Meal Portions

lynzpower

When I do a 500 g for my Oh its usually 3 monster size ones ( for tea) and 3 smaller lunch size ones ( half and half chilli & rice in a tupperware.)

OH usually has totrilla wraps/ french bread/ tortilla chips with in any case, its more than enough!

grannybroon

Thanks for your replies

Have had chilli x 2 for tea; two portions in tub for freezer and one portion for freezer. Plenty!

One other thing - DH brought home a jar of Madam Choi's chilli sauce two years ago from China. We are only half way through as a quarter teaspoon has steam coming out of our heads! We reckon too strong to start fermenting in the fridge.

It certainly adds a bit of 'oomph' to the chilli!

I meant to say earlier it is the cheaper mince so will probably not cook for the DGSs - the fat that came off and drained tonight quite a lot. I try to cook better cuts for them when here. Has anyone any comments about this? I am so taken up with the obesity thing but I have always browned off and drained fat and neither of my dearest children have an obesity problem.

Love and hugs

GB xxxxx

Olliebeak

I work on the premise of 1lb meat to 4 servings as well but with chilli it often goes MUCH further.

When I get the whoops mince in ASDA, I split the mince in half (ie two two-person amounts) BEFORE freezing in freezerbags. Then just defrost whatever amount I need.

By the time I've cooked the half pound of mince with onions, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans in chilli sauce, peppers/mushrooms it finishes up as MORE than enough. The secret is to serve up and allow the remainder to cool down quickly and then I put the left-overs into individual size plastic tubs with lids on and into the freezer BEFORE OH can get back to the pan. Those will then do for serving with jacket potato/wraps at some stage. If I don't manage to get those left-overs sorted quickly the rest of it just gets greedily wolfed down.

I also split the packs of chicken breast fillets before freezing - no point in freezing as a full tray because then the whole thing has to be defrosted and it's such a waste when there's only 2 of us on a regular basis for meals. Same goes with the diced turkey thigh that I use in curries.

nodwah

BEFORE OH can get back to the pan.

That's something that drives me crazy. Sometimes I've made so much of something that I think it will do 2 or 3 meals and then find he's scoffed the b******* lot! and another one is when he picks the chicken carcass clean when I'm expecting it to do another night!

Phew vent a little steam there!

Hardup_Hester

When I was cooking for 6, I used to make Tex Mex chilli, so I added a tin of sweetcorn to the meat as well as toms, & beans & to make it go further, I cooked the rice, mixed it all together & then served it with shredded lettuce, grated cheese & mayo or soured cream, wrapped in fahitas.

Olliebeak

Hadn't thought of adding sweetcorn to the chilli as well, Hester - what a great idea! I'm sure that I'm really increasing my '5 a day' portions with properly thought out menus.

Nodwah, I'm so pleased that I'm not the only one with an OH who sabotages all my OS moneysaving plans! I really begrudge when a almost a half roast chicken disappears from the fridge BEFORE I've had chance to turn it into something else. And a half bowl of tuna, pasta mayo (earmarked for next day's lunch) has gone well before I can say 'Would you like some toast for supper'.

Men! we'd be rich without 'em!!

newlywed

nodwah wrote: »

BEFORE OH can get back to the pan.

That's something that drives me crazy. Sometimes I've made so much of something that I think it will do 2 or 3 meals and then find he's scoffed the b******* lot! and another one is when he picks the chicken carcass clean when I'm expecting it to do another night!

Phew vent a little steam there!

Yup. What I do is when I dish it up onto the plates, it dish it into tubs for the freezer at the same time. Stick the lid on and let it cool. Then it's not in the saucepan and not freely available

Also with the chicken, as soon as we've eaten I'll strip the chicken and portion up (depending on how many meals it will do) and put in tubs and freeze (he won't eat it frozen or half defrosted in the fridge!!)

newlywed

As for too OS - I use 500g and stretch it to 3 meals for the two of us (6 portions) - add in some red lentils and an extra tin of kidney beans to stretch it - along with peas or sweetcorn

Lizzieanne

nodwah wrote: »

BEFORE OH can get back to the pan.

That's something that drives me crazy. Sometimes I've made so much of something that I think it will do 2 or 3 meals and then find he's scoffed the b******* lot! and another one is when he picks the chicken carcass clean when I'm expecting it to do another night!

Phew vent a little steam there!

Sounds like our house! :rotfl:

We've had to come to a little 'arrangement' with the chicken carcass. Mr L loves to pick the carcass clean, but I don't want him chewing on bones that I could make soup/stock with. So now, I give him the legs and the wings and I keep the 'body' section. If I haven't got time to make the soup there and then I freeze the carcass for another time.

Meanymoo

I've also been trying to sort out portion sizes, and like a lot of other posters my DH will eat HUGE portions of food which I've planned on feeding us another day. I can't work out whether I'm not feeding him enough (I know men need more calories than women so I expect him to want more food than me) or whether he's just being a greedy so-and-so at times. I should add, I am also sometimes guilty of scoffing three portions of macaroni cheese just because it tastes so good, it's not just him all the time. But it is mainly him! We could both do with losing a few pounds and I really feel portion size is key. I've started weighing pasta again, which has really helped as when I was doing it by eye I could easily cook 10 oz for the two of us :eek:. Anyway, I've just gone over the next week's menu plan with him and told him that a couple of dishes I'm cooking WILL do two dinners each and we are not to eat the whole lot in one sitting! I think I'll have to follow the advice here and dish up the leftovers into containers straightaway, so it can't 'accidentally' get eaten.