Pasta question

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ChubbieTubbie
ChubbieTubbie Posts: 481 Member
edited September 2024 in Food and Nutrition
I'm estimating how much I'm going to be eating tonight at dinner, and I have no idea how pasta converts to portion sizes I can easily use. For example, how many oz of pasta (spaghetti) would a cup be? I'm going to cook the whole box for the whole family, but I was planning to just pull out 3/4 or 1 cup for myself, but I have no idea how that relates to oz on the label for serving size.

Replies

  • Yarnpiggie
    Yarnpiggie Posts: 181
    2 oz is the usual serving size, and that generally comes out to about a cup, from my experience.
  • ChubbieTubbie
    ChubbieTubbie Posts: 481 Member
    Thanks! I was thinking '2 oz is 1/4 of a cup, that's not much pasta at all!'
  • lfondots
    lfondots Posts: 216 Member
    I have stayed away from pasta because even 1 cup is soooo small. Are you cooking regular pasta or wheat? I do like wheat so once I'm starting to loose, I might try to have a little (1 cup) of pasta. Good Luck!
  • Raina0512
    Raina0512 Posts: 216
    2 oz dry = 1 cup cooked
  • therobinator
    therobinator Posts: 832 Member
    I have stayed away from pasta because even 1 cup is soooo small.

    I have to disagree here. 1 cup of pasta is a lot. Try cooking some spaghetti, and then measuring out 1 cup of it after it's cooked. It will fill up at least half of a large dinner plate. Measuring out 1 cup of bigger cuts of pasta (like rigatoni or shells) is harder, though, because of all the "air space." And that's why it may seem (if you measure these kinds of pasta with a measuring cup) that it's not much food at all. In those cases of "airier" pastas, measure it before you cook it (2 oz. or 1/8 of the box)....or if you need to measure after it's cooked, 1 serving = 1/8 of the full-box batch. A serving a pasta is around 210 calories.

    (Edited to correct spelling errors.)
  • ChubbieTubbie
    ChubbieTubbie Posts: 481 Member
    I have stayed away from pasta because even 1 cup is soooo small. Are you cooking regular pasta or wheat? I do like wheat so once I'm starting to loose, I might try to have a little (1 cup) of pasta. Good Luck!

    I think we have wheat, so if we do, I'll use that. If not, I know we have regular vermicelli pasta. I find that a cup of pasta is the perfect size for me, especially once I add some meat to it.
  • therobinator
    therobinator Posts: 832 Member
    I find that a cup of pasta is the perfect size for me, especially once I add some meat to it.

    And/or veggies. Pasta alone, doesn't constitute a meal. Put something with it. :)
  • Yarnpiggie
    Yarnpiggie Posts: 181
    I was eating 4 oz of pasta on a fairly regular basis. (Whole wheat rocks!) I have wonderful bowls for this. Plenty of room to mix in the sauce and all that.

    I measure it out, put it in baggies, and go visit my mother with my food ready to go, but for the cooking. And I use her plate. Smallish plate, the way plates used to be (rather than the size of platters like most plates are now) and it FILLS the entire plate. Until that day, I didn't realize how MUCH 4 oz of pasta actually is. (seriously it FILLED the plate)
  • MzBug
    MzBug Posts: 2,173 Member
    One of these days try spaghetti squash! 1 cup comes out to something like 40 cals. I have that with the spaghetti sauce and some chopped chicken and have a full plate. Add in a salad and I am good to go.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    Normally when I have pasta that calls for spagetti type noodles in the recipe, I use angel hair instead. One cup of angel hair fills the plate more than 1 cup of spagetti...I know it's not just mental cause I measure everything...but the thinner noodles lets you eat more of it in the same amount. I guess cause it's like spagetti cut in half (basically in size) so you are getting the same weight/volume of noodles, just more of them. They taste the same anyway.

    I always add meat since the protein reduces insulin spikes from the pasta, and veggies for taste. Stay away from canned or jarred spagetti sauces since most them are liquid red sugar!
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