I find it difficult to figure out what a serving is when the recipes say the entire recipe is for 4 or 6, especially for casseroles . Some recipes in the Eating well cookbook say one cup but others say nothingIf you measure out the entire amount, the food will get cold. Any suggestions?

If you're going to cook the entire recipe, but want to put away the extra servings because only you will be eating them, it's simple: just put your own portion on the plate and put the rest away after you've eaten. Nothing to worry about getting cold that way.

The basic principle, as I understand it, is a recipe shown for servings of 4 to 6 (example) is that either
- it's to be served as a side dish, so smaller portions (1/6th), OR
- it's to be served as a main dish, so larger portions (1/4th).

Alternately, men can often eat more because of their muscle mass (genetics). So a man's portion generally might be larger.

Do you eyeball it or use a measuring cup. At this stage I do not want to eat more than one portion.

Jovina,

We've received feedback like yours recently so we're trying to be more specific as much as makes sense in our recipes. Some circumstances where we don't are often in desserts, like pies and cakes that can be easily dividable into the number of servings, or kebabs or other dishes where you're instructed in the recipe to make a certain number of the item (if you make 12 latkes and it serves 4, each serving is 3 latkes each.)

I hope that helps!

Yes that would help. Desserts are easy to divide by the number of servings if they are cakes or pies. It is casseroles or mixed meat/fish dishes, pasta and rice dishes that are difficult.
thanks for looking into this.

I would look at similar Eating Well recipes for casserole servings. I would generally give a measured cup to 1 1/2 cups as a portion for casseroles, stews, soup (unless it's all veg and then maybe two cups).

This is just an easy rule of thumb to remember.

Suz