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.

Not sure why you’re asking this forum. As two-thirds of UK adults are overweight and more than a quarter are obese, clearly most portions are too large. You don’t get obese from eating vegetables.

I doubt anyone is getting fat on mince beef either, irrespective of portion size.

It depends what else is in the meal.

Exactly.

Some people have more meat, less potato/pasta. Some have less meat more potato/pasta.

Lots of people on the other thread mention lots of veg etc so it makes good portion. That wasn't the case with the specific recipe though. It did have 450g of potato iirc so that makes up for less meat and makes it filling, but some people would do simply less potato for more meat.

For me it depends on what meal and meat it is as well. So steak with veg and bit of potato is 250g, or whole chicken breast, but fish is usually 130g (that's how big my fillets are), mince depends on dish 250g in burger, but I don't have much sides with it and so on. Chilli is also more but I have just 150g of rice which is much smaller than standard portion.

As I said on previous thread it is like with the "i can't finish whole 12 inch pizza" then it turns out it's because there is garlic bread and slaw on a side or similar. Just personal preferences.

I don't work it out. I just buy a packet and cook it.

500g pack does 6 of us but 2dc have very small appetites and probably have like..80g or less of that. As they get older we'll probably have to use more.

No idea I don't weigh it or really look at the weight on the pack. I just buy what I think is enough.

80 to 120 g
A bit more for a celebration

Typical week less than 250g per
Person

Health environment and wallet are all factors there

Not sure why you’re asking this forum. As two-thirds of UK adults are overweight and more than a quarter are obese, clearly most portions are too large. You don’t get obese from eating vegetables.

Not sure why any of that means that the OP shouldn't ask the question. Presumably she's interested in what most people do. Presumably she won't only get results from obese people. And where did she say her question was related to weight loss. And finally, no you don't get obese from eating vegetables. But it's probably more likely the refined carbs and highly processed food that are making people obese than eating a slightly larger portion of fresh home-cooked meat.

Anyway... I use a 500g pack of mince to make ragu for 2 adults and 2 teens. Other than that, I tend not to go by weight, as I buy e.g. x number of chicken thighs or a whole chicken. People then eat however much, and if there are leftovers, great - we'll use them for packed lunches or dinner next day.

We don’t eat a huge amount of mincemeat but 500g does 3/4 and I sometimes stretch to 6 because I add loads of veg and make two days dinner, usually by adding kidney beans for chilli on day 2.

I did a pasta dish with two chicken breasts and most of a ring of chorizo for four of us this weekend.

My Dad was very anti mince unless you ground the meat yourself, which he did but he had run a restaurant for years.

I try and eat meat where you can see it was actually part of an animal.

I need a 600g pack of chicken to make fajitas for 4 of us, with carrots, pepprrs, onions and sweetcorn in there too (plus the wraps, cheese, salsa etc. Its definitely not an authentic recipe)

But 300-400g of chicken&chorizo (total) is fine in a jambalaya as the rice is the main ingredient.

500g mince does us 4-5 portions of chilli or bologenese or shephards pie. Or a keema.

A 500g gammon does us two meals plus sandwiches.

Family is 2 adults, plus a 9&11yo who are active so have similar if not bigger nutritional needs to relatively inactive adults.

Over the years DH& my meat intake has shrunk to accommodate DDs growing appetites.. replaced with more vegetables.

500g mince will do 2 adults and 1 DC plus at least one large portion leftover. So I’d say 150g per adult?

2-3 chicken breasts for the three of us with no leftovers or just enough for DC to have more. She eats quite a lot for 3 though!

Steak-big as possible. We had huge rump steaks the other night, DD had half of one so I bought 3 and froze half. Next time will only buy 2.

We tend to do protein heavy, light carb meals though. So small amount of pasta, large amount of meat for example.

I like the “hello fresh”, we enjoy the boxes, but some of them are small!!

They are very easy to recreate though, doubling or 1.5 the ingredients.

Personally, in one day, I would prefer to serve two massive nutritionally balanced dinners, with fruit and yoghurt for afters, and if it cold winter veg soup for starters, and everyone full rather than the cupboards being raided for sugar/salt filled snacks.

This is a very good point as my concern in suddenly potentially halving the meat in our dinners is that we will not feel full.

If it’s a curry or stir-fry, I’ll use one large chicken breast (280 - 310g) and bulk up with vegetables and noodles for three adults for one meal.
For chilli con carne I’ll use a 300g pack of 20% fat mince, tin of tomatoes, tin of kidney beans, tomato purée, 3 peppers and a chilli pepper plus chilli powder, if not hot enough! This is enough for 6 adult portions, when served with rice or a JP, so I guess it’s an average of 100g of protein per adult, per meal…

100g of meat per person.

The recipes aren’t just meat in the hello fresh boxes

last night we had for starters clear chicken soup, for dinner Fragrant Veggie Noodle Stir-Fry, it has mushrooms and broccoli and mange tout and peanuts (when the box came the peanuts were salted - I use unsalted now) hubby likes an egg with his - which hello fresh say fry - I poach it now, and afters we had a cheesecake with fresh strawberries.

Yesterday was a busy day for everyone, and I’m pleased to say there was no russelling in the cupboards last night.

I try and do vegetarian dinners at least three/four times a week

that's over 1/2lb of meat per person?

seems rather large to me.

I remember the days when 1/4 burger was seen as MASSIVE, now it's normal.

another very helpful response.

For me and people around my size, I would generally use 125g per person.

But it depends who you are catering for. A 6ft manual worker/rugby player would obviously need a bigger portion.

I am in my 30s and 125g patty was never considered MASSIVE where I am from. Just normal.

400g roughly between 2 adults and a 3yr old, same with chicken we don’t tend to bulk it out with anything.

Depends on the recipe and the meat cost. Something like chicken thighs which are cheap and are served as a main then I would go for about 200g per person. Something like mince which is mixed in with other things and bulked out with lentils etc, I would only use about 100g per person.

I don’t think I’ve ever thought about weight of food per person. Who cares?

Portion control...

I didn't realise people worked it out like this. I just look at the packet and think how many people will I feeding and work from there.