Monday, March 26, 2012

Portion Control with Numbers

Providing you have a kitchen scale at this point the list is going to be fairly simple for you to adapt to. While most magazines provide visuals such as; The size of a tennis ball, the size of a deck of cards, and things like half a baseball. Face it, though all of us know what these things are and probably messed with them at some point in our life "eyeballing" portions, unless its left overs to Tupperware, doesn't cut it. So, while going through my plethora of cookbooks I found an actual numbered list. It's from Williams and Sonoma Essentials of Healthful Cooking.

They are...

Raw Veggies 1/2 cup,  2-2 1/2oz,  60-75g


Leaf Veggies 1-2 cups,  1-2oz,  30-60g

Fruit (fresh) 1/2 cup,  2-3oz,  60-90g

Pasta, Rice, Dried Cereal (cooked) 1/2 cup,  3oz.,  90g

Meat, Poultry, Seafood 3oz.,  90g

Dried Beans (cooked) 1/2 cup,  3 1/2oz,  105g

Nuts 1/3 cup,  1 1/2 oz.,  45g 

Cheese 1 1/2 oz.,  45g 

Not everything has Cup measurements and the reason I highlighted the Gram measurement is because it's probably one of the best ways to nail your portions via weight. Don't worry if you go over a little bit. (like me I accidentally cut my meat into 4oz's instead of 3oz) But I'll be mindful next time. Also, PAY ATTENTION to the SERVING SIZES LISTED on the back of the boxes when it comes to cereal. For my oats in the morning it's 40grams for a 150 calorie single serving. So in this case the 90 grams is a little too high for me. But for those just starting out it's probably right up your alley.

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