To wonder if I am greedy or do some people serve really small portions?

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

I don't think I'm greedy....I'm a slim person...size 10-12 UK and 5 foot 6.

I don't binge or anything but when I eat a roast dinner, I do want more than 2 potatoes!

When MIL cooks anything she always seems to underestimate amounts....so there's for eg 2 potatoes per adult and one per kids...not a lot of meat and two other vegetables....curry...she'll do enough rice so people get two dessert spoonsfull.

That's not enough is it?

I suppose maybe some people are used to filling up on potatoes/Yorkshire pudding because that is the cheap bit?

I know I usually have much less meat on my plate than many people do, and that's the expensive part. Personally I am all about the gravy, roast potatoes and greens and can take or leave the meat.

If originally people were serving lots of roast potatoes to make the meal stretch then that very quickly becomes what a roast dinner "should" be like; people can be very conservative about things like that! And then it gets handed down through the family and across the generations - the innate rightness of a certain number of roast potatoes.

There used to be a pub in York (and still could be) that served plates of Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes with lashings of gravy. Free every Sunday.

Mmmmmmm.

a pub where my dad lives give you unlimited roast potatoes at Sunday lunch!

A local, very good caff, serves a fantastic Sunday lunch with roasties, mashed, boiled new and .... wait for it....chips.

Worra, in my experience the Irish do tend to over provide food and drink for visitors, you would never dream of letting someone go hungry. If its not meal time you will at least get tea and scones or whiskey at xmas. I'm Irish by the way.

Actually I've just remembered the Potato Incident when my mum and (Irish) stepdad visited me in London. I took them out to dinner and my stepdad looked on horrified when his serving of spuds came out, four tiny new potatoes! I said not to worry, and ordered another couple of portions, which were also miniscule. I ended up having to order five extra portions of potatoes, just for him! He still talks about it to this day.

Thanks to this thread I made roast potatoes as part of dinner last night. This is what I consider a reasonable portion. (We might have had second but we were too full to need them so those were bubble and squeak this morning. ) The plait things are filled with cheese and leeks.

That said I always overcater because I like leftovers and I worry about there not being enough. I make the same amount of roast potatoes (1 bag) for two people as my parents would for six.

Your dinner looks really nice

Can I come for tea please?

Did you make the plait things it buy them . They look yummy

That looks like the kind of dinner I like to have! Yummmmmm.

If everyone's coming round I'll need more potatoes!

Those plait are Linda McCartney leek and cheese things and can be bought from shops. These ones came from Sainsburys. They looked quite small in the packet but puffed up okay.

We eat what I think are normal portions ( all slim.. women size 10, and none of the men are even 11 stone) on weekdays... all busy so some evenings dinner is beans on toast, or a jacket spud spinach and cheese.

BUT when I do a roast it is huge. I'm used to feeding 6 of us, and having left overs... at least 4 roasties, and a mountain of different veg...and yorkshires regardless of what meat we are eating.

But it's only once a month ( my kids choose sunday dinner and we have a few favourites)

Xmas dinner however... usually at least 12 of us and we eat like kings. I don't plate up.. everyone helps themselves from the serving dishes... everyone has their favourite meat or veg so I just cook tons and the left overs tend to disappear over boxing day :)

DS1 beat his record last year... he ate at work (he cooked for his service users) then had another dinner at home... and then a top up at his mates. He totalled 26 pigs in blankets alone... and how he didn't explode I'll never know!
But he's always on the go, skates when he's not working, and can't seem to get above 10 stone even though he wants to!

I think regular gluttony is bad news but the yearly feast is fabulous!

some people are just not that interested in food and it seems a thimbleful will keep them going for a month.
and then some are just mean with things, including food.
sadly, i'm from a family of troughers and all of us battle with our massive appetites.
i'm currently down to two small meals a day and its hard.

Ds even as a 4 yo would say he needed a "big dinner". He hated his food being served up in a bowl or on a kids plate. He loves things like curry, bolognese served with lots of rice, noodles, pasta but not spuds. He hates mash and gags when he tries to force it down. I used to get that with my mum (thinking that lunch cancels out dinner) and she used to give ds stuff like 2 quarters of a sandwich, 2 cherry tomatoes, 5 salt your own crisps and that's it. He'd then ask for his proper food. :o He's nearly 12 and asks for a big dinner the minute he comes home from school.

I am a greedy cow, but Carluccio's??? Bloody hell I could eat about 4 of his main courses, stingy gits!!

RhiWirtes - that meal looks fat too big for me. Would be OK for a special occasion but not every Sunday.

Rhiwrites that's a proper dinner, although maybe a bit of cauli cheese may have been nice
Only giving two roasties is wasting everyone's time.
My sick reguarly provides 2 small pizzas, 1 shit garlic bread stick and crudités for dinner between 4 adults and 4 kids. If we are lucky she will do a quinoa salad as well

Rhiwrites, hmmm, that would be my normal meal size every day. With a decent breakfast and full lunch. I'm a size 10 when not pregnant but the older I get the more I realise that people's metabolisms are incredibly different. My 2 best friends exercise heavily 3-4 times a week and eat healthily, more so than me. They portion control too and I think they eat excellently but both struggle to maintain size 12-14. So I think there is a lot of luck involved with regards what you can eat and how you can maintain weight.

I did a roast for DF and I Yesterday so just the 2 of us and think made too many roasties

Now that is just gluttony.

My mother taught me to allow 4 roasties if you have roast parsnips too and five if not.

in my defence they are baby roasties so a potato cut into maybe 6

My lovely mil, God rest her soul cooked a chicken and a couple of pounds of spuds every Sunday. Only problem was that she would invite the kids and grandkids and added up it came to 20 people. I always ate before we went and kept food in the car for the kids.

I too couldn't bear the thought of anyone leaving my house hungry.