Pasta!
Pasta! We love Pasta! And we learned a very helpful trick for this favorite food several years ago.
We measure out exactly what we need dry by weighing it. Then it slides into the water and cooks up. We serve ourselves the portion. At first the portions seemed small, desperately small. The deal was if we were still hungry we could cook more, but we just wanted to see if one portion would do it. We were surprised that if there aren’t seconds to have, then…we really don’t want them badly enough to start over by boiling the water and getting out the pasta and getting the scale out (you get the idea). Now we really are satisfied with just one small portion–who knew?
Cooking just enough is the tip of this Thursday.
My husband and I have been doing that for years now and we also make larger portions of vegetables to plop on top. When I was first getting used to the desperately small portions, I added bean sprouts to my noodles. I doubt this would appeal to many people (Joe was grossed out), but it helped me mentally shift from the 80′s pile o’ pasta I was used to seeing. And eating. And fatting up from.
This is a great tip. I quit using pasta a long time ago because I just couldn’t seem to get the portions right. As gross as bean sprouts may sound to some, I opt for shredded cabbage which really is good with a healthy sauce on it. Using this tip, I might just venture into the pasta waters now and then.