.

I can't change him but I would love to change the kids but it's an ongoing battle and I have no idea how to win.

I think you're wrong on the 100g being 1000 calories - how are you working that out? But anyway much better having good quality homemade stuff!

Depends on my mood.

I had the (4oz) steak about 12.30 and my traybake will probably be around 8pm. Yesterday was a sandwich for dinner but I had shop bought ham and bread because I hadn't made my own.

Chicken thighs are fattier but they have no much more flavour than breast.

Exactly, even 100ml (100g give or take) of oil alone is only 800 cals!!!

Which is why double, triple quadruple check your entries and sources of calorie counts.

I have no idea, something breaded from the freezer no doubt.

I've tried and tried to change all of them, when the kids were babies I made everything from scratch starting from purees to just slightly blitzed down less salty meals. They've got worse as they've got older and I have no idea what to feed them because even the basics like a jacket potato, Mac and cheese or an omelette are a no go.

Yesterday I made 4 different meals, cooked the husband a pie from scratch with leftover chicken from the roast on Sunday, kids had freezer food and I just had the sandwich.

This is how I worked the pesto out.

I weighed it once I had scraped it out of my blender and got to 90g. So 10g per portion which is a couple of teaspoons=101 calories.

You need to add something else to bulk it out, those calcuations are correct but its the way you've made it. Way more nuts I would use and personally I would bulk out with veg. You'll then end up with double the amount so each serving of 10 would be half the calories (ish)

Why dont you just cook for yourself OP and leave OH to do his and their food?

I do 99% of the time but I needed to use up some leftover chicken so I made it into a pie for my husband because I was going to have garlic chicken breast and broccoli.

I have no idea, I've only been able to do a load of stuff because I'm off with the kids during half term.

I generally make my own food and my husband sorts his unless it's something he will also eat (steak, roast, straight up pie with no vegetables in it, homemade pizza) The kids we juggle between us, I do the proper cooking for them but options are limited, the only thing they will eat that I can make properly is homemade pizza, a roast and bolognese, everything else comes out of a packet.

I'm able to take on the bulk of the cooking because I work part time and I'm home by 4 at the latest usually so I can get a head start. I really enjoy cooking and cooking for people, what I hate is their refusal to eat half the stuff I make 😭

Am I beinh really thick? How does 90ml (should weigh about 90g) of olive oil plus 55g of basil and 10g of pine nuts end up only weighing 90g?

That is a very good point...I will reweigh!

Definitely 90g, just reweighed. That was 90g after I had had a teaspoon for breakfast and tried a bit as I went along making it.

My measurements were accurate apart from the basil, I didn't weigh it, just used 1.5ish bags.

This sort of thing does my head it, I would be driven mad by this!!

90ml of oil is around 80g in weight, then you have your basil 50g, 10g of nuts and 50g of cheese, how does it weigh 90g

Is there some sort of pesto parallel universe?!!

OP you are going to have to make it again for us. Sorry!!

Yes sorry OP but you must be wrong here!