Portion sizes (meat, fish and other protein)

silverleaf79

Well part of my be-more-ethical plan involves eating a lot less meat, and I only get free-range stuff (unless it's really cheap from the RTC section). I gauge everything by weight - 100g of meat or 150g of fish is my guideline portion size.

Bought a packet of sausages last week - 400g, 6 sausages. This irritated me because it meant 100g was 1.5 sausages so I had to cut some of them up. I guess the two of us could have eaten all of them at one meal quite easily, but there's no way I was going to do that. 100g is plenty, and the amount of protein we actually need is a lot lower than you think... Humans are evolved to eat a mostly vegetarian diet supplemented with only occasional meat anyway, and personally I think that eating meat at every single meal or scoffing a lot more than you need is wasteful, greedy, environmentally unfriendly and directly results in more animals being kept in awful conditions and then killed at a young age.

I know, I'm getting all preachy and judgemental. And I'm not veggie and would certainly never dictate whether other people should eat meat or not. But really? Do you NEED four sausages or do you just WANT them?

ceridwen

happy35 wrote: »

my oh and ds each have about 3 thick sausages, or a chicken breast each but they are big eaters

I wouldnt class myselff as a big eater but I would eat 2 quorn sausages for my main meal

Oops...well I class 3 (quorn in my case) sausages as a portion for me...:p

Red_Doe

My OH also eats a lot more than these meal planners recommend. I`m on a strict diet for health reasons though (arterioslcerosis) so have had to cut down on meat, which is a shame because I love beef and pork. So what I`m doing is only having meat two days a week, if it were sausages it`d only be one for me and around four for the OH. Daughter has two but generally eats like a bloody bird anyway!
Trying to eat more fish instead...I did think it would work out cheaper but every morsel you try to put on your plate these days seems to require a mini-mortgage!

mummyroysof3

thanks to this thread ive decided we will be having sausages for tea lol 2 each for me and DH 1 each for the kids with mash and beans i think(they are 6, 4 and 2)

donnajt

I use far more meat than the "recommended amount" in most recipes, however, I have been freezing the left over portion before it gets gobbled up sitting on the side cooling down! I find if i reduce the meat content in meals OH ends up making sandwiches, rounds of toast, crisps so no saving in £'s or lbs|!!!

mardatha

Yes, same here. It's not moneysaving if he feels hungry an hour and a half after eating and then starts on sandwiches !

[Deleted User]

ah well there is stomach hunger and mouth hunger. Mouth hunger is my downfall and makes me want to graze when I know I am not really stomach hungry. Often a glass of water will quench the mouth hunger. I think people have just got so used to living with rapidly expanding stomachs that perhaps they need more to fill the stomach but the consequence is not good medically or ethically

I have to say that I agree with silverleaf79

[Deleted User]

Soup as a starter or a pud to finish will often make a meal seem more substatial.My late Ma always had a soup pot on the go and we would drink gallons of the stuff.

culpepper

we have 2 sausages each.If we are having something like chips ,I will do them as just sausages and we would have beans and eggs too but the plate will be full. Else we will have them as toad in the hole or cut into pieces in pasta or on a pizza or in a rice dish.
Chicken we have a leg each and some slices from the breast if we are having roast and veg but we often have a pudding after as it isnt hugely filling as is. Other days we will have chicken in a casserole or pizza or risotto etc.
Puddings are very handy as you can give larger portions to the guys without feeling you are breaking the bank .

Kimitatsu

Mardartha - have to be honest I ignore portion sizes! DH is 6ft 4 and built like a rugby player, DS1 is almost 6ft at only 14 :eek: and only stops eating when he is asleep, thing is he is still as thin as a rake :mad: DS2 is just heading into his growth spurt (you can tell because he looks like a giraffe currently - all legs!). So I try to give them at least 2 sausages each and three if they are hungry, its me who has the small plate and STILL I am not a skinny thing!

I dont know who writes up some of the portion sizes/menus all I can imagine is that they are a skinny size 6 4ft tall dwarf........

I do try to give them a pudding after tea every day, even if its only sponge cake and custard, because it does fill them up a bit more. 1lb of mince will do 4 of us bulked out with beans. or lentils, or in the case of burgers, stuffing is excellent with loads of chopped onions to bulk it out. But like you said, its not money saving if they are back out in the kitchen fridge raiding after dinner!!!

Oh and dont worry about having a moan - thats what friends are for, and personally I am fed up of the cold grey weather! My body clock tells me that the sun should be shining and I should want to be picking on salad all day not thinking of toad in the hole with onion gravy in bucket loads. Ah well, just another British Summer.