Portion Sizes !!!

leni

I realised this last night!

I'd did 6 pieces of southern fried chicken, 4 half corn on the cobs, 2 potatoes of wedges and onions rings - FOR 2 OF US!:eek:

Needless to say, after a couple of wedges, 1 corn on the cob, one chicken piece - I was stuffed! and I sat there thinking, this would of fed a family of 4 easily!:o

My partner can eat like a horse though and if I did a HM quiche or lasagne, he'd pick at it until 8 hours later it was all gone! Now though, I make 2 smaller ones and as soon as it's cold, I freeze one of the lasagne! Never frozen the quiche though!

Sarahsaver

Handfuls are a good measure
Handful of protein, handful of carbs and 2 handfuls of veg or salad.

thriftlady_2

This is something I am trying to address too, not so much from a money saving pov but from a weight losing pov.

Apparently a serving of meat is about the size of a pack of playing cards, a serving of cheese the size of a small matchbox and servings of rice, pasta etc the size of your fist.

There's an interesting article on portion sizes in this month's Weight Watchers mag. One of the reasons we eat big portions is because food manufacturers and fast food restaurants serve big portions. I remember when bags of crisps were 25g, now they're 40g or bigger. Everything is bigger or in multipacks now.

Sarahsaver

Smaller plates work too - sometimes;)

joannasmum

We've been trying to do this recently.

I've discovered that DH is far more satisfied with his meal if he now has a main course plus some dessert.Quite often its just stewed fruit or yogurt but I think having something sweet at the end of a meal helps.

thriftlady_2

Sarahsaver wrote:

Smaller plates work too - sometimes;)

I tried this the other day, but ended up having seconds :rotfl:

lynsayjane

i was going to suggest the smaller plates idea too. if you have a big plate and small portions it looks half empty. i used to use big bowls that i bought seperate to my dinner service, but now i use the shallow ones from it and find it still fills me.

been trying to tell my folks this. mum actually buys bigger plates for my stepdad :eek: he wants to lose weight so i told her to 'drop' the big plates when she's washing them!

Icemaiden

wigginsmum wrote:

We tend to do a small portion of the meat/fish part (eg. as much as can be fitted into a cupped hand) and larger portions of pasta/rice/veg.

I tend to do this too. We also always follow with a pudding of some sort but this doesn't cost anything as is usually made with Free food that I've collected. My O/H has a manual job and does work long hours so needs filling up.

AussieLass

I tend to have a pudding after the main meal as well. We would have the average portions. Meat/chicken/fish etc is about the size of my palm with three or more veggies. DH gets the same portion plus a bit more.

You could try a soup, main & then dessert for filling up. Soup & dessert are usually cheaper than main meals so it would be money saving as well. Or stop being a piggy.

Kelinik

thriftlady wrote:

Apparently a serving of meat is about the size of a pack of playing cards, a serving of cheese the size of a small matchbox and servings of rice, pasta etc the size of your fist.

My 4 yr old eats that much - and she really doesn't have a big appetite - so what size playing cards are we talking about for an adult serving, those giant ones maybe?