Quick question

lushlifesaver

I think it's often easier to eat more if you are cooking more, so we portion up meats then freeze them that way when it comes to cooking we are only cooking enough for the pair of us. Now that I'm the cook in our house we often have left overs too which I often have for lunch the next day or freeze for when bf is away.

That said we are as bad but with sauces - bf could happily have our small portion of mince with a whole family sized (4portion) jar of sauce!

elantan

You make a very valid point there lush .... I do a big cook then just full out plates rather than divide it, I always think ohhhhh there's x left that'll do x amount of meals ... But it never does cause our eyes are often bigger than our bellies

tiredwithtwins

I've just used about 150g of mince to make 10 portions of chilli ... I do pad it out with mushrooms (100g), 2 tins of mixed beans, a grated carrot, handful of sweet corn - I will do about 250g of pasta and divvy it up into portions for packed lunches for me and oh. It's all about portion size, it's amazing how far you can stretch it - add a chunk of crusty bread or a small homemade crusty cob and it will stretch miles!

greatgimpo

There's mince and there's mince. If you buy the rubbish stuff and strain off the yukky fat, you're not getting anything like the weight you think you are. Now steak mince, you're getting closer to the weight as marked as there's clearly less chucking away. Cheap mince is false economy.

Steve059

elantan wrote: »

<snip> Never thought I weighing pasta ... Is that dry weight or wet weight ?

See above: dry. It's a bit late to weigh it after it's been cooked.

greatgimpo wrote: »

There's mince and there's mince. If you buy the rubbish stuff and strain off the yukky fat, you're not getting anything like the weight you think you are. Now steak mince, you're getting closer to the weight as marked as there's clearly less chucking away. Cheap mince is false economy.

By trading up slightly from budget brand mince to the own brand stuff, I got an extra portion.

Also, especially for strongly flavoured things like Bolognese sauce, chilli con carne and Keema curry, I'll use pork or turkey mince. It's usually not only lower in fat than beef, but also cheaper.

JIL

I dont eat meat, but if i make a chilli or lasagne or cottage pie, i allow 125g per portion.

this may come in handy
http://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Portions_per_person

krlyr

Nutrition type websites recommend 100-125g (raw weight) of meat for the average adult, so I tend to follow this. However, I find I can tend to stretch mince a bit further by bulking it out - once you've got the tinned tomatoes, you've increasing the volume, and then I tend to add lentils (good source of protein) and grated carrot (sometimes other blended veg too - though one time I added frozen bell peppers and found the favour a little overpowering!). I use 750g packs of mince and probably stretch them to about 5 meals (2 adults) a pack, which is only 75g per person, but I certainly find it enough (especially if we have a slice of garlic bread on the side too)

babyshoes

Something I've found to help with portion control especially for mince/stew type meals that I tend to cook in bulk, is to dish it up into portions all at once, so for us a 500g portion of mince made into bolognese would do supper for two - dished onto pasta in bowls, a lunch (possibly 2) dished onto cooked pasta in a plastic tub, and another 2 supper portions dished into a ziplock for the freezer (without pasta). I leave the 'extra' portions out to cool while we eat and pop them into the fridge or freezer as appropriate at bed time. It means you are far less tempted to have seconds because there won't be enough for lunch tomorrow if you do...

If you are still hungry or peckish after supper think about having a light pudding such as fruit or yoghurt (stewed fruit, such as pears in spiced red wine, with plain yoghurt is a perennial favourite of ours), or even something like tea and a biscuit, a cup of hot chocolate or a couple of squares of plain chocolate - I find that often it's just the new, sweet flavour that tells your brain that the meal is over...

I do tend to bulk out my mince with lots of onions, tinned tomatoes and veg like mushrooms or carrots. I used to put a fairly large handful or two of oats in too, but the OH complained that it was becoming like savoury porridge, so now I don't add much of that, just a little does bulk it out slightly and helps to thicken the sauce.

Pooky

I only use a 250g pack between the 4 of us (2 adults, 2 teenage girls). On the whole I can get an extra portion out too that I use as a frozen ready meal for the nights DD1 needs to take something to work. It all depends what you're adding to it and what you're serving with it.

A 250g pack of pork mince made 4 huge burgers on Saturday, I added one large onion, 2 slices of wholemeal bread, seasoning and an egg. Served with a big salad and some rice it was very filling.

peachyprice

I use 250g for spag bol that feeds 3 people 2 meals, usually spag bol then lasagne/cannelloni. It's more than enough meet with mushrooms & onions.

I've just made 4 large burgers with 500g pork, I probably could have made 6 if they'd been a little smaller and if I'd added a handful of breadcrumbs.