Cooking Food in Bulk

I been contemplating the idea of making a lot of food at once and pre portion everything in different tupperware bowls or whatever for the sake of making my nutrition easier on me while trying to bulk but I keep hitting a stop.

Everybody already eats eggs, chicken, fish, steak… all of this is really easy to cook in bulk for later consumption, and so is carbs such as rice, potatoes and what not.

What happens to the more unconventional food that are impossible to guesstimate the macros in a serving ( at least to my knowledge ).

For exemple, a Chili bean.

Dump in a cooking pot
-1 salsa jar
-red beans
-black beans
-2 pounds of ground beef
-spaghetti sauce
-veggies

If I ever wanted to break away from the usual steak rice asparagus or steak potato asparagus by doing some type of chili… How would you break down the chili? do you just avoid it for the sake of knowing 100% of the macros coming in?(talking to those who really want to follow their diet on a strict line).

Same goes for pastas. I believe pastas are a great tool to bulking and that I could probably sub them in to replace potatoes or rice from time to time but the calorie value on pastas are always (or at least it is here) given for a dry portion of pasta. I guess I could portion pastas as they are dry and then cook up each portion one by one… but that kinda defeats the purpose of cooking in bulk, I want to cook everything in 30 minutes, not stay a the stove for 30 days

I think your making things more difficult than they have to be but if you insist…

You could determine the total macronutrient breakdown per total VOLUME of EACH individual ingredient added to the pot.

Add each one of these factors together and this will give you the entire macronutrient profile of the entire pot,or, all the ingredients combined.

Next…your going to have to establish a unit of measurement of volume for the entire pot.
I would suggest doing this in cups.

Next…whew ! lol…establish a unit of measurement per serving (also in cups).

Now…lets do the math… ex.) Chili

                                        1 jar salsa = A
                                        red beans  = B 
                                        black beans = C 
                                        2 lbs ground beef = D 
                                        spaghetti sauce = E 
                                        veggies = F 

                                  A + B + C + D + E + F = X 

                                  X = total macronutrient breakdown of entire dish/pot  
                               
                                  Y = total VOLUME of X (in cups)
                
                                  Z = VOLUME per serving of X ( 1 cup serving)

                                  X / Y = macronutrient breakdown per 1 cup serving 

                                  X / Y x Z = macronutrient breakdown per 1 cup serving    

There ya go…

[quote]butcherman7 wrote:
I think your making things more difficult than they have to be but if you insist…

You could determine the total macronutrient breakdown per total VOLUME of EACH individual ingredient added to the pot.

Add each one of these factors together and this will give you the entire macronutrient profile of the entire pot,or, all the ingredients combined.

Next…your going to have to establish a unit of measurement of volume for the entire pot.
I would suggest doing this in cups.

Next…whew ! lol…establish a unit of measurement per serving (also in cups).

Now…lets do the math… ex.) Chili

                                        1 jar salsa = A
                                        red beans  = B 
                                        black beans = C 
                                        2 lbs ground beef = D 
                                        spaghetti sauce = E 
                                        veggies = F 

                                  A + B + C + D + E + F = X 

                                  X = total macronutrient breakdown of entire dish/pot  
                               
                                  Y = total VOLUME of X (in cups)
                
                                  Z = VOLUME per serving of X ( 1 cup serving)

                                  X / Y = macronutrient breakdown per 1 cup serving 

                                  X / Y x Z = macronutrient breakdown per 1 cup serving    

There ya go…

[/quote]

Of course I could of done that.

Now, maybe I make it more difficult than needed as you say, but the reason I wouldn’t do it this way was because nobody tells me if the first cup I got contains more salsa and spaghetti sauce than actual beans or beef in it than say the third cup I’ll make.

There’s no way I can measure a cup of chili and then get a 2nd up with the exact same amounts in it, know what I mean?

Of course it’s not EXACT but you asked a question and i gave you an answer.

I would have to say either use that method or better yet…keep it simple

[quote]BruteWithGlutes wrote:
I been contemplating the idea of making a lot of food at once and pre portion everything in different tupperware bowls or whatever for the sake of making my nutrition easier on me while trying to bulk but I keep hitting a stop.

Everybody already eats eggs, chicken, fish, steak… all of this is really easy to cook in bulk for later consumption, and so is carbs such as rice, potatoes and what not.

What happens to the more unconventional food that are impossible to guesstimate the macros in a serving ( at least to my knowledge ).

For exemple, a Chili bean.

Dump in a cooking pot
-1 salsa jar
-red beans
-black beans
-2 pounds of ground beef
-spaghetti sauce
-veggies

If I ever wanted to break away from the usual steak rice asparagus or steak potato asparagus by doing some type of chili… How would you break down the chili? do you just avoid it for the sake of knowing 100% of the macros coming in?(talking to those who really want to follow their diet on a strict line).

Same goes for pastas. I believe pastas are a great tool to bulking and that I could probably sub them in to replace potatoes or rice from time to time but the calorie value on pastas are always (or at least it is here) given for a dry portion of pasta. I guess I could portion pastas as they are dry and then cook up each portion one by one… but that kinda defeats the purpose of cooking in bulk, I want to cook everything in 30 minutes, not stay a the stove for 30 days[/quote]

Math is hard.

Add up the content of all the ingredients and then measure the finished weight. Then you can know the calories per unit of weight. Just weigh each meal and multiply by your energy density ratio.

[quote]BruteWithGlutes wrote:

There’s no way I can measure a cup of chili and then get a 2nd up with the exact same amounts in it, know what I mean?[/quote]

Bodybuilding nutrition is not an exact science. Save your brain cells and just eat.

Buy a rice cooker

Unless your on a contest diet, it really wont matter that one serving is slightly different than the next because you’ll be consuming that chili over the course of the week anyway. All those macros in your belly.

Seriously this is a thread? Cooking in bulk is great. I can cook 2kg chicken/beef mince whatever in one go and that will last be for probably 6-8 meals depending on how hungry I’m feeling when I cook.

Let’s say there is 400grams of protein in the chicken I have just cooked and split it into 8 meals, that is 400/8 = 50grams of protein per meal. Just do the same calculation with all the other macros with everything you have cooked in bulk and split it all out roughly into portions that you’re looking for.