We've made a couple of meat runs in the last week or so, due to really good sales. For some reason, boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.88/lb. really excites me - have I really become that domesticated?
Anyway, when we buy a lot of meat I like to package it up in dinner-sized portions so I'm not constantly thawing an entire package of something, then worrying about using it all up in the coming few days.
For a long time, portion control has been our enemy (as opposed to eating crap food - the stuff we eat is pretty healthful), so I decided this time around to package it in actual, normal, health-profession-recommended serving-size portions - i.e., six ounces for one dinner - three ounces for each of us - and start cooking proper portions of everything I make for dinner. And I'll tell you something - sometimes it's harder than it sounds.
Take pasta, for example... I found a few websites saying that two ounces of dry pasta, when cooked, become one serving. I found a few other websites saying that half a cup of cooked pasta is one serving. I also found a few websites indicating that one serving of cooked pasta is roughly the size of a tennis ball. Upon conjuring up a mental picture of a tennis ball, then looking at a half cup measuring cup, I was further confused - a tennis ball looks much larger than a half-cup measuring cup.
Well, since I've never had to gauge how much cooked pasta comes from two ounces dry pasta, I weighed out four ounces of dry pasta and boiled away. The resulting amount of cooked pasta was not only much larger than two half-cup servings, it appeared to be larger than two tennis balls as well.
But I did come away with the knowledge that when paired with three ounces of chicken breast, sauteed mushrooms and some other lovely veggies on the side, two ounces of dry pasta, when cooked, is definitely enough food for dinner, possibly more than enough if enough veggies are present.
So how much damn pasta is one serving, anyway? Because I have a feeling I made too much.
Posted by beenie at May 26, 2006 01:37 AM