Cooking for 5 (or 3 or any odd number for that matter)

specsappeal

i also cook for 5. two adults three kids (DD16, DS 13 and DS 11) and i just guess the quantities but i agree with the others - my DS 13 is constantly hungry and always seems to be eating. The amount he puts away is simply unbelievable and yet he is not in the slightest tubby round the middle, which is strange cos i eat much smaller portions and yet have a spare tyre (no idea how that happened lol). There arent usually leftovers in our house for long!

organic_wanabe

I cook for 3 and usually don't bother to follow a recipe. Sometimes if following a specific recipe, say for 6, then I try to freeze half. Or if it is a specific recipe for 4 then the plan is that I'll have leftovers for lunch but usually DH and DS just finish it off - they eat far faster than I do! As PW said quite often there is an uninvited guest - though why is it usually when you are specifically cooking for 3 and hadn't planned on there being any leftovers! I find the worst part of having a teenager is that you never quite know when they are going to say, out of the blue, need/want to be driven somewhere - usually between 6pm and 10pm so it fairly saves on the wine consumption!!!

thriftlady_2

Teenage boys eat a lot.

According to The Diet Bible by Judith Wills boys between the ages of 15 and 18 need 2775 cals a day. Between 11 and 14 they need 2220. Girls need somewhat less and lets face it women in their 40s need much less :rolleyes: In fact a 16 yo boy can eat twice as much as me (if I stick to 1400 a day) and not put on weight -no fair

patentgirl

I tend to cook enough for 5 2 adults, a 21 and 14 although oldest DD 23 has got her own house now, there always seems to be an extra one turning up only this week i have had extra guest 3 times I also regularly have to make meals stretch to 8 when everyone has bf/gfs round, I tend to put another tin of tomatoes or tin of beans if casserole /chilli /spag bol add more bread/ rice more veg etc they still keep coming so cant be doing too badly!
I agree with organic wanabe I have saved on wine consumption as well due to being designated taxi driver in the evenings for 14 DD

stressedoutmumof1

In the house of stressed, there's mr stressed, me and little miss stressed (8), I always cook for 4 and between us we greedily gobble up any leftovers

filigree_2

I have to keep adapting recipes as my son gets bigger and hungrier. I used to use 250g mince for two meals, now I use 500! I have adapted favourite recipes to suit us so I usually know how big the portions will be. I often save a portion for son's after school "snack" which is in fact a meal. He's another teenager with hollow legs:rolleyes:

The short answer is I make it up as I go along.