To wonder why dh uses so much meat in a pasta bake?

[MadJeffBarn]

Bit of a random one, and lighthearted. Dh is responsible for dinner two days a week and always makes a pasta bake. He will use a whole pack of bacon. That's fine, he makes enough to last on Monday for tea too. But then he'll use 4 chicken breasts, and two tins of sweetcorn to bulk it out. If I fancy a bacon sandwich and use two slices, he has to go out and buy a whole new pack. With the amount of extras he puts in I try to explain that he really doesn't need to use so much, if he wants to bulk it out use more veg cause we're on a pretty strict budget (£40 a week for 2 adults and 2 kids) and he seems to be using enough food in one pasta bake that could be used in 4 meals rather than two. But he's insisting that he needs all of it. He then uses nearly a whole bag of grated mozzerella on top. I don't really like pasta bake because of this, I like pasta with a bit of meat, not meat with a little bit of pasta 😂

My dh once made a spag Bol for two of us with a 1kg pack of mince. He served up the whole thing.

To be honest, I'd just eat it the next day or freeze the extra meat that shouldn't be going in the pasta bake before he cooks it.

purple that made me laugh, my dh has done the same 😂

Occasionally he gets me a bowl of cereal and it's enough for about fifteen! He's talk with a big appetite and doesn't realise I'll be enormous (and bankrupt) if I ate like him. We now keep a scales out on the kitchen top for weighing suitable portions.

He cooks twice a week and always does pasta bake? Why?

I agree with you - DH and I generally think using meat in pasta is a bit of a waste as the pasta in a sauce with some veg is enough of a meal in itself, and the meat would make another meal. But I don't know what to suggest for you to convince your DH!

By DP does this. He got it from his parents.

I think that 400g of mince is plenty for a lasagna for the 4 of us, twice (ie. dinner, then packed lunch/leftovers for all of us again)

His mum would use 1kg for one lasagna, for one meal - and the amount of fish they use for something like a fish pie/kedgeree boggles my mind (my mum padded it out with egg)

The day I made/served my version of lasagna to FIL was hilarious - his face was a picture, because I actually had layers of cheese sauce and more than 3 pasta layers in the dish.. he thought I was depriving him!

bert it's his and the kids favourite meal, and one of my least favourites, so they tend to have it when I'm at work, and I'll either eat at work or force some down if I'm really hungry when I get home, but I do 8-8 Sunday and Monday and by the time I get home I'm rarely hungry anyway. He's also not a very confident cook, so he sticks to what he knows x

Get him a recipe book from the kids for Christmas and see if they can persuade him to make something else. Preferably not pasta bake!

My dh did an unofficial cooking course where he cooked one new thing a week, which had to involve some sort of vegetables. That worked really well. In his bachelor days he only cooked three things so just didn't think to do anything else.

Pasta is empty calories with little nuitritional value.

You dhs version is healthier.

He should be making more kinds of meals.

Buy him a cookery book for Xmas.

And here I'm wondering what pasta beak is... ;)

*bake

DP is the same and I find it really wasteful, I guess it's different upbringings. My mum was very much a bulk-it-out-with-veg person and I would happily eat mostly vegetarian but his family are very traditional in terms of men getting their meat.
We've finally compromised with chilli having an equal weight of beans to meat (as otherwise it's pretty much just Bolognese sauce) and freezing leftovers.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/04/eating-pasta-can-help-you-lose-weight--study/

Pasta is empty calories with little nutritional value

...but it tastes good.

Pasta does have nutritional value, but it's better to have less pasta and a higher proportion of protein in the dish. I use beans, pulses and veggies and not so much meat though.

Well I prefer more meat and sauce with my pasta bake but if you're on a tight budget he should just up the veg.

My DH only cooks the one day a week I work (fair enough) he always cooks chicken nuggets, pasta and veg and manages to use almost every kitchen utensil we own. I literally don't know how he manages it I'll come home to a plate of broccoli, nuggets and pasta and four dirty saucepans, and a thousand spatulas and wooden spoons in the sink.

'If you currently eat more than 90g (cooked weight) of red and processed meat a day, the Department of Health advises that you cut down to 70g, which is the average daily consumption in the UK.'

Pasta is not empty calories! Carbohydrates are a macro nutrient - needed for energy! Yes, you should eat other things too and too many carbs will cause weight gain (as unused carbs are converted to fat), but carbs in themselves are not unhealthy. I think the dh's version is less healthy - all that processed meat, a known carcinogen.

Of course pasta isn't empty calories, especially if you choose wholemeal.

purple that's what I thought

Surely everyone needs carbs anyway?

If he's using all that chesse, does he need to put any meat in it? I realise this idea may blow his mind😂 but it is good to eat non-meat meals a few times a week.

bakeoff that's where I come in ;)

4 chicken breasts is madness as is a whole pack of bacon!

To me doing a pasta bake means I could use 1 chicken breast and save money! Sounds wasteful

You dhs version is healthier. He should be making more kinds of meals

No, it's not healthy or healthier. Sorry, but a whole packet of processed red meat plus a ton of mozzarella cheese is not healthy at all. He could just make it with chicken and sweetcorn and one or two bacon slices for flavour and a sprinkling of strong-tasting cheese on top, as well as adding more veg like carrot or spinach. If he used wholewheat pasta, that would be a healthy meal.

Bacon really is not good for you- there is a proven scientific link between processed meat and bowel cancer, so this should not be promoted as some sort of healthy meal.