Portion Sizes !!!

Churchmouse

Aussie, nobody likes a smartars*:rotfl:

And at least I did overestimate the calories/ time needed to work them off most of the time

wyebird

I have stopped dishing up dinners for my family, letting them serve themselves. Tends to mean people eat what they need and don't feel obliged to clear their plates. Any leftovers can be frozen for another day.

longforthesun

Was hoping someong may be able to help. I am hopeless at portion sizes I always make far too much OH always asks if i have invited the whole street for dinner. My main issue is with mince how much should i use for each person?. Obviously with the cost of everything going up I want to try and cut back and will start with portion sizes.

Many thanks for and tips.

gunsandbanjos

I use 500g mince for me, hubby(large appetite) and my 4 yr old. However from this i get at least 2 dinners, sometimes 3 depends how much i bulk it out;)

Pink.

Hi longforthesun,

There's an earlier thread on portion sizes which includes some posts about mince that may help you so I've added your post to it to keep the replies together.

These threads may be useful too:

Padding out meals

How much mince do you use in one meal??

Pink

Obukit

longforthesun wrote: »

My main issue is with mince how much should i use for each person?. Obviously with the cost of everything going up I want to try and cut back and will start with portion sizes.

Many thanks for and tips.

With things like mince etc. it really depends on what type of food you're cooking - for instance, chilli con carne will use a lot less than a beef and onion pie! In general though I allow about 3oz per person, of which I use 2oz soya mince with 1oz beef (1.5oz if we have guests) to bulk it out. With things like pasta, rice etc. they usually have a "portion size" on the prep instructions, for anything else you can use the "One portion" in the nutritional information as a guide, though I find these are often a tad stingy to make it seem as if they have less fat etc. especially if we've been busy all day - always cheaper to cook a little extra than have people snacking in the afternoon/evening.

What I found revolutionised portion control for me was buying a set of cheap digital scales. I now just put the pan or whatever I'm cooking in on the scales and use it to weigh out each ingredient, zeroing it each time. Really fast and I almost never overcook (we have very limited freezer space!). Good luck!

Ches

When I married int he early 60's I used to buy 1/2lb of meat per meal for 2 people. Nowadays supermarkets package meat into 500g pack so its easy to buy, freeze and cook without thinking how much we actually put on our plates. I am trying to go back to the old way by splitting packs into 1/2 when I get home from shopping and before it goes in the freezer. This works for mince, sausages,casserole beef, chops etc. It's an easiest way to portion control because it doesn't require willpower to resist the leftovers because there aren't any.

Fozz

We recently went on holiday and spent time at a US airport, when we went to buy some food we were appalled at the portion sizes, no wonder America has an obesity problem! The turkey sandwiches we bought had the equiva lent of a whole pack of sliced meat in each one ie six slices! The cake slices too were huge, one slice would have done me and my two DDs (mind you my eldest could probably have polished one off by herself!) At least we're not quite as bad here in the UK, but it's going that way I think.

calleyw

Obukit wrote: »

What I found revolutionised portion control for me was buying a set of cheap digital scales. I now just put the pan or whatever I'm cooking in on the scales and use it to weigh out each ingredient, zeroing it each time. Really fast and I almost never overcook (we have very limited freezer space!). Good luck!

I agree with on that. I use to serve loads of pasta now I weight. 100grams per person. It does look titchy in the bowl but once cooked and served and eaten it is the right amount.

Yours


Calley

FrankieM

I tend to use 400g of mince for 6 people. I use 1 chicken breast for DH and I, but will only use 2 for the whole family (6) in things that I can dice. For stuff with bacon I'll probably use a 250g pack for the 6 of us. I work on 2 sausages each. Diced beef/ lamb etc for the slow cooker, I use 500g for 6.
I've just started weighing out pasta and rice, 75g per person.
I then bulk the rest out with veg...

That all sounds so good...why are DH and I chubbies..??