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?

Our family motto at get togethers is:

'Never Knowingly Under Catered' .

Well, what's 'a roast' dinner?

If it means roast meat of some kind, and non starchy vegetables, then two roast potatoes is fine. I presume this means 4 half potatoes?
It's dinner, not the last supper!

I presume you had lunch and breakfast?

I know some people don't eat if they're going out for a meal later, and this can make portion size and the meal very stressful as you are running on empty.

Portion distortion is fuelling bad health.
Meat and carbs should be as big as your fist, and non starch veg fill the rest of your plate.
Two potatoes sounds like a lot if they're big and halved (so there are 4 halves). If they're roasted in lard/ duck fat, that's a lot of energy.

Venus as I said in my 2nd post the potatoes are not big.

And come on....you can go on about health all you like but I don't eat a roast dinner weekly...and when I do, like many others I like a lot of it!

I don't care about whose eaten lunch and breakfast! I can still eat 5 potatoes thanks.

My mil is like this but I think it's more about control than ignorance - her way of saying she doesn't really want us there

We have a relative who under-caters - we had Sunday lunch with them once and when I saw the bowl of roast spuds on the table I thought, there must be another one... but there wasn't. Oddly, we found out that her teenaged son regularly raids the fridge. I can't imagine why...

I would reckon 3 roast potatoes (as in, about 3/4 of a baking potato) is about right, with another one with gravy for seconds. After a proper roast lunch, I'll have a banana for my supper, and if we're having guests for Sunday lunch, I'll assume the same will apply to them and do 3 roast potatoes per person (including for those I know won't want 3), plus extras for seconds and probably a few for luck.

Cold roast potatoes are, after all, the food of the gods. With salt. They are never wasted.

PS, Re Venus, we tend to eat quite small portions during the week, hate huge restaurant portions - and my BMI is on the low side of normal. But if you're making a roast, for God's sake make a decent one!

This is what I love about visiting my Afro-Caribbean and African friends ( I'm African) no chance of this happening massive portion sizes and good food too! Sometimes need to stop them feeding you!

I am a right trougher and never feel people older than say 60 serve enough food. I think you eat less as you get older, you just don't need as many calories. If I go out for lunch with my mum she eats about a quarter of what I would deem sufficient. But she serves a shed load when we go over as she is used to me and DH (neither of us is overweight...just bloody greedy!).

Venus 2 potatoes I take to mean 2 roast-potato-sized lumps, so 2 halves of a smallish potato.

Not overweight either I think we tend to like proper food but not so much cake and sweets

Yeah - people aren't eating 5 WHOLE potatoes, they're eating 5 roast potatoes. iyswim?

So, sya a tennis ball sized potato might do 2-3 roast potatoes :)

This reminds me of the pizza thread where a poster said they serve one pizza to two adults and their 3 dc. Can't remember who it was.

Older people often don't "get" pizza. The pil would serve one pizza for everyone and you'd have some salad on the side. I agree that people do tend to eat too much (a whole big pizza each is exaggerating, imo) but one slice is a joke.

The pil were legendary in their catering stinginess. One time they invited the whole family (15 people) to mil's birthday. The fare consisted of one small bag of prepared lettuce, one small bag of oven chips and a salmon - a very small salmon. There was much (secret) giggling as we had to put on Oscar-winning performances of pretending to be heartily eating one chip and a lettuce leaf.

Two roast spuds! I have 5, sometimes 6!

I think when you're cooking for guests it's always better to make too much rather than too little. What's left over doesn't have to be wasted, I usually make enough for my dp to take a mini roast dinner to work the next day for lunch.

It's not even 10am and after reading this thread I could demolish a roast right now!

Yes, I don't understand when you're entertaining, why be mean? You can economise for a month afterwards and eat nothing but boiled potatoes.

I cannot abide by meanness with food. I eat healthily and small portions but I would not infringe this on anyone else. I am a born grazer.

When having guests, I serve enough food in case they wish to have seconds. I buy an assortment of desserts, drinks and snacks.

I cannot believe that some people measure the amount of food they plan to serve. What if your guests want 10 potatoes. They may not have eaten all day!

I have a friend like this she doesn't really like food

Sadly her children are following her eating issues

She snacks a lot and is a few stone overweight but doesn't understand why

All my other friends are quite the opposite. A friend piles the food on mine and ds plate her mum is the same her mums roast dinners are legendary and she still makes me eat two Brussels sprouts as she did when I was little and now ds too we don't argue between the gagging as the rest of the dinner is so amazing

And another friend who's mum is officially the best cook in the world sorry mum they always have a three course dinner every day we going for dinner next week I can't wait

Gah, it's miserly to give out small portions.

I eat tiny portions and feel bad for people who have catered for me as I can't do their food justice. Thankfully DH has a better appetite than me and I can offload my food onto him.

BUT when I cater (which is often) for other people I remember how my appetite should used to be and then add some more again.

Oh just decline the invite, and start inviting them to yours, and show them how it is done.

My MIL would serve up a tea spoon of food for me and the kids each, and a mahoosive amount for her son. He never noticed, and scoffed the lot from his overfilled bulging plate, while me and the kids had food on less than a quarter of our plates.

MIL is like this - tiny portions and I always end up hungry . My family have always served larger portions . Especially with a Sunday roast .

MILand FIL are overweight whilst my side are not. I think they must snack a lot in between meals where we don't .

I eat healthy all week just so I can eat a minimum of 19 roast potatoes on a Sunday
although mine are a bit smaller than average.
I eat at least 3 (on a fork dipped in gravy) whilst serving up, about 10 with dinner and about 6 over the course of the evening each time I go into the kitchen.

Roast potatoes are my life!

I like to think this quote from 'Wuthering Heights' (my altered version obviously) sums up how much they mean to me

My love for Roast potatoes resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. I am roast potatoes! They're always, always on my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.

I could quite happily just have 2 roasties (and often do) for myself so can see where that could come from, but would always ensure that there were loads more for guests / family.

At the same time, I would also have loads of veg - at least 3 different types and lots of them because I prefer veg to potatoes. I always make too much of the veg, but it is great as a kind of bubble and squeak thing the next day so nothing wasted.

Sometimes I think people just have no empathy for the fact that others do things differently!

Part of the fun of the roast dinner is snacking on roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips for a loooong time at the table, after the meal.

Boy, I need to go buy parsnips.

In threads like this I always bring up my aunt. Who once, at a celebratory type meal, (so not a regular dinner), served 5 salmon fillets between 7 adults and two toddler children.

And thought that was normal.

(hint: It's not).

I think I can win this thread. My MIL put on ONE EGG to boil, to make egg mayonnaise sandwiches for FIVE of us.

My DH had to sneak an extra 3 eggs into the pan when she wasn't looking. Her face when she saw the "over-catering" was a picture.