To ask how many grams of meat you cater to each person?

[froggygroggy]

On the back of the thread about Hello Fresh/Gousto portion sizes I'd be interested to know when you buy meat in the shop and serve for dinner how many grams you work it out as per person.

I tend to buy 500-600g of meat (mince/chicken/gammon etc) for three people.

That works out 160-200 grams per person.
I'm now thinking I should downsize to the lower size pack to get to around 125g per person. I guess with mince it tends to be 250g or 500g so would probably need to stick with the 500 unless just catering for two.

Just made me think really.

125g per person

I buy a kilo for three adults but I like to make a large batch to last 2/3 days rather than piffling around cooking smaller amounts.

125g per person.

500g pack of mince for 4 people. Although if it's lasagne it gets bulked up with veg and does 6 portions.

125g a person. Although to be fair, one person eats 100g and another 150g. The other two eat the 125g.

250g mince for 2 adults & a 10YO with a pretty big appetite.

Chicken we would have one or two breasts between us depending on what we were having.

Maybe we're used to it but it doesn't feel too little

It depends on the meat, the meal/recipe and the person. The chicken breasts I buy are usually 200g each, sometimes more. A steak is usually a bit smaller. With mince I tend to use a smaller amount and bulk out with other ingredients; mainly because I don’t like the texture of mince very much!

In general, DH and I both weight-train a lot and eat quite a bit of protein so would tend towards larger portions.

id make a chilli with 400g mince and 2 cans of black beans, 2 cans of tomatoes and that would make 6 portions, so 2 meals for me and two pre- teens. Lasagne probably only 4 adult portions as less bulking. Tbh I tend to just look at size rather than weight. I buy quite a bit of pre-prepped meat and then what they say feeds two I can normally stretch to me and the kids but while we all eat meat, we tend to prefer a smaller portion.

Minced beef 125g per person.
Chicken, I think around 200g

It depends what else is in the meal. People don’t have enough protein, in general and the lower portions of meat don’t help that. What I need to eat is different than my husband. For me 60kg 5 foot 9 I try to eat 100g or more of protein a day last night that meant 145g of turkey mince it means 2 reduced fat sausages with 90g of cooked lentils. 145g of chicken breast 2 slices of bacon medallions and 1 egg and 2 egg whites. Anywhere between 125g and 200g of lean beef

I've never weighed it. I just use say a large pack of mince, make whatever I'm making with it, then eat as much as we want then freeze the rest.
Chicken breasts we never eat as breasts, but if I'm making say a curry then it's one breast each, chopped up, made into curry, eat what we want and freeze the rest.

200g per adult. Child may eat anything from 0-300 depending on mood and growth spurts.

My bigger problem is DH expects meat with every single meal whereas I’d prefer it 2-3 times a week.

We use 300 grams of mice or chicken for our family of four (2 adults and 2 children aged 6) per dish. We'll probably have to increase that as they get older, although DD doesn't really like the texture of meat and prefers fish or vegetarian options.

100-125g pp

Sometimes less. I've had to budget tightly before and can make meat "stretch" with additional pulses or veggies. And things like if I did Bolognese, I would stir the pasta and meat sauce together and serve (the meat 'sticks' to the pasta)... rather than what most people seem to do of dolloping a huge pile of meat sauce on top. (Like second photo).
Uses far less sauce/meat.

I don't always see meat as the "main" part of a meal, just another ingredient. We tend to go for ⅓-½ of the meal being veggies, ¼ meat, rest carbs.

... this will sound rude...

But what was the point of this answer??

OP: "How much meat do you use?"
You: "don't know"

500g for three adults, one teen and one child.

I get 750g pack which does 4 adult meals and 1 child. So maybe 170 per adult bit less for child .

One large chicken breast each
500-700g mince between 4 adults
3 sausages each for 4 adult males and two for me (woman)
1/4 of a large chicken, never any left overs

But what was the point of this answer??

It's like those Amazon reviews where people just say 'bought this for my brother'.

Some meals are more meat heavy than others. I'd use a 400g mince for the four of us (two adults and two older teenagers) but the same amount of mince would do two days of spaghetti bolognaise.

Last time I made 'Bolognese' I used 750g Turkey mince , but I don't use a jarred sauce, I used a rasher of smoked bacon, an onion, mushrooms, two carrots, a large courgette all finely diced, that did 8 adult meals and ten for DS (latter only large ice cube size) , the veg and chopped tomatoes add a lot of bulk, whereas I think if you just use meat and a jar of sauce (this is what happens at my brother's) it won't go as far.

500g mince does our family of four (DC 3 and 8) two meals quite easily.

I’m guessing here. Steak, 180g pp. Chicken, about the same. Mince, I buy a kilo to make bolognese or shepherds pie. It feeds 5 of us. And the 3 kids take leftovers to school the next day.

Admittedly large portions but I would use 250g per adult tbh if using mince beef.

Oh and 3 tins of chopped tomatoes

Its variable depending on what we are eating and who cooks. But generally if I use a 500g pack of meat I'd expect that to last 2 nights (for 2 adults and a 4 yr old), and if I use a larger pack I'd expect it to last 3-4 nights (or go in the freezer). So I guess about 100g per adult, and less for a child.

I tend to bulk out the meat with veg or pulses to make it go further - cheaper, healthier and more environmentally friendly