Ok, so I am planning my meals for today and decided to have pasta with tomato sauce and veggies tonight. The serving size is 2 oz. I am having the Barilla Plus corkscrew shaped rotini noodles, how much is 2 oz??? I have allowed myself 2 servings, but don't know what 4 oz would look like either. Is this cooked or uncooked? Please help! Thanks!

The calories per serving on a box of pasta are for dry pasta.

Sorry I can't help you "eyeball" the portion size. I'm a scale freak and weigh everything! Maybe you can get a cheap little scale at Wal-Mart or Target. Does is say on the box 1/2 cup, I remember seeing that one a box of pasta, so that would be 1/2 cup dry pasta? Unless of course the box say cooked pasta.

What I do (since I don't have a food scale and never have) is look at the number of portions per box. So, if I am trying to cook 4 portions and there are 8 in the box, I'll cook half the box.

IMHO a food scale is an important calorie counting tool, especially for non-packaged items like produce and bakery bread, and it's not very expensive. So if you're in it for the long haul you might consider picking one up. But for stuff in a box, dividing out portions would work just as well. Oh - and the info on the box is definitely for dry pasta.

Fair warning - pasta portions can come as a bit of shock the first time you measure them! It's not really a big bang for your calorie buck. I usually make one serving along with lots and lots of veggies and some gardenburger crumbles, TVP, or cannelini beans for protein.

Yeah foodscales are the way forward! For pasta I use the thumbrule two handfuls per person if its fusilli or penne etc, for long spaghetti I have a tupperware box that measures out a portion.

the box's nutrition information is for dry pasta. It has to be, because the longer you cook it, the more water will be absorbed - and the bigger the pasta will get. So an undercooked pasta will take up less space and weigh less than the same starting portion that is cooked longer. Same calories, different sized cooked amounts. Ok, science class dismissed!

I also agree that pasta is not a good buy for your calorie buck. As much as I love it, once I found out how many calories are in a "serving" I figured I could have more of some thing else for the same amount of calories. Whoever thought 2 oz of pasta is a serving has never been to a restaurant (or to my house for dinner : )

For a very small shaped pasta (like alphabet macaroni or orzo) a dry 2 oz portion is about 1/4 cup. Larger size, like elbow macaroni, a dry 2 oz portion is about 1/2 cup. If you have a big size pasta, a dry 2 oz portion could be 3/4 cup.

I have weighed my Barilla Pasta Rotini Noodles at least 100 times and each time it basically filled a 6 oz juice cup - not overfilled.

Lori

I really thought I read someplace that an 1 OZ dry pasta equals 2 OZ cooked

sheesh have I been cheating myself? I weigh 1 oz and cook that

I always weight my dry pasta on my food scale. I love the thing!! I also use the whole wheat pasta which has less calories, 180 per 2 oz.To me it is a pretty good size serving. I usually have the spag. with 1/2 cup sauce and then roast some zucchini to go with. Very filling.

I mix mine,,, whole wheat and multi grain I can't tell a difference from white other than you cook it alittle longer. I have mine with shrimp and scallops.

Most packages will have an approx measurement for a serving. For example, the label may say serving 2 oz (approx. 3/4 cup dry.)

I weigh mine and always add lots of veggies to bulk it up.

Thanks everyone! When I got home and examined the box better, they had a panel on the box regarding the Omega-3, fiber and protein for a 100g serving, which they stated was 1 c uncooked. Then on the nutritional information panel they stated that a 2oz serving was 56g. So I guesstimated that 1/2c uncooked was 1 serving. I also add a lot of veggies to mine, mostly broccoli, green beans, asparagus, sometimes edamame for added protein.

If this is true, then I probably cheated myself out of some pasts, but I was full, so I guess that is what matters! I am going to have to buy a food scale.