How Much Spaghetti?

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fatty2sixpack
fatty2sixpack Posts: 67 Member
in Food and Nutrition
My dad made some spaghetti with spaghetti noodles, Ragu Sauce, and some ground turkey meat. I can't put in the measurements in the recipe builder because I don't know how much of what he put in the recipe. When I put it in the food search database there are so many results with different calories amounts. Can you give me an estimate in grams or some advice on how much spaghetti I should get?

Replies

  • 7elizamae
    7elizamae Posts: 758 Member
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    Pasta is kind of tricky. I assume you don't have a scale to weight it?
    The sad news for pasta lovers is that the serving sizes are much smaller than we'd like. :)
    A serving a spaghetti is about the size of a baseball.

    Most of us would rather have a serving the size of a frisbee, but you'd have to fit that in to your calorie plan for the day.

    Hope that helps!
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Dip your 1 cup measure into the pot and fill-er up. Use a clean knife to trim the spaghetti smooth with the top of the measure. 1 cup of cooked spaghetti is a reasonable portion for you. It's a lot easier to get precise when you do your own cooking. Good luck. Maybe see what the "serving size" is for everything in the pot and log 1 serving of each.
  • 7elizamae
    7elizamae Posts: 758 Member
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    I found this for you, too. Charts like this help me a lot.

    http://topsytasty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Serving-Size-of-Common-Foods1.jpg
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    7elizamae wrote: »
    I found this for you, too. Charts like this help me a lot.

    http://topsytasty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Serving-Size-of-Common-Foods1.jpg

    Would the "pasta serving fits in an ice cream scoop" be dry pasta? It's still not easy to guess with cooked pasta because the expansion of the pasta between 8 and 12 minutes of cooking makes the volume of the cooked pasta different.
  • 7elizamae
    7elizamae Posts: 758 Member
    edited July 2017
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    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    7elizamae wrote: »
    I found this for you, too. Charts like this help me a lot.

    http://topsytasty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Serving-Size-of-Common-Foods1.jpg

    Would the "pasta serving fits in an ice cream scoop" be dry pasta? It's still not easy to guess with cooked pasta because the expansion of the pasta between 8 and 12 minutes of cooking makes the volume of the cooked pasta different.

    I think it's cooked pasta, since that's the way we eat it.
    But it's tricky, isn't it? You could pack it in tight or just scoop it loosely, right?
    Really, the best way to go is to use a food scale -- inexpensive and easy to use.
  • DamieBird
    DamieBird Posts: 651 Member
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    If it's hard to see what an exact serving size is and you can't measure it, I always go by how much of the total package I ate. For instance, if your dad cooked the entire package of spaghetti, you can look at the box (or look up the brand online) to see how many total servings are in the package. Multiply the number of serving per package by the calories per serving. From there, you look at how much you ate (say 1/4 of the amount that he cooked), and divide by 4 (or however much you had). You can do this for each ingredient, but focus on the more calorie dense items. Veggies, spices, etc will add very few extra calories.

    This is just a rough estimation, but should get you closer to an idea of how many calories for logging purposes. For future reference, a 56g serving of pasta is about 200kcal. I eat a lot of campanelle, and that's a little over 1 cup cooked.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    I really had to practice with pasta, as it is so often served at people's houses. I would weigh one serving dry at home, cook it and put it on my plate and really study it a little before I ate it. Sounds a little lame as I type it out, but pasta is important to me! I'm at the point now where I can eyeball what one serving of cooked pasta looks like (or two!). And if you have enough sauce that it nicely coats the pasta, but not so much sauce that you need a piece of bread to clean it off your plate, it's around a half cup.

    Best you can do right now OP is estimate, logging each thing individually. Pasta, sauce, turkey. And if he cooked the turkey before adding it to the sauce, log a tablespoon of oil as well. This is the kind of thing that with practice and experience will become easier!
  • Aerona85
    Aerona85 Posts: 159 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    I really had to practice with pasta, as it is so often served at people's houses. I would weigh one serving dry at home, cook it and put it on my plate and really study it a little before I ate it. Sounds a little lame as I type it out, but pasta is important to me! I'm at the point now where I can eyeball what one serving of cooked pasta looks like (or two!). And if you have enough sauce that it nicely coats the pasta, but not so much sauce that you need a piece of bread to clean it off your plate, it's around a half cup.

    Best you can do right now OP is estimate, logging each thing individually. Pasta, sauce, turkey. And if he cooked the turkey before adding it to the sauce, log a tablespoon of oil as well. This is the kind of thing that with practice and experience will become easier!

    Curious on why the tablespoon of oil if the turkey was cooked? Is it being assumed oil was used to cook or something? I can't say as I have ever used oil to cook ground meat since it sort of "oils" itself as it cooks, so that statement just caught me off guard. No judgement, was just curious :-).



  • WendyLeigh1119
    WendyLeigh1119 Posts: 495 Member
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    I stick to 2 ounces of pasta and then load up on the veggies and mushrooms and such. But the ground beef I'm not sure. I don't eat much beef or pork.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    Aerona85 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    I really had to practice with pasta, as it is so often served at people's houses. I would weigh one serving dry at home, cook it and put it on my plate and really study it a little before I ate it. Sounds a little lame as I type it out, but pasta is important to me! I'm at the point now where I can eyeball what one serving of cooked pasta looks like (or two!). And if you have enough sauce that it nicely coats the pasta, but not so much sauce that you need a piece of bread to clean it off your plate, it's around a half cup.

    Best you can do right now OP is estimate, logging each thing individually. Pasta, sauce, turkey. And if he cooked the turkey before adding it to the sauce, log a tablespoon of oil as well. This is the kind of thing that with practice and experience will become easier!

    Curious on why the tablespoon of oil if the turkey was cooked? Is it being assumed oil was used to cook or something? I can't say as I have ever used oil to cook ground meat since it sort of "oils" itself as it cooks, so that statement just caught me off guard. No judgement, was just curious :-).



    I know people who don't put anything in a fry pan without some oil, but I know a lot of bad cooks :lol:

    I've never cooked ground turkey, but isn't it more lean? Would it still oil itself?
  • msmcmillan0316
    msmcmillan0316 Posts: 41 Member
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    If you're looking to eat more pasta with lower carbs check out Dreamsfield pasta
  • Aerona85
    Aerona85 Posts: 159 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »

    I know people who don't put anything in a fry pan without some oil, but I know a lot of bad cooks :lol:

    I've never cooked ground turkey, but isn't it more lean? Would it still oil itself?

    I make ground turkey in a ceramic pan a few times a month, no added oil or anything. Ground chicken works similarly. Just stir it up pretty regularly, which you would want to do for ground meat anyway. I have made turkey meatballs similarly with no extra oil. I haven't made turkey burgers or anything like that though.

    Growing up we never added oil to cook meat like that so it never crossed my mind to do it :-).

  • arrghmatey1
    arrghmatey1 Posts: 91 Member
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    Weigh it 2 oz dry or pass it by! If you have to eat it prepared go with double that and if its mixed well you just have to figure out the proportions and break it down from there. Was the grease from the meat included or not? Sometimes you just have to pass and make something else till those who cook around you start understand yu have to have weights and measures during preparations.
  • Rebecca0224
    Rebecca0224 Posts: 810 Member
    edited July 2017
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    Aerona85 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »

    I know people who don't put anything in a fry pan without some oil, but I know a lot of bad cooks :lol:

    I've never cooked ground turkey, but isn't it more lean? Would it still oil itself?

    I make ground turkey in a ceramic pan a few times a month, no added oil or anything. Ground chicken works similarly. Just stir it up pretty regularly, which you would want to do for ground meat anyway. I have made turkey meatballs similarly with no extra oil. I haven't made turkey burgers or anything like that though.

    Growing up we never added oil to cook meat like that so it never crossed my mind to do it :-).

    I've never used oil to cook ground turkey either and used ro make it almost daily. Ground chicken works the same way.


    OP this is one of those times when it is best guess. Good luck and you are doing really good
  • erica_today
    erica_today Posts: 185 Member
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    Honestly just eat the pasta. But I'd say to be safe a cup of cooked pasta
  • wenrob
    wenrob Posts: 125 Member
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    DamieBird wrote: »
    If it's hard to see what an exact serving size is and you can't measure it, I always go by how much of the total package I ate. For instance, if your dad cooked the entire package of spaghetti, you can look at the box (or look up the brand online) to see how many total servings are in the package. Multiply the number of serving per package by the calories per serving. From there, you look at how much you ate (say 1/4 of the amount that he cooked), and divide by 4 (or however much you had). You can do this for each ingredient, but focus on the more calorie dense items. Veggies, spices, etc will add very few extra calories.

    This is just a rough estimation, but should get you closer to an idea of how many calories for logging purposes. For future reference, a 56g serving of pasta is about 200kcal. I eat a lot of campanelle, and that's a little over 1 cup cooked.
    Way back when I initially lost my weight this is what I would do. Not as precise as weighing but it gets you in the ballpark and back then it worked fairly well for me. (lost the weight and kept the majority of it off for five years) Its best to be as accurate as you can but if the OP has no measurements to go by it's better than nothing. OP can you ask your dad tosave barcodes etc. for you? My DH does this for me and even my kids do it.

    As to oil for ground turkey. I use ground turkey breast, not much fat so use about 1TBSP for a pound, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Regular ground turkey will have plenty of fat on it's own but as someone mentioned up thread some people use oil to cook meat by default.

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