Pasta?! Who knew...?
 

I bought a new kitchen scale last night. My old one died, so I replaced it with an analog one. While testing it out, I decided to see how much a 'serving' of angel hair pasta is. So, I weighed out two ounces and said to myself 'That's next to nothing. Interesting.'

I assumed I had the wrong number of ounces, so I checked the package. Yup, 2 ounces is right. And for that tiny, itsy bitsy little bit of pasta I get a whopping 210 calories. I'm not a calorie counter, I just try to avoid 'crap' food, but that's...wow...

Now I'm guilty. No wonder a gained a bit of weight back - I've been replacing my TV dinner type items with supposedly 'healthy' pasta, and eating 4 times the serving size. :o These things need warning labels...

Yep, you gotta watch them serving sizes. I rarely eat rice or pasta unless I measure it out or it's included in certain dishes. And I always make calorie room for it.

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Yes, I discovered how much two ounces of spaghetti actually was, and boy was I upset. I LOVE spaghetti!

Interesting. I got scales for Christmas (bright pink ones, they are very cool - just had to throw that in) and we had pasta for the first time in ages, coz I had reliable scales to measure it. I used penne pasta, and you actually get quite a lot for you serving size, once its cooked. Especially if you make a low fat sauce with heaps of veggies (and I threw prawns and smoked salmon) so for 400 calories it was a really good filling meal. I was quite suprised that my precious guesstimations at serving sizes were correct. I always look at the weight of the package, how many people it's supposed to serve and then divide the package accordingly.

I mourned my beloved pasta a bit when I started weighing it this summer. My husband and I used to just about split a box at dinner! No more! But I've learned that 3 oz is often a good amount for me now -- quite an admission for this former Pasta Queen.

I've also learned I can eat, AND LIKE, whole grain and whole wheat pastas!

Though you guys are disscussing pasta. I am just curious how many calories are in a buritor. We have them at our cafe...contents:
one large green soft tortia wrapper
scoup spoon (you know thouse big one, bigger than table spoon sofrt of like a scoup)
1 scoup spoon of each of the following:
black beans (which ones are better black or refried?)
spanish rice
lettuce
beef (or chicken marinated type meat)
1 tbls spoon of the following
sour cream
guacamole
shreaded cheese
1 teaspoon of green onions

Can you roughly estimate, what's been eaten?

p.s. I was out on vacation for 11 days over the holidays. Before that I sometimes bought this kind of buritor. Of course during days away I did not eat that much for lunch, and today when I bought it 1/2 way through eating it, I realized that I was already full, so this is why I was wondering...(p.s i was guilty I finished it, after just a few minutes, but I felt like it was stuck in my throat long after).

Yes, finding out the actual size of 2.0 oz of dry pasta was a huge shock. I used to eat a huge plate of pasta, with bread! I always use my scale now and eat lots and lots of tomato sauce and a salad :)

Just an estimate (the cheese, sour cream and guacamole servings at Qdoba are definitely bigger than a tablespoon!) - using an online calculator from Qdoba (one of my favorite burrito places):

http://www.qdoba.com/Calculate.aspx

Burritos Nutrition Facts

Selected Items: 13" Flour Tortilla, Cilantro Lime Rice, Black Beans, Chicken, Shredded Cheese & Sour Cream, Guacamole, Romaine Lettuce **

Amount per Serving:
Calories 1110 cal
Calories From Fat 370 cal
Protein 52 g
Carbs 127 g
Fat Total 41 g


At Qdoba, I always order a naked vegetarian (no tortilla, since the tortilla alone is nearly 200 calories and Qdoba doesn't have whole wheat tortillas) with black beans, romaine, salsa and rice, it's about 400 calories and is really great (I ask for extra pico de gallo and hot salsa). Sometimes I get guacamole because it's a good fat and I adore avocados :)

Burritos Nutrition Facts*
Total Serving Size (oz): 13
Selected Items: Cilantro Lime Rice (I ask for half the rice), Black Beans, Pico de Gallo, Romaine Lettuce, Corn Salsa **

Amount per Serving:
Calories 450 cal
Calories From Fat 60 cal
Protein 16 g
Carbs 77 g
Dietary Fiber 17 g
Fat Total 6 g

Oh, PS - in my opinion, black beans would be better since refried beans can contain lard.

am I the only onoe that eats more pasta whn I'm dieting

I don't eat pasta at all anymore because a "portion" just leaves me wanting a whole lot more. At first I switched to whole wheat pastas, but I had the same problem. What I've done is substitute finely sliced and sauteed cabbage or steamed broccoli as a base for (unsugared) spaghetti sauce. It's hard to eat TOO MUCH broccoli! When I really thought about it, what I wanted was the sauce and sprinkle of parmesan or rmano cheese taste. The pasta was a vehicle.

Mel

Of course not. I eat pasta too, just not all that often. Usually the only time I eat pasta is when it's included in one of my Lean Cuisines or something.

But then, I'm not dieting. For me this is a lifestyle change. I keep the Lean Cuisines around for a quick, lowfat lunch.

I just measured out some pasta last night. It was thin spaghetti, and it comes in a brown box (I forget the brand) and it's "whole wheat blend," so it's not 100% whole wheat, but it's still a little better than plain white pasta. Anyway it's 180 calories for 2oz, and there are 7 servings in a box. I make dinner for my boyfriend and me every night, so I divided the box into 3 equal parts and cook one for each meal and split what I cook evenly between his and my plates (so each 1/3 of the box is actually 2 and 1/3 servings, which means you eat 1 and 1/6 per meal, so I adjust calories accordingly).

Anyway, I used the spaghetti and broke the uncooked noodles into thirds so the noodles were not as long. Then I cooked it, added some frozen mixed veggies, and added some spices (garlic, onion, and parsley to go with the garlic & herb sauce on the chicken) and a little of the sauce from the chicken, and what a great side dish! It made HUGE servings for a side.

So that's what I do now--instead of having just pasta as the main dish, I have it as a side item with baked chicken or whatever. 2oz really is a LOT for a side dish! It didn't look like much at all uncooked, but once it was cooked and had some veggies mixed in, 1 and 1/6 serving literally took up half the plate (and they're big plates!).

Burritos! Boy was I shocked this summer to find out that Chipotle burritos had over 1000 calories! (as Glory87 noted for Qdoba).

I actually love the pasta itself, not just the sauce and parm -- I used to eat it with just butter! Like Mel, I started realizing that it didn't really stick with me. So, I still eat it, but am okay with small portions, and I usually eat it with something more filling.

Lol!! That's a great idea! There used to be (notice the tense) a restuarant near me called 'tidbits' and the plates where small and the portions were small like they are supposed to be. People complain when you don't get a trough sized plate in front of them at a restuarant...that's the problem. When you get served a box of pasta when dining out you get used to that being the normal portion size. Awful!! :)

I used to think that 2oz of spaghetti looked really small, but I guess I adjusted a while back because now it seems quite ample. I tend to end up with a ratio of 1/2 veggies 1/2 pasta when I make it, so it ends up being a ton of food.