Serving Sizes

worldsbestauntie
worldsbestauntie Posts: 280 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have some of Rachael Ray's cookbooks and love to try some of her meals. One of my favorites is Elsa's Baked Ziti. I did some searching today and found the nutritional info for it. It states that it serves about 5 per recipe. Now I half this recipe as I do live alone and the full recipe makes WAY to much. However, when I half it, I STILL get at least 5 servings out of it! (I freeze some of them for lunches at work.) Her serving sizes must be huge! I want to be as accurate as I can be. Should I take the amounts per serving they state and half them? (Even still if I do make this now I need to be careful of what else I eat with it as there is a lot of calories in it!)

Replies

  • TimeForMe99
    TimeForMe99 Posts: 309
    Yes, her serving sizes are incredibly large. For my family of three adults we typically get 5-6 servings from her recipes and we're big eaters (well, I was).

    To be as accurate as possible:

    1) Use the recipe builder to determine the nutri info for the dish as you make it. You will be able to include lower fat cheese or other changes that you've made. RR's recipes have a lot of oil and most of us don't use as much.

    2) Determine the total weight or volume of the total dish and divide into portions, such as 1 cup or 100 grams. When you serve a portion weigh/measure it and select an appropriate number of servings (i.e. if your portion is 250g then select 2.5 servings)
  • worldsbestauntie
    worldsbestauntie Posts: 280 Member
    I'll have to try. Right now though I need to invest in some scales as I would have no idea how much something weighs since the pasta noodles for that goes by weight. (Though I've always just guessed at it!)
  • zhvah18
    zhvah18 Posts: 158 Member
    I have found that with alot of recipes. I found a corn, red pepper, and orzo recipe the other night and it said it served 6 so I halved it because there's only 3 in my family. I still ended up with 6 servings. Who eats a whole cup of orzo as a SIDE DISH? That's alot. I'd rather have a cup of the veggie I made, which is what we did.
  • FitnessFinatic123
    FitnessFinatic123 Posts: 7
    I wish I could post this picture for you about a posting pertaining to Serving Sizes; I saw it on a natural living FB page. Here is the link since I cant post JPEGS!

    "Serving Sizes based on your hands" Are you over-eating?
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=280396795428114&set=a.274907419310385.1073741827.274901709310956&type=1
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I just add all the ingredients, weigh the whole thing once cooked, then weigh my portion to see how many calories it has.

    You definitely need a scale though.
  • worldsbestauntie
    worldsbestauntie Posts: 280 Member
    I have one of her cook books that has meals for 1 in it. I was thinking great! No leftovers! Nope they last at least two meals! (She does state on her show that her family are all big eaters)
  • worldsbestauntie
    worldsbestauntie Posts: 280 Member
    Does anyone know where I can kind food/kitchen scales? I was just looking at Walmarts website and they have two but they only sell them online (I dont have a credit card to order them online).
  • pamperedlinny
    pamperedlinny Posts: 1,688 Member
    Does anyone know where I can kind food/kitchen scales? I was just looking at Walmarts website and they have two but they only sell them online (I dont have a credit card to order them online).

    I got my old one in Walmart. I found one near the cookwear.
    I also got one from Amazon and one in Aldi's grocery store. Both of these are digital ones (which I HIGHLY recommend instead of the ones with the dial)
  • jbruced
    jbruced Posts: 210 Member
    Does anyone know where I can kind food/kitchen scales? I was just looking at Walmarts website and they have two but they only sell them online (I dont have a credit card to order them online).
    Almost any store that haskitchen items will have food scales. Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Williams-Sonoma etc
  • worldsbestauntie
    worldsbestauntie Posts: 280 Member
    I will check Walmart when I am there Saturday, but the only other store we have that was mentioned is Bed, Bath & Beyond. Though Target is coming. The one nearest to me is scheduled to open sometime this fall. I know there are kitchen places in the maill, but I've been in them before looking at things and things in them were WAY to expensive! Thanks for the suggestions!

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