Portion Sizes !!!

forsya · 30 March 2006 at 3:55PM

Hi everyone

I have a problem with getting my portion sizes right! I am only cooking for one and I know if I cook too much I can use it in something else, but I always just throw in so much rice or cook a handful of pasta, just guessing really and end up doing too much, I then of course eat to much!!

Does anyone have a simple guide to portion sizes that is easy to follow/remember, mainly for pasta, rice etc. in line with healthy eating please, don't want to be eating enough for 2!!

Many thanks for any help
xx

frosty · 30 March 2006 at 3:59PM

hello forsya,
I usually allow 2oz per person(dry weight)for pasta or rice,if I cook too much I just freeze it.

Heth_2 · 30 March 2006 at 4:01PM

I weigh pasta out to get the portion size right. On a sedentary day I'll do 60g for me and 75 for my husband. If we've been out walking all day anything up to 100g each.
I very rarely cook rice, but I think the packet says 50g each, so I would weigh that out as well. To use leftovers really effectively it's best if you cook a portion more and use it for lunch, rather than guessing your portions and eating most of what you have cooked!

forsya · 30 March 2006 at 4:01PM

Do you weigh it each time? Is there an easier mesurement like half a cup?

I guess I can weigh it out tonight and see how much it is!

Thanks!

Heth_2 · 30 March 2006 at 4:03PM

forsya wrote:

Do you weigh it each time? Is there an easier mesurement like half a cup?

I guess I can weigh it out tonight and see how much it is!

Thanks!

Try to weigh it, then see how much space it takes up in your cup/pan/mug/whatever. Things like that can vary loads in size anyway. Also different pasta shapes take up different amounts of space.

Smashing · 31 March 2006 at 12:01AM

Pasta I chuck in one mugful per person.
Rice 1/2 mug per person

kittiwoz · 31 March 2006 at 5:51AM

I use 1 mug of pasta and 1/3 mug of rice per person.

Burlesque_Babe · 31 March 2006 at 8:52AM

This is my next thing to focus on - I cook for two but always have tonnes and tonnes left over. The old me threw it all away, but I'm now freezing, AND cutting back on how much I cook, but I'm still cooking too much.

As an example, did SC chilli last night with rice and my OH had two big portions , but there's a huge dish of rice in the fridge along with a load of left over chilli. I'd already taken some leftover potato curry out of the freezer for my lunch, so it'll be leftover chilli for lunch tomorrow!

I look at what I cook now and think about how much I've reduced the amount, and then think about how much I used to cook - I think I was cooking for 6 each night!

Lucie_2 · 31 March 2006 at 9:00AM

My OH always used to joke that we had a phantom lodger, as I always seem to make enough food for 3! The extra portion is perfect for lunch the next day.
As a rough guide I do 2 handfuls of dry pasta or rice per person & it's about right.

recovering_spendaholic · 10 April 2006 at 12:09AM

I am really trying to cut back on my grocery expenditure. I have just done a freezer and larder inventory and have LOADS of food in, but yet I seem to always to be running to the supermarket spending loads of money I cannot afford on yet more food. I tend to need to go to the shop for milk and bread all the time.There is just me and two DD's - one of whom is 15 and eats enough for a small army. When my ex-husband lived here I used to cook masses of food because he was a semi-professional athlete and ate up to 6000 calories a day. Trouble was, so, sometimes did I because I got so used to giving him huge portions that I totally lost all sense of how much was enough.
I made a dinner tonight for the three of us - it was chicken breasts in gravy, with potatoes, carrots, brocolli, stuffing and yorkshire pudding. I used 4 chicken breasts and cubed them and there is approximately1/3 of the mixture left which I have put into the fridge. I also cooked a whole packet of Aunt Bessies stuffing balls, whole packet of aunti bessies yorkshire puddings, about 2lbs of potatoes, 250g carrots, 250g brocolli and about 200g of new potatoes. There is loads and loads left and I just know that it wil sit in the fridge until it gets thrown out. How much do you all spend in a week on groceries? I sometimes spend in excess of £100 (including petrol for people carrier and all cleaning materials and dog food) and I am desperate to reduce the amount I am spending. I read all Black Saturn's menus but my kids are the fussiest eaters and some of the things are just not worth making for them, although I would love them. Any ideas?

tipsychick · 10 April 2006 at 12:27AM

Did you really cook 2lbs of potatoes for you and your two daughters and new potatoes? That is a huge amount of potatoes! Hope you don't mind me saying, but you sound like you might be cooking for your ex still!

Between three adults (two female/one male), we had a whole roast chicken today (guess about 1.8kg), six-ish medium sized roast pots between us and stacks of brocoli, cabbage and cauliflower. Cooked the chicken with a lemon inside and rosemary and garlic and used all the juices to make "gravy". We were all ravenous and none of us could move afterwards!

Try buying a whole chicken. It's probably cheaper than four chicken breasts and you can do something with the leftovers the next day, even if it's just sandwiches for packed lunches, etc.

I don't normally bother with stuffing or yorkshires unless I'm doing roast beef and can be bothered to make my own - usually I can't. The problem with buying them in is it does work out quite expensive.

One tip I can pass on is don't reheat the roast potatoes in the microwave as they'll explode!

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Portion Sizes !!!

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