“The recession got you cooking more than usual but you’re not great at sizing up portions? The Portions Calculator measures perfect portions for unfamiliar and familiar foods, like pasta, that are notoriously difficult to portion correctly.

There’s not much you need to know beyond that. Just pick the type of food you’d like to measure, select how many adults and children you’re cooking for, and let the Portion Calculator tell you how much you should make. I’ve always found it really difficult to get the portions right when cooking for two, but this seems like the perfect compliment for home cookers looking to put together a meal for any sized crowd“

Post from: Love Food Hate Waste at the Kitchen table

lifehacker gets its portions perfect!

It’s the same story every January – the excesses of the Christmas period seem to drift on for another month. I rarely make New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve learnt from experience that they require will power, something that – when it comes to cake – I just don’t have.

However, all good things must come to an end and by the time February swings around, I am starting to look at my food habits. I don’t really hold with diets. I do worry about my weight but I try not to buy into that whole cultural obsession with a woman’s size and shape. So I try to avoid the scales (not least because I don’t want to break them!) When my jeans get too tight, I know I need to lay off the cheese and chocolate and take on board more fresh veggies and fruit. Or at least that’s the theory.

We start with really good intentions – the fridge is crammed with salad and healthy snacks and the fruit bowl is overflowing. But a week later, most of it has gone off and we end up chucking it all out and calling up a pizza.

I’ve found the most effective way to address my expanding waistline – or should that be waste-line? – is to tackle the healthy eating issue as a family. Instead of buying extra produce for me to eat on a lonely diet, (which relies on my non-existent will-power to prevent it going in the bin), I change the way I cook for the whole family. It doesn’t take too much doing and they don’t even notice. Eating fish & chicken more often and leaving out cream, butter & cheese. Grilling and baking, rather than frying. Instead of steamed puddings I’ll make bowls of fruit salad, instead of mash we’ll eat baked potatoes.

I’ve found that keeping an eye on portions not only helps save waste, it also helps save your waist! If you’ve cooked too much, you’ll either serve it up or throw it out. And because we’ve been taught to finish what’s on our plates, we tend to eat what’s put before us. Measuring things more accurately, especially carbs like pasta and rice, really helps to control portion sizes.

More than ever I plan ahead and stick to my list when shopping, so that I’m not tempted by naughty things in the supermarket. Otherwise I bring them home to be struck by a pang of dietary conscience, and end up throwing them out in order to remove the temptation. It’s not rocket science really, is it? 

So if I had to make a New Year Resolution it would be simple. Don’t buy it if you’re not going to eat it. And if you’re going to eat it, remember some things will just stick to your hips.

Post from: Love Food Hate Waste at the Kitchen table

Waste not, waist not!

Calculating how much to cook for the family on Christmas day is really tricky. The teenager doesn’t like roast potatoes, gravy or bread sauce; the youngest will only eat veggies if they are orange; the middle two boys want leg and hate stuffing; whereas the husband is an omnivore and expects a feast with all the trimmings. Taking into account everyone’s likes and dislikes makes it even more complicated.

Perfect portions…

Love Food Hate Waste has just launched a Christmas Dinner Portion Calculator which is a great idea. All I need to do is plug in the type of vegetables, potatoes and meat I’ll be serving, followed by the number of people I’m feeding, and it calculates how much food I’ll need to prepare. I always tend to overestimate how much the children will eat, so using the portion calculator should stop me from making enough to feed the five thousand!

And it’s a great for planning the Christmas food shopping as it lets you print out the results! Now I can go to the supermarket knowing exactly how much to buy, without worrying whether there’ll be enough to go around.

(Not a problem I ever have with brussel sprouts…)

Tasty Recipes to use up brussel sprouts…

Bubble and Squeek
Nutty Veggie Couscous

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More Sprouts, Please?

Pasta Portions…

I find getting portion sizes right with pasta can be a bit hit and miss, unless I actually weigh it out which is a bit of a faff. When it’s just me and my husband I use an ordinary mug, and cook about one and a half mugfulls (roughly 200-250g) for us both. For spaghetti, you can’t beat a proper spaghetti measurer – a clever little gizmo which removes all the guesswork. The trick is to remember that dried pasta tends to roughly double in size when cooked. Getting the kids’ portions right is a bit more tricky, but it doesn’t matter if I have been too generous. It will always get eaten up the next day.

Pasta Pie…

Our favourite leftover pasta dish is Pasta Pie. It’s really just an Italian omelette made with pasta, and you will have to trust me on this one – it’s delicious! It works brilliantly with spaghetti and it’s a great way to empty the fridge. Just beat a few eggs in a big bowl and then throw in, cooked pasta, cooked meat like bacon, ham, or sausage, cooked veggies, try peas, roast peppers, courgettes, a bit of garlic, loads of grated cheese and herbs and seasoning. Stir it all about, tip into a large frying pan and cook until it starts to brown underneath. Finish it off under the grill until gorgeously golden.

This is great chopped into wedges with a salad for lunch and the kids love ‘pasta pie’ for supper.

Have you got any clever ways to use up leftover pasta that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them…

More Tasty Pasta Dishes…

Tuna Pasta Bake
Quick Pasta Carbonara
Big Spaghetti Bolognese
Ripe Tomato and Basil Pasta
Ham, Roast Garlic & Spinach Pasta
Vegetable Lasagne

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A Piece of Pasta Pie