Cookin’ at the Keyboard with Shelley

The entire month of January, it seems, was consumed with all the things I abandoned weeks ago, in the midst of the holiday frenzy. I was busy tackling those incomplete projects, such as, the last few Christmas cards, the boxes accumulating in the garage, the next page in the scrapbook album, and my intriguing discussion of ingredient conversions. If that last item doesn’t sound familiar, or intriguing, read the article in the December newsletter; it will bring you up to speed.

December’s discussion focused on conversions as related to weight and volume measures of ingredients. Conversions are also important when it comes to ingredients that aren’t easily purchased at the grocery store. Many of my recipes call for crumbled bacon or cooked and chopped chicken, neither of which I can buy off the shelf. I would prefer that the grocery report would tell me how many pounds of bacon or chicken to buy, instead of how many cups. These conversions take two steps to complete. Let’s start with the bacon.

Locate “Bacon” in the ingredient list.

Under the Packaging tab enter “Pound Package”.

Locate “Bacon, crumbled” in the ingredient list.

Under the Conversion tab, enter the following:

These entries tell the software that if the recipe calls for 1 cup of crumbled bacon, add ½ pound of bacon to my grocery list. If the recipe calls for 8 slices of crumbled bacon, I want to see ½ pound of bacon on my grocery list. If the recipe calls for 1 pound of crumbled bacon, put 1 pound of bacon on my grocery list. No matter how the ingredient appears on my recipe, the software will do all the calculating, and tell me how many pounds of bacon to buy.

When it comes to cooked and chopped chicken, I prefer to buy chicken breasts.

Here are the entries to make for the conversion:

Locate “Chicken Breasts” in the ingredient list.

Under the Packaging tab enter “Pound Package”.

Locate “Chicken, cooked and chopped” in the ingredient list.

Under the Conversion tab, enter the following:

If a recipe calls for 2 cups of cooked, chopped chicken, then the grocery report will tell me to buy 1½  pounds of chicken breasts. Otherwise, a pound of cooked chicken will equal a pound of raw chicken.

Locate “Onion” in the ingredient list.

Under the Packaging tab enter “Each”.

Locate “Onion, chopped” in the ingredient list.

Under the Conversion tab, enter the following:

You can adjust the conversions based on the size of onions that you usually buy. Larger onions might yield more than a cup of chopped onion, while smaller onions might yield less.

When it comes to shredded cheese, I prefer to buy the cheese and shred it myself. If you buy cheese already shredded, the following conversion is not necessary.

Locate “Cheddar Cheese” in the ingredient list.

Under the Packaging tab enter as many varieties of packaging as desired,

e.g. “Pound Package”, “2 Pound Package”, “5 Pound Package”

Locate “Cheddar Cheese, shredded” in the ingredient list.

Under the Conversion tab, enter the following:

Again, you can adjust the conversion based on your preference (e.g. 1 cup of shredded cheese = 3 oz. cheese).

Whenever I find something on my grocery list that makes me stop and think about how much of that ingredient I need to purchase, I take the time to add a conversion. A little bit of “brain work” at the computer saves me the frustration of “guessing” at the grocery store.

Well, I think that’s all I can say about ingredient conversions. It must be time to fix the hem that’s coming out of my black skirt.

If you haven’t tried our Advantage Cooking software, click here for a 30 day free trial or to order your own copy.