Hi all,

I always make a large pot of steel cut oats for myself and my husband. This week, I scooped a one cup portion and put it up for work. I know it's 150 cal for 1/4 c dry, but how much for one cup cooked? Thanks!

It would depend how much water you used. How much oats did you use? Also I found when I weighed steel coat oats, 1 serving was less than 1/4 cup uncooked. My guess would be that 1 cup is about 2 servings.

I use 4 cups water to 1 cup oats, but sometimes I even double that (directions on the container). I have never stopped to divide it all out and see how many portions it makes. I have always sort of gone by a guesstimate that 1/4 c dry equals about a cup cooked, but like you said, I'm now suspecting I'm wrong. I wish the package would just say 1/4 cup dry = x and 1 c. cooked = x. I can't figure out pasta either. You can tell math is not my specialty

this might not be helpful now that you've already prepared the oats but you could keep it in mind for next time.....measure BEFORE cooking. if you know the oats are X calories dry, adding water isn't going to add to their caloric value. i usually calculate all the caloric values of ingredients i put into a dish to figure out it's serving value when it's something i can't find online or through fitday.com

Oh I looked it up and 1 serving is approximately 1 cup cooked although again it varies based on weight of dry oats. Its a good estimate though.

The website for Bob's Red Mill, which is the brand I buy, lists a serving size as 1/4 cup/40 g. I'm assuming this is dry. Calories are 170. In the microwave instructions, it says to use 3/4 cup of water to 1/4 cup of oats. You could do this and see how much it makes cooked, and then as long as you use the same ratio (3 parts of water for 1 part of oats) you can assume that a serving of that size is 170 calories.

As for pasta, the usual serving is 2 oz dry. I weigh mine and cook it separately. Weighing accounts for all the weird shapes that prevent accurate measuring.

Thanks, everyone. Nelie - where did you find the estimate? I looked online and couldn't find a cooked #. Pat - I should do that. I just always make a big pot - I do measure it - but I haven't taken the time to measure out all the cooked and see how many cups 2 cups dry makes. I feel like I'm may not be making sense.

I am a huge measuring cup kind of girl - I have a drawer full - but I don't have a good kitchen scale. With pasta (I actually rarely eat it, but DH eats it a lot) I am the same way. If hubby makes a pot of noodles, I may cave and scoop out half a cup - I never know how many calories a 1/2 cup of plain pasta is. I know I need to get on the scale bandwagon, but the only scale I ever had was not at all accurate, so I ended up never using it. I should go ahead and just get a Salter and end this problem!