Mince quantity question (stretching and portion sizes)?

jimmyay

i buy sainsburys lean mince 500g packets when on offer and divide into 250gram portions which i freeze. use on at a time for chillis , etc. 250 gram lean mince with handful of red lentils, couple of 400 gram tins of chopped toms, couple of peppers, couple of onions, other veg etc will make 4 decent sized adult portions . so i guess 65 grams of meat per adult meal which doesnt sounds like much - but it always is filling when served with rice and i never feel shortchanged in fact, usually full!

3 oz meat or 120 grams i think is the standard "serving" of red meat so my recipe is light on meat, but most people eat far too much meat anyway and should only really be eating red meat once or twice per week max.

if you have a half pound beefburger - 8 oz is a massive amount of red meat to eat at once and no one should be doing this regularly unless you are a growing teenager when anything goes of course!

Olliebeak

Two of us in this house (well theoretically most of the time ). I freeze all meat in 8ozs portions and those feed the two of us. With 'mincey things' (chilli, shepherds pie, spag bol - I usually pad it out so much that there's left-overs to be frozen and served with jacket potatoes at a later date.

I also buy packs of liver and freeze in 8oz amounts (just fills a 250gram lidded margarine tub).

finallydebtfree!!

Hi everyone

Im sure the answer is here somewhere but I cant seem to find it.

I've read alot about people using lentils to bulk out mince in shepherds/cottage pie but how do you use it? do you cook it first as per the instructions on the packet, or just throw it in with all the other ingredients?

I used pearl barley as part of a weight watchers reciepe and that was just throw in and cooked with everything else but the cooking times were the same as what it said on the back of the packet of barley.

Would also like to use lentils/barley in soup but was unsure of where to start.

Sure you clever people will be able to give me some advice on what will probably seem like a silly question thanks in advance

fdf!!

dawnybabes

I just lob in a handfiul of red split lentils, don't do anything else

huston_kw

I know this link is for batch baking, but it's worth a look (you could resize amounts for you).

I've not done it yet (need to eat stuff lurking in freezer first - which we doing) then I will be making it
http://frugal-cooking.co.uk/recipe/193/batch-bake-minced-beef-recipe

Kentishmaid_2

....have been bunging lentils into mince for years! I use red ones as they cook down after 20mins and some extra water, apparently my mince-based dishes don't taste the same without them!
Enjoy.:cheesy:
Kentishmaid

maman

I think red lentils (and barley?) are the only ones you can just throw in. Most other pulses need soaking (preferably overnight) first. I've been using that mixed broth mix lately and soaking that as lentils seemed to get very scarce and expensive a while ago.

finallydebtfree!!

Thanks guys knew you would be along to help!

I shall stick to the ones that dont need soaking to begin with and maybe just put a little extra water in so it doesnt all dry out when the lentils soak up the moisture.

Will have to give it a go over the weekend

rachbc

Since reading this site and focusing on our budget more i am amazed at the portion sizes some recipes recommend. I've just cooked a batch of meatloaf - the recipe uses 1kg of mince beef and 500g mince pork and says it feeds 6 to 8, so I figured I'd make 2. Looking at the meat in the bowl I cut it down to 500g of each - I added the same quantities of veg from the recipe and shaped it into 3 meatloafs which will each feed my family f 2 adults, 1 eating as an adult 12 yo and 3 yo dd.

If I'd made the full recipe and served as suggested it would have cost me about £7-8 to feed us twice as it is its cost me £5-6 to feed us 3 times!

zippychick

Hi rach:hello:

there are a couple of threads which touch on this issue

Portion sizes - discusses pasta/rice etc but does touch on meat portions also

Mince quantity question - portion sizes

I'll add your question to the last link later on

it really is amazing how much further you can stretch food if you make a conscious effort

Thanks
Zip