How many portions of bolognese or chilli do you get from 450g mince?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Thinking of batch cooking a large pot and freezing some portions. It's only me that eats meat at home, so don't want any waste. Decent quality beef mince is about $7 a pound, how many portions would you get from this?

I have not cooked with mince for years and years!

Usually 8 adult portions, chilli was 10 last time. I use plenty of veg, two tins of tomato, tin chickpeas and tin red kidney beans.

If you buy the packets of herbs/spice for cottage pie/ casserole etc you get the taste of meat without needing to put it in. And they’re often vegan too.

Why add the tiniest amount of mince to a meal and claim it's a portion?
DS prefers it with meat, he's perfectly happy with 50g-100g, just doesn't like none. He will eat veggie when I cook veggie just prefers some meat or chicken.

@Svara

Why add the tiniest amount of mince to a meal and claim it's a portion? DS prefers it with meat, he's perfectly happy with 50g-100g, just doesn't like none. He will eat veggie when I cook veggie just prefers some meat or chicken.

I mean, if he likes it that's fine, but let's be fair it's not a bolognese if it has a tablespoon of mince and 10x that amount in lentils

*But why not just have one or two decent mince-based meals and do a vegetable pasta bake or a lentil curry the other nights?

Why add the tiniest amount of mince to a meal and claim it's a portion?

Just add a stock cube if you want the meaty flavour.*

Exactly. If you chuck a load of celery, lentils, aubergine and butternut squash into a spag bol, it's basically stew.

Lazy day with the meat cooked with a jar sauce: feeds two for dinner with enough for leftover lunch next day.
Bulked out with all the goodies suggested above, 6-8 portions or more.

i tend to make a base (tomatoes, onions, garlic, stock cube) - plus carrots & lentils to bulk it out. Will then use that for:
chilli (add kidney beans & chilli)
bolognese
cottage pie
6 to 8 portions probably - and some for my cat.

Is this the new munsnet chicken?

I mean, if he likes it that's fine, but let's be fair it's not a bolognese if it has a tablespoon of mince and 10x that amount in lentils
I don't put lentils in bolognaise. It's mostly onion, carrot, celery, mince and tinned tomatoes, still makes 8. Usually 500g mince. Chilli made 10 last time with the same plus peppers, kidney beans and chickpeas.

@Svara

I mean, if he likes it that's fine, but let's be fair it's not a bolognese if it has a tablespoon of mince and 10x that amount in lentils I don't put lentils in bolognaise. It's mostly onion, carrot, celery, mince and tinned tomatoes, still makes 8. Usually 500g mince. Chilli made 10 last time with the same plus peppers, kidney beans and chickpeas.

I'm not referring you in particular.

But most of these recipes for bolognese are just mince with random tins chucked in to bulk them all out.

Which again, is absolutely fine but let's not pretend it's a bolognese

At least 10, but bulked out with lots of veg (onions, peppers, spinach, grated carrot, tinned tomatoes etc and sometimes with leeks or added lentils to make it go further).

I always vacuum seal and freeze them flat for quick defrosting.

As a kid my mum used to add a can of value baked beans (mushed) to stretch it out even further.

For bolognese, at least 4 really hefty portions, but I bulk it up with red lentils, finely diced carrots, celery and mushrooms, etc.

More for chilli, because of kidney beans (plus spices) added to the basic batch-cook.

Surely people are just using ‘bolognese’ as a catch-all term for pasta sauce! Which is why I don’t use the actual sauce title unless I’m making the proper sauce in question - I’ve lived in Italy, I know how seriously they take their sauces! Most ‘bolognese’ sauces made outside Italy aren’t authentic anyway so I don’t think it matters if people add extra stuff into them...

@spidersareshitheads protein is so important, these stupidly small portions give very little of it. Bulking out with chickpeas and beans adds a little protein but also more carbs which is not great.

@Nnique

Surely people are just using ‘bolognese’ as a catch-all term for pasta sauce! Which is why I don’t use the actual sauce title unless I’m making the proper sauce in question - I’ve lived in Italy, I know how seriously they take their sauces! Most ‘bolognese’ sauces made outside Italy aren’t authentic anyway so I don’t think it matters if people add extra stuff into them...

I think you are missing the point of this thread spectacularly and making yourself look like a slight dick, sorry ! 🙄

@fairylightsandwaxmelts I don’t use tiny amounts - I’ve already said about 100g is about how much we have, sometimes slightly more. That’s not a tiny portion. It’s a perfectly good amount of meat. I don’t generally add loads of stuff into my pasta sauces either. I sometimes put in some mushrooms, aubergine or courgette but that’s because I’m looking for a lighter sauce or more variety. One of our favourite pasta dishes is mostly courgette. Delicious! I don’t have to stretch my pasta sauces so I generally don’t, and the flavour isn’t compromised at all. I do tend to bulk out chillies because we like beans and they’re good for us, and our chilli meals are always loaded with several sides so we really do just need the basic protein amount. In that case 50g + beans (which will add another 20g of protein per serving) is plenty.

Perhaps some people don’t like very meaty pasta sauces. I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure they’re allowed to cook and eat their food however they want!

Our menu this week:

Roast beef and trimmings - no skimping on portions
Pork loin steaks - no skimping on portions
Turkish spiced Chicken - no skimping on portions
Korean beef short ribs - no skimping on portions
Chorizo, butter bean and spinach stew - plenty to go around but very little meat, maybe 75g for 4 portions. Doesn’t impair the flavour one bit.
Sea bass - again no skimping on portions
Chilli - here we have a mostly vegetable/plant meal, really, with meat for flavour, so you could say a small portion of the meat itself, but it’s certainly not a skimpy meal once you add pico de gallo and avocado.
Roast pork belly, again no skimping on portions.

So I think we’re doing just fine as far as meat intake/good food is concerned and if we want to have a little less of it here and there in whatever way works best for us that’s fully our prerogative!

@Massivecoffeecake how?? I’m replying to people who are getting sniffy about other people choosing to add extra vegetables into a sauce! Doesn’t matter if it’s no longer strictly a bolognese, does it, since It likely wasn’t one to begin with...people are cooking what they’re happy to eat. How am I the dick, exactly?

UmbilicusProfundus
Not that much of a big appetite then @Sleepeatrepeat. How many meals does a Mumsnet chicken last you 

I do tend to over do the pasta!!

I can't understand the chicken ones though. My mum can get a decent meal, sandwiches and soup out of one...I tend to.pick at it out the fridge so normal 1 meal of 3 of us and a sandwich

I got about 11 meals from one chicken in lockdown. And gave some to the dogs.

I roasted the chicken and shredded all the meat off it and gave the minging bits to the dogs.

Then I portioned the meat up into handfuls and froze.

Then I made meals that didn't need much meat but in themselves made several portions. So, curry, chicken and veg pie, fajitas, soup, chicken fried rice etc. Rather than things that needed whole slices of meat like a roast.

The freezing/reheating thing didn't give us food poisoning, I never pay much attention to that unless it's rice anyway.

Nothing like an MN portion sizes thread to bring out the bunfight tendencies in people (myself included)!

I love cooking and I love eating. I’m sure if we all could sit down around a table bountifully laden with delicious foods we’d get along just fine!

I split 500g into x3 portions and each portion does 2 meals.

So 6 meals from 500g for us (we add a carb - so rice if it's chilli / pasta with bolognese and salad or veg too to make it a proper sized meal)

I routinely refrigerate/freeze and re-heat rice and have never had any issues. It’s perfectly safe if you do it correctly.

I get 8-9 meals (mixed child and adult) out of 500g of mince for chilli or bolognese. I used to only get about 4-5 but started putting loads of veg in it and my waistband has thanked me for it!

Six to eight portions. For bolognaise I bulk with carrot, onion, celery, mushrooms and lentils. For chilli I bulk with onion, various mixed beans, peppers and corn.

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