Does anyone eat Indian food here???

Hey guys,

I'm indian and it is soooo hard to count the calories in indian food! Half the time, the stuff isn't even labeled.  I work a lot so while I'm at work I eat very healthy because it's mostly american food but then I go home and make dinner and I can't keep my count.  I have lost 17 pounds since Feb and I need to lose 10 more pounds!!!

Hey there. I'm Indian as well, and I totally feel you on this issue! I'm good at keeping track of how/what I eat throughout the day, but for dinner, when I have to come home and eat my mom's cooking, there's just no way to measure! The only thing I've come up with is controlling portion size and trying to eat very very slowly, so I won't overeat.

What foods do you usually make? // Where in India are you from? :)

woohoo another indian lol... im from new delhi. im punjabi so our food is baaaad hahaha

last night i made aloo

1 aloo ( i looked up the calories and fat for that), Marinara sauce Fat free sour cream, 1 tablespoon of light whipping cream, cilantro, water and then i had it with bread which was about 120 calories and 2 grams of fat....

i had a bowl of it and there was still like 3 bowls left.

I'm not Indian, but I'm a vegetarian and someone was telling me to look up Indian recipes because I can eat a lot of good foods with vegetables with a lot of flavor.

Do you have any suggestions on where I could find fairly easy recipes and tell me what's good?

http://www.khanakhazana.com/

I like this website. Im not a vegetarian but I do make a lot of vegetarian indian food. The most basic dishes have the same type of curry. 

Fry the onions. Instead of using fresh tomatoes to make the sauce, I use to ready made spagetti sauce cus it has more flavor and its easier. So i usually get the garlic and herbs. So mix that with the onions. I usually add fat free sour cream and water. If you want a heavier sauce use milk instead of water. With this kind of sauce you can use for most hard veggies.

but just go to the website...they have some good stuff.. as long as u have the right spices...you'll be fine lol

Awesome! I'm half Punjabi. I am a fan of the traditional aloo-gobi myself...which seems like a pretty healthy dish, all things considered? Also, tandoori chicken is another lighter option (+ I <3 it!)

hello me an indian too..i have the same prob..how do i count the calories..so i have just started cutting down on portion

I am an Indian too! I usually write down all the ingredients down in the recipe analyser and get the calories in one serving! Works out pretty well!! I've lost 10lbs in two months which is good pace for me! I also try to control portion sizes!

I'm not Indian, but I love your food!  I cook it at home all the time. The way I keep track is, I put the recipe into the recipe analyzer and that way I can just add a serving to my food log. 

Here's an example - Spicy Chickpeas with Spinach and Tomatoes  It's not the most authentic dish, but it's very good.  I've found that some spices don't register on the recipe analyzer database, so I just mention them in the instructions.  They don't add calories anyway. 

I've been waiting for a thread like this! =)

I find it so hard to keep track of what I'm eating at dinner cos my mum cooks Indian food, I know that she makes it healthily cos she knows I won't eat it otherwise! but I'd still like to know how many calories I'm eating.

This is what I ate last night, how many calories do you think is in the meal?:

1/2 cup (cooked) brown dahl
a handful of sabji - made from frozen veg (peas, carrots, sweetcorn)
1 chapati, no butter

she makes it with the least amount of oil possible, standard tharka - tinned toms, onions and spices. I guessed around 350cals?

oh yeah and Khana Khazana comes on ZeeTV! haha I remember watching it at my Grans house when I was little =)

I LOVE INDIAN FOOD. However, since I am on the diet i simply don't eat it. I don't know how to cook it myself and the restaurants in NYC serve delicious food which I can only imagine is laden in hidden calories.

Hey all i'm indian too - i've just learned to put things in the recipe analyzer and then watch portion size! Indian food can be really healthy when made at home w/o butter and cream, but when you eat out it's SO BAD!

I second the recipe analyzer.  My hubby is Indian so I'm always making sambhars for his lunches - a lot of the curries will be high in calories unless you make low cal versions yourself (or your mom does).  I cook mainly South Indian dishes and I've noticed there are quite a few things that won't register in the analyzer, though - like toor dal or urad dal - so I know it's not spot on at times, but getting a general idea can still be helpful, especially when trying to change a recipe to be more healthy.

The hard thing is, I don't have a clue what they are talking about.  If I've never heard of the name of the food, how can I tell what is in it and if I'm going to like it?  Can you tell me some popular dish names and what they consist of?

Thanks!

If you're making your own dinner, why don't you use the recipe tool and add a new recipe every time to figure out the calories in the food? I wouldn't bother inputting the spices, but you can probably find all of the ingredients or input sensible substitutes. This is what I do for Sri Lankan food.

I have to say, I'm not sure I like the phrase "...while I'm at work I eat very healthy because it's mostly american food..." I think that Indian food and American food can be equally as healthy or unhealthy, depending on how it's made.

Hii im wondering if someone can help me find the calories of this indian food i like , on the label it says mataay(is that how u spell it?) and on another box its called bombay mix, and its like a mixture of nuts and other things ,kind of like trail mix but really spicy ,does anyone know how i can figure out the calories for that?

bengalis, can i get a woot woot?  :P

it all depends on how much oil is put into the curry, doesn't it?  onions and tomatoes and spices aren't much calories, but south indian curries are coconut based, and prbly have more calories.  so it all depends what goes in.  prblm is, indian mothers don't measure very well...it's just a bit of this and a touch of that...hard to figure out caloric intakes.

dal is amazing.  yellow dal is my friend and companion in life.  i would marry it if i could.  no joke...

happy eating :D

I'm 1/4 Bengali, wackywoman :D haha. You're totally right about the meaurements- whenever I ask my mom how much of each ingredient she puts into each dish, she always just answers something like "a reasonable amount" -basically, she just eyeballs everything and knows what is enough.

However, over the course of the past few years, I have convinced her to start being more health conscious with her cooking. Simple switches like using nonfat yogurt instead of whole, reducing the amount of oil and heavy cream and making more vegetable based stuff has really helped

Hi All..

Here's another indian in India with the same problem, like most of you, I just dont know how to keep track of my calorie intake. Can anyone please point me to recipe analyzer? I don't know where it is on the site?

Lets see if it works.

There's one more idea, as we all try to determine calories in certain Indian foods, we can post in this thread whatever we find, sharing our knowledge will help all of us save time.

My two cents worth.

Cheers!

Look up at the top of the page at the gray menu bar.  Recipes is on the right.  click on that and see the menu choice for New Recipe.

If you have trouble using it, post on the Recipes Forum, or PM me.